I’m certain most of you have probably heard of Nate Saint and how he was one of several missionaries who died at the hands of the Auca Indians back in 1956. In case you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend watching The End of the Spear. It’s an excellent movie that portrays what happened to those faithful men all those years ago. The book that we had our 11 year old (almost 12!) read was about one of those men, Nate Saint.
This book was chosen to be read in much the same way as our 13 year old daughter (she wrote last week’s book review post) – not interested at first, but then loved it. Obviously it’s important to allow our children to read books that they want to read, but I also think we should be strongly encouraging our children to read what they should read.
It’s a lot like eating food. Each of our kids will have a leaning towards one food or another. But we should be interjecting healthy, delicious food at every opportunity. They will not only get used to it eventually, but even gain a taste for the once snubbed food.
But as you can imagine, learning about the saints that have walked the Christian walk before us is so much more important than what we put into our bodies. We must encourage our children to read about these people’s lives. It will not only sober them to the realities of a life lived for Christ (without necessarily going into graphic detail, of course!), but will also help establish a strong foundation of the goodness and righteousness of God, no matter what happens.
I hope you enjoy our 11 year old’s short review! And pick up a copy for your family!
Book Review
The book I read is called Nate Saint. A reason why I really liked this book is because I love how even though he faced many challenges throughout the book, he kept his faith. For example, when he climbed the mountain Glacier Point alone, he got lost and could not find the inn that was supposed to be near the top of the mountain. Instead of getting mad at God and blaming God, he prayed to Him to ask him to help him find his way. He then found his way safely up the mountain and finally reached the inn.
Another example where he showed incredible courage and faith was when he first heard of the Auca tribe. He showed no fear but only wanted to reach them and tell them about God. He was not afraid of dying for God and it shows us christians that we should always have faith in God, even when it is really hard. Nate Saint dedicated his life to God and he did not let anything stop him from teaching about Him. We should all try and do the same. That is why I really liked this book.
