Side by Side

Two women of two very different faiths will realize how great the saving power of Jesus can be when they have to work together to keep them both alive. Based on real events in the Sudan, author Jana Kelley uses her knowledge of missions work in other countries and the struggles Muslim women face when they convert to Christianity. For most it is a death sentence in keeping honor within the family and women are always considered lower than any male living in the family regardless of their age. It is an eye opening look at what is involved for Muslim women to walk away from the life they have always known to follow Jesus.

Mia and Michael have always wanted to live in another country and when the job offer opened for Michael with the Kellar Hope Foundation, in Sudan to aid in missionary work, they decide to pack up their family of five and leave the life they have known in Texas to make a new life in a small town of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. While things are vastly different, Mia is hoping for an opportunity to share her faith of Jesus with some of the Arabic women living nearby, but she isn't quite certain how. A co-worker of Michael's, Beth offers a suggestion to meet the neighbors using their children as common grounds to get to know one another.

But Mia lacks a broader knowledge of the Arabic language and soon faces her own barriers as she tries to share her faith with her neighbor who becomes distant when it is first mentioned. Mia believes she isn't ready to hear the gospel just yet, and struggles to find a place to fit in, while being at home all day with the children. She wonders if this trip was really God's calling after all.

For Halimah, she is struggling to find time to know the Jesus she is learning about in her Arabic Bible, the truth seems to find a place in her heart where she wants to believe everything she is reading about him. It will take an answer to prayer for Halimah to finally accept that Jesus is real. But if she tells her family, it might mean the end of her life, but she is hoping her family might be open to at least hearing all that she is learning about the Jesus of the Bible.

I received Side by Side by Jana Kelley compliments of New Hope Publishers and Litfuse Publicity for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions contained in this review are strictly my own. What I loved most is how both Mia and Halimah discover God's divine purpose for both of them being precisely where they are despite the odds facing them both. It is difficult at times to fathom how violent a family can be against their own daughter when professing a faith in Jesus contrary to their Muslim upbringing and how degraded women are treated in that culture. Truly eye opening in that it showcases how truly blessed we are in the United States to have the freedom to worship and not face any retribution from our country or our family. I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion.

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Side by Side by Jana Kelley

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