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High Places starts out good and keeps getting better. Whether you are a fan of missionaries or not, this book will capture your heart, break your heart, and then mend it back together. Written by a former missionary (Greg Taylor, 8 years in Uganda, currently editor of New Wineskins), High Places reveals what happens when two cultures collide – and it’s not what you think.
A European couple sets off to do mission work among the “heathen” in Uganda, Africa. Their goal is to convert the “heathen” and bring them a message of good news from God. And yes, that happens, but something a whole lot bigger gets started in the hearts of not only Tenwa, a native, but also in the hearts of the William and Jessica, the missionaries.
As the story unfolds, the redemptive work of God is revealed as a two-way street, missionaries and heathens alike being redeemed. The more the story moves along, the more the clichéd ideas of missionaries and “heathens” erode, giving way to an authentic perspective of both. By the end of the novel you get a sense that you’ve read a story about real people who, despite a tremendous cultural divide, are equally in need of God’s redemptive love.
One of my favorite scenes in the book occurs when the missionaries are traveling to the village for the first time. They are carried through a swamp on the shoulders of the “heathens.” The people they came to serve ended up serving them first.
High Places is honest. No one is overly glorified and no one is overly impugned. High Places is accurate. Taylor has seen with his own eyes the land about which he writes, and he has done his homework as well, researching in local Ugandan libraries. High Places is relevant. Although it takes place in a different land and at a different time, the themes are universal.
High Places carries with it some good symbolism and even some surprises. If you cry when you read, there will be some tears. If you laugh when you read, you’ll snicker every now and again. Above all else, the story exposes how God works through imperfect people toward a beautiful end.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story with healthy, honest themes. People who have been to East Africa or studied about it will find High Places familiar. I especially recommend this book to anyone thinking about doing short or long term missions. It should be required reading in any “intro to missions” course or pre-missions preparations. Whereas a class or textbook can capture the facts and cognitive aspects of missions, High Places captures the emotional and relational aspects of missions.
Chris Gonzalez is a marriage and family therapist and freelance writer living in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He is married, with two children and has a masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and a bachelors degree in English Education and relentless thirst to learn more.
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