Saturday Book Review

A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven by Chris Loehmer Kincaid

Chris Loehmer Kincaid writes about her Mission trip to Kenya, Africa. The goal of the trip was to educate the Kenyans about disease prevention and to share the word of Christ. What a found most compelling about the book was her quest to surrender her life to Christ and find the meaning of her visit, what God wanted to accomplish with the time she spent in Kenya.

The author tells us how mission trip was the last thing she had on mind. It was through many consequences and nudges from God that she finally understood God was calling her to visit Africa. Sometimes we can be quite hardheaded to understand what God is telling us, and I found Chris’s honesty compelling. The way how she tells about her own down comings and how she feels not able to fulfill God’s calling in her life is both raw and touching.

The story starts while the author is still in the States. We get to see how she prepares for the journey with her daughter Val, who travelled to Africa with her. And how her worries make her doubt her decision and calling.

Chris spends two weeks in Kenya, seeing the reality of a developing country, the beauty of the countryside, goodness of people, poverty and need of the slums and the hunger for God’s love that the people have. Even though the author gets to help orphans, commune with AIDS victims and to educate the Masai people about hygiene and disease prevention, she feels lost and alone. Chris keeps asking, why is she in Africa? What is the meaning of her visit? What kind of difference her two weeks can make to the people’s lives?

There are answers. As the representatives of the organization say, it is very impressive for the local people to see how far you have come to here to share the time and information with them. But as in all of our lives, some things are left unanswered when Chris returns to the States. Only after the trip she sees the differences that the visit to Africa made in her own life. But finally there is an answer, the author says, she discovered a God she never knew before.

In Chris’s own words “My first book, “A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven – One Woman’s Trip to Africa: My Story”, was published by Life Sentence Publishing in December 2012. This memoir tells the story of my mission trip to Kenya in 2006 and how it changed how I look at life and how I look at the God I love and serve. After the book was published, I was drawn to return to Kenya, where my daughter had already decided to start a nonprofit organization to help the people we had met there. We may not be able to change the entire world, but we can improve the world for many people.”

The Amazon tells about the author: Chris Kincaid has been writing since she was in the third grade, and though she has worked in the medical field for over 20 years, she has never lost the desire to put words to paper. However, her family and her faith have always come first, making some days a challenge as she continues to work fulltime, mentor a local Kinship kid, mentor her church’s college students and remain active as a member of the state society for her career in medical assisting. She lives in northern Wisconsin with her husband, four cats and one dog. Her two children, Nick and Val, are grown and living on their own. They both share their mother’s passion for Africa.

I found the book interesting and thought provoking. I enjoyed reading Chris's story, her struggle with the African culture and the difference with Western efficiency thinking. I also identified with her quest for meaning, the reason why God had chosen her to go to and what she was supposed to do. Her honesty spoke to my heart and her vivid descriptions of African culture, people and landscape made reading like participating in her story. I highly recomend the book for everyone and anyone.

Chris Loehmer Kincaid has an author page in Amazon.

You can also find Chris in Facebook.

LIFE SENTENCE Publishing has provided me a complimentary copy of the book but the opinions expressed here are solely mine.

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Every-Purpose-Under-Heaven/dp/1622450302/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1388617198&sr=1-1