Book Review of Priceless

Written by Tom Davis
Reviewed by Nora St. Laurent

Back Cover:

Photojournalist Stuart Daniels has found purpose in life. After suffering the fallout of a tragic assignment, Daniels rediscovered his faith while helping a young African orphan. Now his photo work carries a greater mission: To educate people about social injustice happening around the world.

Daniels’ next assignment carries him back overseas and into the heart of Russia. Once there, Daniels is persuaded by an old friend to help save two girls from a desperate situation. Soon he becomes a key player in a dangerous campaign to rescue helpless women trapped in the sex-slave trade. What Daniels encounters during his journey will shake his faith, test his courage, and even threaten his life. Yet as Daniels gets deeper and the stakes get higher, he will discover that hope can be found in the darkest of places.

My Review:

I’m thankful to have received a review copy of this captivating, surreal, suspenseful book that could have been ripped out of today’s headlines. It was horrific to think the topic of this book is real and happening in current time. Although the story concentrates on the sex-trafficking business in Russia, this unthinkable industry is thriving world wide. Tom Davis states in his book Russian girls are taken and sent out of their country with promises of going to America, to enjoy the good life. Only one catch, they do go to American but end up in some of the booming sex-trafficking places such as Atlanta, Dallas and Seattle.

You might be tempted not to read this book because of the subject matter and the fact that it might make you feel uncomfortable. It’s not easy to read about little girls being promised one thing and forced into another. My heart ached for these dear ones as these evil doers promised them the moon, only to get sold into a lifestyle of no return. The only way out was death.

Stuart Daniels returns in this book and is sent on another job. Stuart agrees to go to Russia because he feels this assignment is not as life threatening as the one he went to in Africa (in the last book Scared). After meeting his contacts in Russia, he’s whisked into an unthinkable mission – one he can’t turn down – not after having his world turned upside down in Africa, after meeting Adanna.

“Adanna may not have meant much to many in this world. But meeting her was the beginning of life for me. It changed the way I saw God. It changed the direction of my life. She taught me that the small things I do matter. My decisions today can save a life tomorrow.”

I believe I’ve been disturbed to the core of my being while reading this book and I hope that you are gloriously disturbed too. Just as bothered as Stuart was when he met Adanna.  Troubled in such a way it moves you into action and keeps you from turning your eyes and pretending this isn’t happening to innocent children every day. Stuart Daniel’s describes Adanna (above), a child he met in Africa who rocked his world, I pray your world is rocked as mine was and you begin to tell others about this novel and its message in hopes of bringing awareness to this global disturbance – a disturbance of epic proportions. Author Tom Davis lists ways we can get involved here in the states and overseas in the back of Priceless. He gives practical ways for us to love our neighbor as ourselves and shine the hope these children desperately need. Be Jesus’ hands and feet! I believe Priceless is a must read novel for everyone.

Find Nora St.Laurent at The Book Club Network www.bookfun.org and Finding Hope Through Fiction www.psalm516.blogspot.com.

Wheelchair Bound for Heaven

By Jane Thornton –

I just got off the phone with my mother who told me she’s in a wheelchair. This shocking news went in one ear and bounced around in my brain for a few minutes before it registered, and I could stutter, “Why?”

Many people would not find the news of a woman pushing seventy-three in a wheelchair even mildly surprising. But this is my mom, who bikes (well, trikes since Johnny got her a three-wheeler) six miles several times a week and regularly shreds the pasture with the tractor like the best field hand.

She had hopped out of the car to shut the garage door, tripped over her purse strap, and landed on her hip, probably fracturing it. Notice the word probably. Although putting any weight on her right foot was excruciating, sitting was quite bearable. So she kept her date at the symphony. And at the football game this afternoon.

Mom knew her doctor had a birthday party and didn’t want to bother her on the weekend. She’d wait until Monday. Like most grandmothers who want to stay in touch with their grandchildren, she has become techno savvy enough to text, so she did text the doctor to set up the x-ray.

Numerous self-deprecating chuckles sprinkled Mom’s telling of these events. Even as I approach fifty, I’m learning lessons from my mother (although I still feel pretty sure I would take the opportunity offered by a broken hip to retreat for a bout of guilt-free reading).

In just this one incident, she displayed thoughtfulness, strength, vigor, and an ability to laugh at herself.

Twenty years ago, she took a scary battle with breast cancer and turned it into a ministry. Now she sends cards to literally hundreds of people, encouraging them as they fight the disease or suffer through other struggles. Mom also shares her journey through a booklet, Whiner’s Guide to Chemotherapy, which includes some humorous (of course) tips and her prayer journal, another lesson for me in strength, openness and encouragement.

When I was growing up we had company almost every Sunday because she’d invite whoever visited at church. She made dining with strangers comfortable—this is the same woman who claims to have been a shy child.

Lest she read this and be embarrassed by my canonizing her, another of Mom’s charms is her honesty about her failings. Many of my lessons about marriage and parenting have come through her relating her own trials and errors.

Most important, Mom imparted her confidence in God’s love. She knew she was His precious child, and she passed that security to her children. Although I didn’t discover this favorite verse until I was an adult, its message only affirmed her teachings. No shock or surprise:

“The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17 NIV).

My mom sang over me. My husband and I rocked and sang over our children. I love the image of Father God singing over each of us. Sometimes we forget it or take His love for granted, but pause with the entire world this Christmas and marvel at the extreme measure God took to prove His love for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV).

Christmas Carols

By Kathy Carlton Willis –

I don’t know about you, but for me, Christmas celebrations would not be complete without music. I love hearing Christmas songs in stores while shopping. The music uplifts me and it feels like I’m floating on air—transported to a different time and place without problems and trials.

