Saturday, March 12, 2011

Where Strangers Cross - Kevin Avery and John Long

Where Strangers Cross: East Meets West on a Journey Toward Christ
Publisher:  Xulon Press
Pages:  330
Source:  Review copy from publisher
Genre:  Adult Christian Autobiography

From the back of the book:
They come from two different worlds. John (Jiang) Long grew up in rural China where the name Jesus never surfaced.  Kevin Avery grew up 8,000 miles away with Christian parents in the suburbs of the United States.  Humanly speaking, their paths should never cross, yet this situation changes when they follow a transforming Jesus.  Not only does God divinely bring them together to start an international student ministry but also he reverses their residences.  He plants Long as a pastor in Tulsa and sends Avery as a missionary to China, even to the mountain villages of Long’s youth.  While in exchanged countries, they become strangers of this world, ready to disciple the nations in reverent brokenness.

My thoughts:
This is the story of two men led by God to serve in each other’s country.  They have the same difficulties such as language barriers and especially cultural barriers.  Both of them step out on faith letting God lead them and use them.  I think the thing I took from this book the most is the difference between being a Christian and a disciple.  As was pointed out in the book the word Christian is used only three times, whereas the word disciple is used 269 times.  We have been sent into the world to be disciples for Christ.  That means he sends some to other countries and some of us he uses right here.  For me this book was a reminder that we need to be  doing more for the Lord where ever he places us.  I love the book and highly recommend it.

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