In August, Lord willing, I'll be leading a team from The Harbor on a worldview immersion and mission trip to Cambodia. The preparation for this trip has been very different than any of our other mission trips. One of the key goals for this trip is to expose people to, and to think deeply about worldview issues and what God is doing in the world. To that end, the team has been assigned several books to read and discuss prior to the trip, which is why I read this book.
As the title suggests, Miriam Adeney aims to give the reader, the American Christian reader in particular, some snapshots of how God's people live and worship around the world. If you decide to take the journey with her by reading this book, you'll be exposed to all sorts of stories of struggle and pain, joy and celebration, hunger and yearning, filling and refreshing by the Holy Spirit from around the world. You'll read about our persecuted brothers and sisters in China, and how they not only survive, but thrive in the midst of persecution. You'll see how God is using His Word in the lives of people groups who have been without the Bible until recently. You'll get a picture of what it is like to follow Christ in the midst of the overtly spiritual land and Hindu land of India, or how God is moving even in the prison systems of Brazil.
As we discussed this book as a mission team, I remember being struck by this thought: "If every American Christian could read this book and get a glimpse of global Christianity, I believe this fresh insight would certainly reduce the number of silly arguments we get into in the American Church. People would be less likely to squabble over worship style and the color of the sanctuary carpet."
While I didn't always agree with Adeney's conclusions or implications, I can say I benefited from reading this book, and I would recommend it.