At home I dig out all of my Christmas music. They include Windham Hill and Manheim Steamroller. I also have a peppy “Christmas on the Border” CD featuring Texas Blues, Hot Country, and Mexican Salsa-style Christmas tunes! And of course I have many of my favorite artists’ Christmas albums.

Churches also celebrate this sacred holiday with music. Most of our services have Christmas hymns and Christmas specials. Our children perform Christmas musicals. Children, music, and Christmastime—all of my favorite things!

I find myself humming Christmas tunes throughout the season and longing for an opportunity to join a group in Christmas caroling. I started caroling as a Girl Scout in third grade, and have caroled in some fashion almost every year since then.

Christmas music was a part of that very first Christmas. The angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” I can’t even imagine what it was like to hear the angelic choir as they sang. But we can sing a different kind of song than the angels. The angels knew the Christ-child as the Son of God who dwelled in heaven prior to His earthly birth. But we can know the Son of God as our personal Savior, something the angels will never know.

Don’t you think that gives all of us something to sing about? Joy to the world, the Lord has come!

PRAYER: Author of Christmas, sing Your songs into my heart that I might sing Your songs to others this holiday season and throughout the coming year.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14 KJV).

Today’s devotional is by Kathy Carlton Willis, Christ-servant, wife to Russ, editor, publicist, certified CLASSeminars speaker and faculty member. Kathy Carlton Willis Communications encompasses her many passions. Kathy’s tagline captures her essence—Light & Lively: His Reflection/Her Laughter. Schedule Kathy for a speaking event or contact her firm for promotional assistance. KCWC gets jazzed shining the light on God’s writers and speakers.

Gum Won’t Fix It

By Jodi Whisenhunt –

Just so you know, gum won’t fix a decapitated snowman. Legend has it, on a slushy Christmas Eve, 1986, as two brothers tossed a football in the sleet and snow, Frosty’s distant relative (of the Styrofoam cutout clan) went for the interception and encountered a personal foul. The snowman’s head dropped into the receiver’s hands while the ball slid under the bushes.

Being the responsible teens that they were, the brothers attempted to re-head the snowman with the only adhesive available, chewed up bubble gum. Now, either it was really sticky gum, or it froze quickly in the twenty-eight degree night.

Daylight betrayed the boys’ blunder and exposed their cover-up. When the sun thawed the Bubblicious, the snowman’s head slid down his shoulder and rested on the broomstick in his hand. My husband and brother-in-law, the kids in question, learned then that God “brings hidden things to light” (Job 28:11b NIV), for “He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him” (Daniel 2:22 NIV).

Christmas morning, instead of tearing into ribboned boxes of cassette tapes and Atari games, the boys led their mom out to the yard. The snowman’s tilted noggin made her giggle. She wrapped her scarf around his neck to secure the gum repair, then stepped back and hugged her boys. Her gift of forgiveness was their most treasured present that year.

An errant pass broke the snowman, but sin, like the deception of hiding a wrong-doing, severs God’s children from the body of Christ. The world’s biggest gumball couldn’t begin to mend such separation.

Fortunately, the Christ child born in a manger two thousand years ago, who knew no sin, took on the sin of the world. He, the Bright and Morning Star, revealed the Truth. He did not conceal our transgressions; however, He washed them all away so that we may sparkle as new-fallen snow.

This Christmas, when you gather with loved ones, sipping hot cocoa and watching flurries flutter, remember to acknowledge your sin to the Father, for He did not blanket our iniquities but forgave the guilt of our sin (Psalm 32:5 NIV).

Jodi Whisenhunt is an Amy Award-winning freelance writer and editor in McKinney, Texas. You can find her at www.jodiwhisenhunt.com or www.magicalmouseschoolhouse.com, where Disney IS school.

Forgotten by God?

By James H. Pence –

There are times when I wonder if God has forgotten about me. Ironically, I rarely feel this way in times of great difficulty or trial. When bad things happen, I am hard-wired to cry out to God. And generally in those times I sense His presence, comforting and sustaining me.

Nor do I wonder about God’s presence in my life when He is tangibly pouring out His blessings.

Most often, I wonder where God is during life’s dry times, when I feel like I’m wandering in a desert. Or when I’m feeling my way through a spiritual fog bank, not knowing which way to go or what to do. Or when life itself seems like an exercise in frustration.

That is when I want to stand cry out into the gray cloud banks surrounding me, “God? Are you still there?”

As I cry, I am often greeted by stony silence. I look. I listen. I cry out again, but He is nowhere to be seen or felt. It is on those occasions that I feel like the psalmist who wrote, “O Lord, why do you reject me, and pay no attention to me?” (Psalm 88:14 NET).

Yet in the midst of that fog, God has not left me without comfort. When the clouds obscure His face, I look to the Scriptures and am reminded of His watchful care. Jesus said “Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. In fact, even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are more valuable than many sparrows,” (Luke 12:6-7 NET).

Even when I cannot feel Him, cannot sense His presence, God reminds me that He is there. For if He does not forget a single sparrow, and he numbers the hairs on my head, He has not forgotten about me.

And so I must put away fear and despair, and trust in the One who knows the location and behavior of every molecule in the universe–even when I cannot sense his presence.

AUTHOR QUOTE: Even when I cannot sense God’s presence, He is still there with me.

“Aren’t five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. In fact, even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are more valuable than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7 NET).

Today’s devotion is by James H. Pence. James is an author, speaker, singer, and gospel chalk artist, but prefers to be known as follower of Jesus Christ and a storyteller. To learn more about James and how he draws the stories of your heart, visit his Web site at: www.jamespence.com.

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