A Prayer Journey Through Deployment by Donna Mull

A Prayer Journey Through Deployment by Donna Mull

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

MY REVIEW:

I don't know what it's like to find out my spouse or family member is shipping out for active duty. But if I did know what that was like, I think I would make sure Donna's book was on the top of my nightstand reading stack.

A Prayer Journey Through Deployment is a simple book that will aid you in the most powerful resource you have - prayer. Each chapter is a topical prayer and can be read for encouragement, as a prayer prompt, or both. It would be a great tool for either personal use or a group setting.

I appreciate the simplicity of this book yet the depth in which it will minister to those dealing with being apart from their loved one. This is a great gift to give anyone with a family member serving our country.

BOOK OVERVIEW

"I just received orders for deployment to Iraq."

Such words have the power to make you weak in the knees and bring a parade of disturbing images to your mind. A sense of helplessness and dread forces you to your knees but you can't seem to get beyond the repetitive cry, "Keep them safe, Lord." Such was the paralysis Donna Mull felt when her son was deployed. Her heart ached for his family. Determined to surround them with prayer, she wrote weekly military prayer devotionals and emailed them to a network of friends and family to encourage focused, faithful prayer. What followed was a year-long journey that led far beyond the generic, "Keep them safe." An excellent source of hope, comfort and Scripture-based prayers, A Prayer Journey through Deployment gives voice to the heartfelt needs of soldiers and families like loneliness, fear, guidance, unity, loss, endurance, perspective, courage, etc. A compilation of 52 devotionals chronicles the journey of prayer through this experience of deployment. Even if you have no military connection, you may find that the prayers minister to you in the midst of your own "life battles."

AUTHOR BIO:

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands...." 1 Thessalonians 4:11 is a good descriptive life verse for Donna Mull—quietly going about the work of serving children and families as a pediatric home care nurse. That is, until life presented a challenge completely outside her realm of understanding. Her son received orders for deployment to Iraq. She felt compelled to pray and engage others to pray concerning a world she knew little about. The one essential qualification she had was a deep love for her son and his family. The equipping and understanding God would provide when she committed to this assignment.

Donna lives in a picturesque RI town with the oldest, longstanding 4th of July parade honoring civic and military servants (224 successive years). She has two married sons and four grandchildren. Donna enjoys walking, biking, outdoor concerts and the brief "mini" vacations of sitting beside the Narrangansett Bay before heading off to work. Best of all is spending time with her grandchildren, for whom she created a scrapbook to help them deal with some of the extraordinary challenges of having a deployed parent. Donna also has the unique privilege of developing long-term relationships with some exceptionally courageous families as a Home Care nurse for medically fragile children.

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This review copy was provided by WinePress Publishing. The opinions expressed are purely of my own.