Facts: Pages       516 Kb          1069 ©           1998 (R-2000)

 Author's Comments:

     This book contains a very profound love story.  It deals with one man's struggle to maintain faith.  It might help you.  But don't expect the normal cliches! There are things in this world scientists can't explain, and I couldn't ignore. Yes, the wallaby (well acutally his cousin the kangroo) does have something to do with the story!

Praying among the Eucalyptus A Struggle for Faith

This is the story of three missionaries who went to a tiny remote island in The Torres Strait. Their task was to reduce the spoken language of the Islanders to a written form, do a complete grammatical analysis of the language, design literacy materials in that language, and teach the Islanders to read and write in their mother tongue. The ultimate goal was to translate the Bible into the Islanders language so they could read the Bible in their own words. Hopefully that process would give the Islanders a better chance to understand the message contained in the Bible, thereby freeing their hearts and minds from the pagan beliefs they had known for more generations than they could count.                  It had never entered the missionaries' mind, those primitive [even pagan] beliefs might provide comfort to the Islanders, when nothing else could help.   The true test of their own faith began when one natural disaster took the life of one missionary. Then events which no one could explain scientifically, increased their turmoil. By time the final disaster came, only one missionary lived to find comfort by accepting a primitive idea the Islanders had always practiced.

    
    This is the first book of the trilogy. It is okay if you have already read Veil of Tears.  Be sure you read this book and Veil of Tears before you read Tomorrow will be another day.