Semi - Regular Book Reviews.

My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay

Eighteen year old Cori decides to join a mission trip to a small island in Indonesia, to help a village build a church. The main reason she has gone is to avoid complications in her love life. After a few weeks of the team being there, the violence in nearby Ambon flares up and Cori and her team get caught up in the destruction and violence that ensues, encompassing both the surrounding Christian and Muslim villages. The church that the team has just built is a smoldering ruin within a few days and the pastor and most of the villagers are dead. The team is then forced to flee and their only guide is the pastors son. Hiking through the jungle Cori searches for spiritual answers and emotional stability which she finds as hard to cope with as the physical journey.

This is an amazing book which is a bit confronting, raising questions about our motives for doing things and how we cope when things don't turn out as planned. It also raises the question of what our faith is built on and whether it can with stand the pressures that life throws at us.

I really recommend this book to anyone who loves reading about adventure and Christian faith. It would also be interesting for anyone interested in the mission field.