Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The Color of a Trip

Every trip we take is flavoured by the books we read as a family along the way.  Usually we have at least one family read-aloud going on together, besides our own books and our family Bible reading. 
Our last trip was flavoured by Joel C. Rosenberg books, while this trip is deep into The Jungle Doctor. 

We have been reading Jungle Doctor books for about a year now, whenever we could find them.  We loved The Doctor of Tanganyika which we found in a crowded old book shop in Port Elizabeth. 

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                  I'll add a little commercial here for that bookshop.  It's called Classics and is across from the Spar in Walden.  Timothy was able to add to his Biggles collection there, Josh found the Hardy Boys, and Evangel found LM Montgomery and others she likes.

And now back to our show. :-)   
 
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Dr. Paul White tells his story with wit enough to keep us laughing, and wisdom enough to know he's one of us.  He's a good guy for sure.  It's not often you run into a Christian book with an entire chapter on funny things that have happened to a guy in bathrooms, but he has one.  It's entitled "Bathrooms". 

This from a man who's story could have been told with grimness.  His wife suffered from mental illness, and died in her 50's from mental problems.  His every mention of her shows tenderness and caring. 

He is an Australian who went to Tanganyika (now Tanzania) shortly before World War 2.  Because of his wife's illness, and his own struggles with asthma, he only could stay one term, and then had to come home in a boat during the war.  But those 4 years in Africa colored the rest of his life.  He did go back to doctoring in Australia, but always he was speaking about the Lord and Africa in churches, clubs, and soon, on the radio. 

The Jungle Doctor radio program ran for over 25 years, and from that came more than 25 Jungle Doctor books, animal fable books, and some TV programs. 

We're inspired by his work ethic, his zeal for the Lord, and his humor.  He's got me plodding along again on a book project I hadn't touched in months. 

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord."

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