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 I Dared to call Him Father by Bilquis Sheikh
The true story of a high-ranking Pakistani woman who began a remarkable journey of faith through reading about Jesus in the Koran and through dreams that led her to seek help through the Bible and missionaries. Although ostracised by family and friends, and threatened by extremists, she maintained her faith and became a powerful witness for Christ.
An inspirational insight into God's power to reach people of other faiths. Although written more than 30 years ago, I Dared to call Him Father is still a bestseller (currently Number 6 in re:fresh books’ top sellers list).
Father Forgive by Robin Oake
 On January 14 2003, Robin Oake received the news that no parent should ever have to hear - his son Steve had been murdered. DC Stephen Oake, A Special Branch officer, had been stabbed during an anti-terrorist operation in Manchester.
The next morning, Robin Oake attended a press conference where a television journalist asked "Mr Oake, what do you think about the man who killed your son?" to which he received the unexpected response " I am praying for the perpetrator of this killing and seeking God's forgiveness for him - praying also that he may now seek God himself and find peace and forgiveness with him."
This is a book largely about fogiveness, not by an armchair theologian but by a former Chief Constable who knows what it is to forgive and be forgiven. It is peppered with meaningful illustrations from his own police career and carries a powerful yet simple message about forgiving and knowing forgiveness.
The Vicar of Baghdad by Andrew White
 "I live with a price on my head ... the kind of people I spend my time engaging with are not usually very nice. On the whole nice people do not cause wars."
So writes Canon Andrew White, Vicar of St George's Church Baghdad. His bome is in rural Hampshire but Canon White spends most of his time in a Portakabin in Baghdad's heavily fortified 'Green Zone'. When he goes to the weekly services in St George's, a mile outside the Green Zone, he is accompanied by 20 armed guards. But his main work is to communicate a message of hope and compassion. He is respected by people on every side of the Middle Eastern conflict and has worked as a mediator in Iraq and beyond.
One Step Beyond by Gram Seed
 Gram Seed was written off as a lost cause until a group of young people from a local church befriended him. Shoplifting, football hooliganism, stabbings, beatings, alcoholism, drug addiction, homelessness and jail had been his life experience. The young people first befriended him when he was sleeping rough on a wooden bench in a Middlesborough street. Later as he lay close to death in a hospital bed they gathered round to pray for him. Then they invited him to an Alpha course where he found Christ.
One step beyond traces Gram Seed's story from the depths of despair to the founding of a charity to bring the love of Christ to prisoners and ex-offenders.
Once an Addict by Barry Woodward
 If you want evidence that God can heal people from addictions, this is it. Barry Woodhead was not only addicted to hard drugs, he was also dealing. He was shoplifting to help feed his habit. But God intervened and turned him round.
Two thirds of this book is about his background, and paints a vivid and disturbing picture of life for somebody who has no knowledge whatsoever of God, and could not care if he did. But it does not glory in Barry Woodward's life without God as do some books of this type. The book ends with a simple, succinct summary of the Gospel, a call to commitment, a prayer and an explanation of what to do next - get a Bible and read it, start to pray, and find a good Christian church.
This is an ideal book to take on holiday and leave behind for somebody else to read (The book includes contact details for Proclaim Trust, the evangelistic organisation set up by Barry Woodward.)
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John Calvin - A Pilgrim's Life by Herman J Selderhuis
July 10th marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, the great protestant reformer.
 There are many biographies of John Calvin, the theologian - some vilifying him and others extolling his virtues - but few that reveal John Calvin, the man. Herman Selderhuis, a respected Reformation Historian, has written a book to bring Calvin near to the reader, showing him as a man who had an impressive impact on the development of the Western world, but who was first of all a believer struggling with God and with the way God governed both the world and his own life.
Selderhuis draws on Calvin's own writings to describe his theology in the context of his personal development. Throughout we see a person who found himself alone at many of the decisive moments of his life - a fact that echoed through Calvin's subsequent sermons and commentaries. Selderhuis's unique and compelling look at John Calvin, with all of his merits and foibles, ultimately discloses a man who could not find himself at home in the world in which he lived.
Published by IVP, this is remarkably good value at £9.99 for nearly 300 pages.
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John Nelson Darby - Prophetic Pioneer by Marion Field
Many Christians today have reason to be grateful for a Christian Brethren background with its emphasis on solid Bible teaching and mission.
One of the key personalities in the early Brethren movement was JN Darby (1800-1888). A brilliant scholar and linguist, he translated the Bible from the Hebrew and Greek into English, French and German. At a time when many Christians were becoming disillusioned with the established church and looking to return to the simplicity of the New Testament Church, Darby travelled the globe teaching and encouraging them. However, in 1852 his uncompromising attitude to perceived error led to the division of the movement into the “Exclusive” and “Open” Brethren, the former following Darby and subsequently fragmenting into numerous different factions including the notorious Taylorite Brethren.
Marion Field draws extensively on the 34 volumes of Darby’s writings and, in particular, his letters. She writes sympathetically, setting the growth of the Brethren movement against the background of other movements of the mid-19th century including the Oxford Movement and Irvingism. She devotes considerable attention to Darby’s dispensationalism and its impact that went far beyond his own circle. The emphasis on Darby and his ideas means that the tremendous influence of the Open Brethren on evangelical scholarship and mission outreach in the 20th Century is largely ignored; nevertheless this book, written from a moderate exclusive standpoint, provides a useful insight into the legacy of Darby and the early ('Plymouth') Brethren.
