This summer was an active one, even for me: 5 weeks, 3 continents, 9 beds, 11 aeroplanes. I do a lot of reading when I’m flying, but its actually other people’s reading that has impacted me over the summer (admittedly, a while ago now!). I thought I'd tell you about 3 of the books being read by folk I met in planes.
The first book I came across was as I was loitering at the back of a Boeing 777, hoping to grab a coffee (nice, drinkable coffee was clearly beyond my expectations, but something warm and brown). The book was "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren and was being waved fairly animatedly by one cabin crewmember at another. Seeing as they were clearly not about to get up and get me a coffee, I thought I'd gatecrash the conversation. Crewmember A was telling crewmember B how the book had transformed her life, which is not the kind of superlatives you normally hear from a Brit when describing a book. I'd read the book a few years back and remembered a few chunks of it that I liked (a couple of which I even managed to find!). I never did get my coffee, but about 15 minutes later crewmember A had secured a promise from B to take the book and read it.
The second book to grab my attention was being read by a seat 7b occupant (see June 19th) and was titled “Buddhism: plain and simple”. I got chatting to the woman who turned out to live a few miles from me in Birmingham. We meandered our way onto talking about faith and she told me she was Catholic. I remarked that her book intrigued me and she started to explain how she was thinking that Buddhism might be a great way for her to find peace. I asked how that fitted with her Catholicism and whether Jesus, the prince of Peace, might be another route here. She was truly surprised, as she’d never considered her Christian faith to be capable of such things (or that their might be inconsistencies in bolting-on Buddhism to it). Although I’m no Buddhism expert, we had a great chat about the peace I have found.
My third book was being read by a 6ft 10 pro-basketball player en-route from Texas to Germany (do they play basketball in Germany??). It was “the Shack” (if you’ve not read it, you’re a rarity and a dying breed). I risked the question “who bought it for you?” (statistically 8 out of 10 copies of ‘the shack’ have been bought, often in bulk, to give to someone else or to strategically leave in coffee shops). His surprised look revealed I’d hit the mark. He’d been given it by a mentor who had been a friend of the family since childhood. This man had taken him to church when he was a child but he had since drifted away, never really having come to faith. Without spoiling the book, we talked about his perceptions of God and Jesus, his disappointments in life and how God meets us in these circumstances. Although he wasn’t ready to throw his all in with God there and then, he was on the journey. I prayed for him there and then and would love it if you joined in the fun, for all three of my new friends. Thanks.
The first book I came across was as I was loitering at the back of a Boeing 777, hoping to grab a coffee (nice, drinkable coffee was clearly beyond my expectations, but something warm and brown). The book was "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren and was being waved fairly animatedly by one cabin crewmember at another. Seeing as they were clearly not about to get up and get me a coffee, I thought I'd gatecrash the conversation. Crewmember A was telling crewmember B how the book had transformed her life, which is not the kind of superlatives you normally hear from a Brit when describing a book. I'd read the book a few years back and remembered a few chunks of it that I liked (a couple of which I even managed to find!). I never did get my coffee, but about 15 minutes later crewmember A had secured a promise from B to take the book and read it. 
The second book to grab my attention was being read by a seat 7b occupant (see June 19th) and was titled “Buddhism: plain and simple”. I got chatting to the woman who turned out to live a few miles from me in Birmingham. We meandered our way onto talking about faith and she told me she was Catholic. I remarked that her book intrigued me and she started to explain how she was thinking that Buddhism might be a great way for her to find peace. I asked how that fitted with her Catholicism and whether Jesus, the prince of Peace, might be another route here. She was truly surprised, as she’d never considered her Christian faith to be capable of such things (or that their might be inconsistencies in bolting-on Buddhism to it). Although I’m no Buddhism expert, we had a great chat about the peace I have found.
My third book was being read by a 6ft 10 pro-basketball player en-route from Texas to Germany (do they play basketball in Germany??). It was “the Shack” (if you’ve not read it, you’re a rarity and a dying breed). I risked the question “who bought it for you?” (statistically 8 out of 10 copies of ‘the shack’ have been bought, often in bulk, to give to someone else or to strategically leave in coffee shops). His surprised look revealed I’d hit the mark. He’d been given it by a mentor who had been a friend of the family since childhood. This man had taken him to church when he was a child but he had since drifted away, never really having come to faith. Without spoiling the book, we talked about his perceptions of God and Jesus, his disappointments in life and how God meets us in these circumstances. Although he wasn’t ready to throw his all in with God there and then, he was on the journey. I prayed for him there and then and would love it if you joined in the fun, for all three of my new friends. Thanks.
