Friday, October 12, 2012

Jordan's Crossing

The follow-up to Randall Arthur's book Wisdom Hunter is entitled Jordan's Crossing. This is a worthy sequel that is centered around the internal struggle of an American missionary named Jordan Rau. Jordan had been pastoring a church in Tennessee when he fell into significant debt due to an investment gone bad. Without seeking out his Lord in prayer or consulting his family, he took a well-paying job as a missionary in Germany. His move deeply impacted his faithful wife Susan, his 18 year old son Chase, and his 13 year old daughter Donica. Once in Germany, life slowly re-adjusted to a level of normalcy that resulted in a reasonably stable time of peace and comfort for the Rau family. Though the move overseas was not popular, Dad was still the larger than life hero of his family.

Jordan's world was forever changed when his son was brutally murdered one afternoon while coming home from school with his girlfriend. Jordan, whose religion was based on taking charge and relying mostly on self to effect change and to deliver specific outcomes, turned his entire focus on a dripping, hateful, exacting revenge. His attitude was in direct contrast to his wife who believed in reliance on God through faith. Caught in the middle was poor Donica. Jordan intentionally vowed to get to the bottom of his son's cold-blooded murder at the expense of everything else in his life. He became obsessed with following every lead, chasing every shadow, and neglecting everything else. On the one hand, his diligence and patience, led him to answers of all of the questions and to find his son's killers. To exact and eye for an eye vengence was fully in his sights. Yet why did he hesitate at his moment of victory? Why did the words of his wife and those from a chance meeting with a pastor from New York (Jason Faircloth from Wisdom Hunter) pull so strongly at his heart? A wonderful tale of rebirth and laying aside the old for something much, much better. Now, onto the next book in the series, Brotherhood of Betrayal.