Two very different books: Two radically different messages

This year I have read many books - but none that I have pondered over more than the two books below.

I'm not even sure how to write the thoughts I think about these books.

I have since reading Book 1 of the yada yada prayer group read through book 6 and book 7 the last in the series I should read before the end of the year.  (shh it is a Christmas present.)  But when I read the first book I wasn't sure I liked it.  Maybe because the lead character is too much like me, she seems to have many of the same thoughts I have.  But what I love about the series is that these are "American" women.  The diversity of the group speaks to the "melting pot" of American culture and how messy a melting pot gets!  This group of women are faced with the challenge of how does a prayer group move into putting their prayers into action.  Putting the words into deeds and doing that while working, raising families and growing spiritually.  These are women with questionable pasts, tragic futures and whom form a bond of friendship with each other that changes their lives forever.  I can't promise you will love the series but you will grow to feel like these women are real women - because they are in a way all of us.

The Yada Yada Prayer Group (The Yada Yada Prayer Group, Book 1)

My reaction to reading this book while reading Yada Yada - well lets just say they are completely different.  First of all the above book is fictional but reads like "real" life.  The Heavenly Man, will really I wish this book was fictional, only in the awful things that happen to this real live person.   I'm glad this book is true because of how Brother Yun inspires, shocks and humbles me!  I can't say that I've read a missionary Biography where the person suffered more and did not die.  God is glorified and I am amazed at the underground church in China.  WOW!
The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

As I was reading these books I really felt that I was to learn something from each of them.  Not sure exactly what yet - God doesn't call all of us to suffer the way Brother Yun suffered but he does ask us to be ready to.

Am I ready?  Hmm maybe more in the way the ladies suffered in Yada Yada - (there is some suffering in this series) - but my prayer is that I would be capable of withstanding the suffering that Brother Yun bore.