Book review and Kindle sale: A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger, by Steve Peifer (with Gregg Lewis)
May 20, 2013
I recently had the chance to read A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger, by Steve Peifer (with Gregg Lewis). This nonfiction book was released March 19, 2013 by Zondervan.
About this book (from the back cover):
A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools, and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools. Steve and his wife, Nancy, were enjoying a successful management career with one of America’s high tech corporate giants during the dot-com boom of the 1990’s when, in 1997, he and his wife Nancy discovered they were pregnant with their third child. Tragically, doctors said a chromosomal condition left their baby ‘incompatible with life.’ The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died. Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy began a pilgrimage that thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy—drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. They didn’t arrive in the service of any divine calling, but the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubled hearts. A short-term, 12-month mission assignment as dorm parents for a Kenyan boarding school turned this ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero, and his story will inspire you to pursue similar lives of service.
My Verdict:
I loved this book! Steve and Nancy Peifer’s story reminded me of another book I loved, Kisses from Katie. Both stories involve individuals who went to Africa for short-term trips and ended up settling there for life, as well as adopting multiple children. The Peifer’s story is unique in that they live and work at the Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school for the children of international missionaries. I loved reading the stories about life at the academy and how their two sons adapted to life in Africa. The book is told in short, anecdotal stories, but the bigger story involves how the Peifers lost a child to Trisomy 18 and in their grief took an opportunity to get away and work for a year in Africa; they loved being there so much that they eventually moved there permanently and in 2002 started additional aid work established a rural food program that now provides lunches for 20,000 Kenyan schoolchildren a day. Steve also built the first solar-powered computer-training center in Kenya, and is now developing twenty computer classroom labs for rural schools. Steve has a funny, jovial style of writing and you like him right away. I was convicted by his stories of extreme poverty in Kenya. It’s ridiculous that, as he tells it, most families can’t afford the school fees for their children, even though school is the only way out of extreme poverty; these fees amount to about $30 a year. If we didn’t already sponsor a child I’d be signing up to do so right now. This is a book that everyone should read.
If you’d like to check out A Dream So Big it is currently on sale for $9.99 for the Kindle version right now, which is 50% off. (Regularly $19.99.) If you prefer a physical copy the hardcover version is currently on sale for $13.98. It is not yet available in paperback. Remember, Amazon’s prices can change at any time.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Entry filed under: Books. Tags: .
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed