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By David F. Dawes
• Mark Buchanan: Hidden in Plain Sight, W
Publishing Group
Subtitled ‘Seven old things that can make
your life new,’ this book is built around the author’s
interpretation of 2 Peter 1:1-9.
 Not many writers can get this much real mileage out of
so few lines of scripture; but Buchanan is another matter. The book’s
stated purpose is to share with the reader “a treasure from
scripture that the vast majority of us overlook.”
Buchanan, lead pastor of New Life Community Baptist
Church in Duncan, has an engaging, personal style, and offers lots of very
helpful insights. He focuses on Peter’s version of the fruits of the
Spirit. Analysis of the scripture is enhanced by in-depth explorations of
various aspects of Peter’s life and personality; and three fictional
anecdotes set in Christ’s time. Highly recommended.
• Francis Testa: To My Beloved Eve, HeartBeat
Productions
In the guise of ‘Letters from Adam to his
wife,’ the author explores some tough ‘why’ questions:
“Why so much violence in the world, especially towards women?
Why constant wars and a struggle to survive, in a world supposedly
created by God out of love? Why do men and women fight against each
other, when they should be working together to build a better world?”
Testa, a one-time Catholic seminarian, now works as a screenwriter and
author in Vancouver. The book is intended as “a form of apologetics
about the reality of God’s love and evil’s malice.”
• Barbara Colebrook Peace: Duet for Wings and Earth, Sono Nis
Press
In this “reimagining of the Christ story [which]
takes the reader on a journey that is at once familiar and marvelously
mythical,” the author, a Victoria resident, presents poems written
from various viewpoints, including: God, Jesus, the Magi, Mary and Joseph.
The poems “address people of all religions, as well as atheists and
agnostics.”
The book is endorsed by B.C. poet Susan McCaslin, who
writes that the poetry “restores us to the Bethlehem of the heart, a
place where the joys and sorrows of birthing the world are contemporary
again . . . The poet re-enters the story of the nativity to re-fire it
absolutely fresh.”
• Michael Scantlebury: Internal
Reformation, Word Alive Press
This book addresses what constitutes the “mark of
a true disciple of Jesus Christ.”
George Johnson, head of Harvest City Church, states:
“It is an ecclesiology laying out the blueprint of the church Jesus
Christ is building in today’s world. At the same time, it is a manual
laying out the modus operandi of how believers are called to function as dynamic, militant
overcomers – who are powerful because they carry internally the very
character and DNA of Jesus Christ.”
The Vancouver author is founder of Dominion-Life International Ministries.
• Nicole Baart: The Moment
Between, Tyndale House
“Abigail Bennett was completely in control of her
life,” says the book jacket, adding: “But then tragedy suddenly
pushed her to the brink of something she’s never experience:
obsession.”
The story takes the protagonist through a journey
“to discover that justice is much more complicated than she ever
imagined it to be.”
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According to Publisher’s
Weekly, the author “communicates deep
spiritual themes with a light touch.”
Baart, a pastor’s wife based in Iowa, was at one
time an English teacher in B.C. She is a founding member of a nonprofit
organization that works with a church and orphanage in Liberia.
• Henry D. Hildebrand: Tides
and Times, Rosetta
Projects
Hildebrand, a Vancouver medical doctor who died
last year, was considered a pioneer in vascular surgery. He and his wife
volunteered medical services in several countries.
In this autobiography, he writes: “Life’s
experiences do not follow a straight line any more than the seashore
maintains an unchanging margin. The tide comes in and with it brings new
life, nutrition, a different set of waves and a change in the sand dunes.
The tide ebbs and leaves a seashore with new shapes, shells and living
things.”
His widow Hildegard has also issued an autobiography,
titled Reflections.
• Daniel John: Seven
Symbols of Healing, Smart Publishing
One of a series entitled ‘Bible Light,’
this book marshals an extraordinary amount of helpful references.
The Surrey-based author explains: “Reading all of
the scriptures that relate to a subject allows the mind to weigh the
information and quickly arrive at a point of personal truth and
understanding . . . Using only the words of the Bible, this book topically
isolates and expands the context of the verses that mention some of the
important spiritual symbols that are related to healing.”
• Drew Snider: A Very
Convenient Truth, First Choice Books
“Does global warming have you hot under the
collar?” asks Snider. His answer is to provide “real hope
in the face of environmental fears.”
He does so by dealing with thought provoking questions:
“Are we obsessing too much on Mother Nature and not enough on Father
God? Does being a godly environmentalist mean simply taking current
practices and adding ‘in Jesus’ Name,’ or is that putting
lipstick on a pig?”
The author was given the 2001 Environmental Journalism
Award by The Skies Above Foundation of Canada.
March 2009
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