After Marx

WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
By Maureen Wise
EMW / EP. 246 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 783 970 537

This book should definitely be on your Christmas list! Perhaps the most heartwarming book I have read since L’Abri by Edith Schaeffer, this book will enlarge your sense of God’s glory and sovereign control of events, especially in the work of mission.

It is 25 years since Communism collapsed in the Eastern bloc countries, and 23 years since the Soviet Union imploded. This moving book describes one aspect of the aftermath – caring for vulnerable adults found living in appalling conditions in cruel and ineptly run state institutions.

Europe’s poorest country

Maureen Wise is a missionary from the Heath Church in Cardiff. She tells her story from her conversion, through the process of calling to mission at the Keswick convention, to visits made in the Communist era, to the collapse of Ceausescu’s regime in Romania. Maureen moved to Bucharest to teach social work, but was then drawn over the border to Moldova, Europe’s poorest country. What could one woman do in the face of such vast social and spiritual need? This is where the book is at its best, because Maureen does not blow her own trumpet. I suspect she had to take some persuasion to write up this story, and all the glory goes to God.

God opened doors

Time and again the humanly impossible was taken to God in prayer, and God opened doors, changed the minds of corrupt officials, overcame the lies of staff who wanted to trap residents in their cold institutions, and provided the people and the buildings to make a home for the vulnerable. This was unquestionably God’s doing, and it will enlarge your faith.

In place of vast uncaring institutions, Maureen and her colleagues have opened three homes in Moldova, each small enough to be a family, and are building a fourth. (You can even go and help them, on UFM’s Operation Centurion team next summer!)

There is much more here, of Romanian revivals, the story of the church among Romanian gypsies, and moving stories of how people with learning difficulties can come to faith in Christ. My only disappointment was the photo section – thumbnail photos are too small! Buy this book for everyone this Christmas.