What is it like being a missionary in Africa? Danger, joy, love, and lots of laughter.
A missionary's life is not just danger, hard work, and culture shock, interspersed with moments of high joys and deep sorrows. In this book consisting of both narrative and letters to her church, Lisa Leidenfrost shows that it also consists of the small, daily things, the quotidian experience which makes life at the edge of a village as familiar as life in America. This book features the ordinary and extraordinary, the solemn and playful, the mundane and exotic—all coming together to create a down-to-earth portrait of the Gospel at work in a family and a society .
From the Book:
"Step into our world, a place of laughter and tears, trials and hopes, events captured and stories told. They are stories of life, lived out on the mission field in Africa where the hand of God is ever present in every situation. They are stories of daily events, of cultural experiences recounted, of friends loved and lost, and of trials surmounted. They are stories of bothersome situations turned to laughter as God gives us the ability to find humor in various hardships—a humor that has kept us sane over all these years. They are mostly stories of the familiar things in life, the little things that lend spice to our daily experience. Not all of missionary life is extraordinary or bizarre. Most of it is just normal, common events that unfold one day into another. And because God is good, there is a beauty in living, a purpose beyond our own mere existence that can make even the smallest things we do burst with life and meaning, laughter and delight. Too often these small, commonplace things go unnoticed unless they are caught and brought to life in words, words which become a lens that can, even if for a single moment, bring this ever-present beauty into focus."
Hold Thou me up, nor let me swerve from Love’s excelling way. —R.C. Chapman Affectionately known as the Apostle of Love, preacher and evangelist R.C. Chapman, who lived to the ripe old age of ninety-nine, devoted his long life to living Christ and loving others. Those familiar with Chapman’s life and his expositions of the Scriptures will find in his letters a deeper insight into the heart of the man whose chief interests were always his Lord and his neighbor. Chapman’s first-person account of his missionary travels to Ireland and continental Europe reveals a world shrouded in the darkness of Roman Catholicism, a state which Chapman and his companions prayed and worked to change. His letters of counsel to parishioners and friends display “a tender interest in the things of others, a heart in which abode the words of Christ” (Henry Hake, from the introduction). In them, readers can find advice and comfort for a wide variety of life’s troubles. “For though ye may have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet ye shall not have many fathers.” 1 Cor. 4:15 “Robert Cleaver Chapman tried his best to be forgotten, but God intervened on our behalf.” –Jon Bloom, Desiring God
In this sequel to At the Edge of the Village , Lisa Leidenfrost describes life in her village in Côte d' Ivoire. Although there are exciting stories about the local witch doctor and escaping from a civil war, life as a missionary is often surprisingly normal. Family life need not be crowded out by frenetic translation schedules and fundraising furloughs. Whether it’s the humorous cultural differences in hospitality or courtship, or the kids’ adventures with driver ants, snakes, bees, a bushbaby, or a parrot, From the Village to the Ends of the Earth shows what it is like to raise a family while building the kingdom of God in Africa.