This story opens with “Is this the day, the day I die?” and continues to tell a story that will remain in your mind long after you finish the book.  From Jon Pratt — Usually when I read fiction, I do so for fun. I place this type of entertainment in the same category as attending a Twins’ baseball game. But a book I’ve recently finished, while clearly a fictional work, did not have the same effect as baseball. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home (Tyndale 2001) kept my attention like any well-written book, but Alcorn’s story provided insight into the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world in a way that profoundly affected my thinking. Using an American businessman and a Chinese house-church pastor as his main characters, Alcorn describes the realities and challenges faced by the persecuted church in China as a window into the life of the suffering church throughout the world. Along the way Alcorn provides a sound theology of the wisdom and providence of God in bringing people through suffering, even when that suffering ends in martyrdom. From Jon Pratt — Usually when I read fiction, I do so for fun. I place this type of entertainment in the same category as attending a Twins’ baseball game. But a book I’ve recently finished, while clearly a fictional work, did not have the same effect as baseball. Randy Alcorn’s Safely Home (Tyndale 2001) kept my attention like any well-written book, but Alcorn’s story provided insight into the suffering of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world in a way that profoundly affected my thinking. Using an American businessman and a Chinese house-church pastor as his main characters, Alcorn describes the realities and challenges faced by the persecuted church in China as a window into the life of the suffering church throughout the world. Along the way Alcorn provides a sound theology of the wisdom and providence of God in bringing people through suffering, even when that suffering ends in martyrdom.

These questions will help guide your discussion of Randy's book Safely Home.

Two segments from the novel Safely Home, by Randy Alcorn

Dear Randy: You may not remember me, but about 4 years ago you saw me reading a Bible in the Chicago airport on your way home from a conference.

A play based on Randy Alcorn's book, Safely Home.

Three men watched intently as peculiar events occurred, one right after the other, on opposite sides of the globe. "What's happening?" asked the first, tall and dark skinned.

The protests of China as host of the Olympics come from a wide variety of people from many countries, on a variety of issues, ranging from Tibet to supplying arms to the corrupt government of Sudan in its genocidal war on Darfur (see previous post), to religious liberty.  

Sadly, last week China revoked the visa for Joey Cheek, Olympic gold-medalist and co-founder of Team Darfur, a coalition of 400 athletes from around the world speaking out about the atrocities in Darfur, Sudan.

I was asked recently about what the biggest payoffs and challenges in my writing are. One question was whether writer’s block is one of the difficulties.