OUT OF THE ASHES
The restoration of a burned boy
By Peter Gladwin, with Jan Greenough. Monarch Books. 160 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 854 2429 920
The writer of the foreword, Carl Beech, says the book is ‘one of the most compelling biographies I have ever read’. I would agree.
It is about the life of Peter Gladwin, who, as a baby in Halifax, was severely burned in a house fire which resulted in amputations of toes on both feet and part of each foot, as well as other major burns. His difficult family upbringing followed by a life of violence, drugs and gambling brought him to the point of suicide.
Trying to pull himself over a bridge, he sees a light in a flat — his mother’s flat, where he goes a broken man. But God has recently saved his sister and from that point the Lord has his hand on Peter. We read of his conversion, early Christian life, his time at Elim Bible College and then the way the Lord led and guided him to serve him. Without any sensationalism, it is an honest account of God dealing with a soul, the joys — but also the falls — he had as a Christian and the repentance that followed.
In the final chapter, writing about where the Lord will take him and his family, Peter Gladwin speaks of the promise of God from Jeremiah 29.11 and that is where his trust is. The verse has been so helpful to this reviewer over the years, that the book, along with aspects of his life coming to faith, struck a number of chords underlining the rich grace of God to undeserving sinners.
Peter Stead,
Halifax; working at present for Bradford Community Church (Grace Baptist)
