One of my favorite things about summer is that I finally have time to read. I mean really read. I read all the time at school...and most of the time I really enjoy my reading. Who wouldn't want to read Ethnographies? Some of you may think I'm being sarcastic...but I'm not. I really do enjoy most of my reading for classes. For example: I was given the opportunity to read a research paper (similar to ones from my Social Research class) an intern from some school in Canada wrote for the NGO I'm working with. About child protection policies. Like why they are needed, ways different organizations have written their policies, and best of all, the importance of understanding the culture and cultural tendencies of the people you are trying to protect.

However, in the summer I have time to read books that are not covered in my classes curriculum's. Such as children's books. And memoirs. And historical fiction. Michael Jones, a good friend of mine and my (sadly) ex-CPO boss, has been suggesting different books for me to read for quite sometime now. Among the suggestions have been books about great men in the Christian faith, who at different points in history have lived miraculous lives for Christ.

Hannah handed me God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew a few days ago and insisted on me reading it. She has read it four times...maybe more. It is the story of Brother Andrew, a man who smuggled Bibles across the Iron Curtain. He never relied on his own cleverness or strength for anything. There are stories upon stories telling readers of the times when God showed his faithfulness to Brother Andrew and those surrounding his life. Often times while reading, the accounts were so miraculous that I found it hard to believe. I would find my self wondering, "oh...come on...that is crazy...how could the boarder guards not see those Bibles...they are sitting on the seat in plain daylight..." Brother Andrew brings up the point many times that it is instances such as this that we see God's work the clearest. Brother Andrew prays many times that just as the Lord made blind eyes see while he was on earth, that he would make seeing eyes blind when bring the illegal material into different countries.

I was struck over and over again by the faith and dependence Brother Andrew placed in the Lord. I am praying that the Lord would allow me to trust Him like that. And that no matter how little or how much of the future is clear to me that I would obey what I hear Him telling me to do in the present. As Brother Andrew says, " That's the excitement in obedience. Finding out later what God had in mind." It's encouraging to know that we in the here and now are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, whom have experience the surpassing joy of life following Christ...such as those talked about in Hebrews 11, Brother Andrew, and many others.

I encourage all of you to read this story if you haven't before. As for me...I think I try to read about George Muller. Or Hudson Taylor. Or whatever book I can find first.