A YEAR IN CHINA
By Vincent Sack & Jon Perrywell
Authentic & OMF. 174 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978-1–85078–815-7
For many of us, China is a distant, exotic country that we glimpse in TV news reports, but whose geography is vague at best and of whose people we know little, so I read this very personal book with great anticipation.
Jon Perrywell spent a year teaching English in an agricultural university and he shares his experiences in the form of emails to friends and prayer partners at home. These sections are interspersed with the stories of the characters of some of the students that he teaches, which open up the huge variance in their lives. Some come from privileged, quite wealthy backgrounds, while others are from poverty-stricken rural families, where parents make huge sacrifices to better the prospects of their children.
The writing is honest and lively, saying it as it is, but underlining everything is the desire to share the love of God and the need to know Jesus Christ personally. It is most encouraging and challenging to find commitment among young people to give up a year of their lives for short-term service like this. At the same time it highlights the benefits to the youngsters themselves as they see God working in some remarkable ways, which can only help prepare them for more effective witness wherever their futures may be. For those considering taking a gap year this would be a very valuable read, but for those of us who may never have the opportunity to travel to China this book gives a glimpse of what we are missing.
Mary Stolarski,
Southport literature worker with Grace Baptist Mission
