I Am Hutterite

I Am Hutterite
The Fascinating True Story of a Young Woman's Journey to reclaim Her Heritage
By Mary-Ann Kirkby

Book Description
A fascinating journey into the heart and culture of a reclusive religious community.

I Am Hutterite takes readers into the hidden heart of the little-known Hutterite colony where author Mary-Ann Kirkby spent her childhood. When she was ten, her parents packed up their seven children and a handful of possessions and left the colony to start a new life. Overnight they were thrust into a world they didn't understand, a world that did not understand them.

With great humor, Kirkby describes how she adapted to popular culture, and with raw honesty she describes her family's deep sense of loss for their community. More than a history lesson, I Am Hutterite is a powerful tale of retracing steps and understanding how our beginnings often define us.

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This is a wonderful memoir that Mary-Ann Kirkby has written. Living near a Hutterite Colony in Alberta, I have always wanted to know more about the Colony and she has given me a wonderful sense of the community that she was a part of. My heart went out to her and her family when they left the Colony for various reasons. I also really felt for her as she tried and tried to fit into the "English" world. Her world was turned upside down, but through it all she still found her sense of self...and that included her growing up as a Hutterite. This book is informative and touching all at the same time. Anyone who wants to read this book to get a better sense of the type of close community that a Hutterite Colony has and the extremely close ties that are developed from a young age, this book would do you good. My only thing that I did not like, was the very quick ending to the book before the epilogue. Otherwise, I very much enjoyed this book. My favorite part of the book that I wish was a part of our "English" world...is the nap time that the whole colony takes part in!!! That would be awesome!!!

As per FTC regulations, I have recieved this book as a complimenty copy as part of their book review program.

Plan B by Pete Wison

Plan B
What Do You Do When God Doesn't Show Up the Way You Thought He Would?
Trade Paper
By Pete Wilson
Learn how God often does His best work in our most hopeless situations.

What do you do with a shattered dream? Or an unmet expectation? What do you do when your life isn't turning out the way you thought it would? What do you do when you have to turn to Plan B?

In Plan B pastor and author Pete Wilson uses real life stories of disappointments and hurts along with the biblical stories of men and women like David, Joseph, and Ruth to help readers come to grips with the truth that they will face situations that in themselves they are completely unable to handle but that in them God is simply trying to get them to surrender their plans so that they can receive His. He identifies our common responses to difficulties and offers hope, helping us to

Understand what God might be up to
See how surrender helps us to receive God's plan
Embrace the community of believers
Reconcile a God of love with a life of tragedy and suffering
Wilson points readers to the cross as not just the starting line but the centerpiece of our story with God and shares that it is there we turn in our Plan B and find the undeniable relationship between crisis and our hope followed by true spiritual transformation. "God wants to live inside the questions" says Wilson and then reminds us that "the cross is proof that He does not always change the circumstance but that He always has a purpose in every circumstance. He will never let go of us. He will hold us and His cross will be an anchor for us."

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I just finished reading this book on Saturday. I do have to admit that from the title I did a preconceived idea on what the book was going about. I was totally expecting a book that was going to give the pat answers that you get when things in your life are not going as you planned. I was expecting a book of cliched answers on why things don't go as you want or things in your life are hard. But I was surprised. Author Pete Wilson did not do this. He did not say he knew the answer when he didn't. He actually said "I don't know". But he doesn't leave you there...he points you to the cross, where our hope and strength are found. In the midst of the struggles in our life, be it of our own doing, someone else's or it just happened, Pete Wilson shows you that there is hope...in Christ. Things may not get better right now or even really soon, but with our hope in Christ we can endure what we are going through.

I loved the fact that Pete Wilson used bibical examples of someone going through a Plan B situation and also those in life now. Also he gave examples in his own life where he and his family has faced a Plan B situation. This goes to show that no one is exempt from life not going as you have planned. I liked the fact that you could see that Pete Wilson has a sense of humor.

This book is a great read and I will read it again...especially when I am going thru another Plan B in my life...for I know that it will come again. But as this book reminds us, even in the midst of a Plan B in our life, we can find hope in the Author of Hope, Jesus Christ.

This was recieved as a complimentry edition from Thomas Nelson.