Today I am going to review another book. This review is slightly different in the fact that it is an autobiography and not a fiction novel like most books that I read. It is called Sleeping Coconuts and was written by John and Bonnie Nystrom, missionaries in Papua New Guinea.
In the late 1980s, John and Bonnie Nystrom came alongside Pastor Peter and several other men from Arop Village in Papua New Guinea to translate the Bible into the local language. Now, while visiting another part of the country just ten years later, John and Bonnie learned that tragedy had struck Arop village, causing massive loss of life.
What happened? Were their neighbors okay? What about the members of the Bible translation team? Was this the end of Bible translation for Arop?
In Sleeping Coconuts, John and Bonnie Nystrom share their story of tragedy, teamwork and transformation, and the incredible way that God used a tsunami to change the face of Bible translation in Papua New Guinea.
First Impressions? This book was amazing. It is heartbreaking and inspiring and challenging and everything that it needs to be.
The way that Bonnie and John tell their perspectives on the events that unfolded--the tsunami, the aftermath, the way that God used their circumstances to spread the translation project to many more languages than it would have otherwise reached--is straightforward, conversational, and informative. They are talking to the reader, telling them precisely what happened and what God did about it.
I cried, multiple times, reading this book. At the beginning, I cried because of all of the tragic stories of the people who survived the tsunami. Later I cried to see the remarkable ways that God had put pieces in place to expand the translation project beyond Bonnie and John's wildest imaginations. It reminded me of Ephesians 3:20 repeatedly.
I loved this story, even more so because it was true. And it challenged and encouraged and stretched me in my faith in many ways. It was a remarkable journey of my own, reading this book.
Would I recommend this book to others? Yes. Please go read it.
Would I read it again? Probably. I don't generally read non-fiction with regularity or repetition, but this one is worth it.
Until next time, Happy Writing everybody!