The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield
164 pages, hardback, £13.99
Barack Obama, like his predecessor in the White House, professes a Christian faith resulting from a real conversion experience but his brand of faith-based politics could not be more different from that of Bush.
 Obama has stated categorically that he has “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”. He affirms his belief in “the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ” and says that his faith gives him “a path to be cleaned of sin and have eternal life.” However, on the issue of civil unions for homosexuals he is unwilling “to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount.” Meanwhile his voting record on abortion issues seems to conflict with his professed ambivalence on the subject.
Stephen Mansfield takes a balanced look at Obama. Written during the run-up to the Presidential election, The Faith of Barack Obama, explores the influences on Obama, including his atheistic mother, his Muslim stepfather (his black father and white mother divorced when he was two) and the controversial preacher Jeremiah Wright through whom he came to faith. It discusses Obama’s pathway to the Presidential nomination against the background of his faith and his multi-racial parentage, and it contrasts Obama’s Christianity with that of George W Bush, John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
Barack Obama is seen as “helping to give voice to a religious left, just now reclaiming its voice in American culture …a new generation who are deeply religious, philosophically postmodern, and passionately oriented to social justice.” The American political and religious scene is very different from our own and yet it has a powerful impact on what happens here. Barack Obama seems destined to have a powerful influence on both sides of the Atlantic in the years to come.
War and Grace by Don Stephens £8.95
Short biographies of 13 Christian men and women who played a part in one or both of the World Wars. Some were Christians at the time, some became Christians during the war and some afterwards. They include Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbour, Charles Fraser-Smith, the inventor who inspired Ian Flemming’s Bond character ‘Q’ and Lt-Gen Sir William Dobbie who was instructed to ‘Defend Malta at all costs.’ Each biography includes information on sources of further information and there are notes and an index at the end. Don Stephens is the father of Heather Stephens, Schools’ Christian worker in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames.
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William Wilberforce and the Abolition of the Slave Trade
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. The crucial Bill abolishing the trade was passed by Parliament on February 23 1807 after twenty years of campaigning by William Wilberforce, an Evangelical Christian and M.P. A new feature film about the life of William Wilberforce, Amazing Grace, is now showing at cinemas throughout the UK. Great services are due to be held in Westminster Abbey, York Minster, Liverpool and Hull. There will also be a new £2.00 coin and a set of postage stamps to commemorate the abolition of the slave trade.
re:fresh books and christian resources has several books on Wilberforce and related subjects:-
 Wilberforce, the definitive biography by John Pollock, was first published in 1977, but has just been re-issued as a Bicentenary Edition with glowing endorsements by Tony Blair, William Hague and John Sentamu.
The biography is 384 page long but another 47 pages of references and notes bear witness to the painstaking research that went into its writing. There is also an extenvie bibliography and an 11 page index. This is essential reading for anybody who really wants to investigate the story of Wiberforce.
 William Wilberforce - a Hero of Humanity by Kevin Belmonte, the lead historical consultant for the film Amazing Grace, was first published in 2002. The following year Belmonte won the John Pollock Award for Christian Biography.
The book has been revised and republished. It covers Wilberforce’s life in a logical and readable style dealing not only with his work to abolish the slave trade but many other aspects of his life and work, including his Second Great Object - the “reformation of manners”, his efforts to bring peace in the war between Britain and France, his book A practical view of Christianity and his various other reforms. 352 pages.
 Amazing Grace - William Wilberforce and the heroic campaign to end slavery, by Eric Metaxas, has been produced as a companion biography to the Amazing Grace movie. It is an attractively-produced book with 283 pages of text and 48 pages of colour stills from the film.
This is not just another movie tie-in but a serious attempt to portray the man and his work, aptly described by Baroness Cox as "A superb, scholarly, must-read book". It also seeks to draw the link between events of 200 years ago and the shameful fact that 27 million people today are still subject to various forms of slavery including prostitution, human trafficking and enforced immigrant labour.
 Just published by Lion is William Wilberforce – a biography by Stephen Tompkins. A very readable 238-page book that traces the life of the great reformer, discussing the influences, events and people in Wilberforce’s life. Tompkins is a journalist and broadcaster with a PhD in Church History.
 Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce is a short, concise (76 page) book by John Piper that focuses on the way in which the great reformer's Christian Faith, as spelt out in his book A Practical View of Christianity, motivated all his actions. Piper highlights some of the lesser-known aspects of his life such as his burden for the spiritual wellbeing of his fellow-Politicians, his support for the fledgling Christian Missions, his family life, his humour in the face of hardship, opposition and disappointment and his passion for purity of Christian Doctrine. In his foreword, Jonathan Aitken says "William Wilberforce's secret, as revealed in this book, was that he made the journey from self-centeredness, achievement-centeredness and political-centeredness to God-centeredness. And he made it with Christlike joy.
 Travel with William Wilberforce by Kevin Belmonte in Day One’s Travel With … series is a lavishly illustrated 128-page pocket book charting the life of Wilberforce against the background of the locations involved so that readers can visit buildings and sites that featured in his life. It contains over 150 photographs, drawings and maps – even a map of the London underground! Kevin Belmonte was the principal historical consultant for Amazing Grace the new feature film about William Wilberforce.
 ... and a book for children
William Wilberforce the Freedom Fighter by Derick Bingham, in the Christian Focus Trailblazers series, is a life of Wilberforce, suitable for children and younger teens. It includes one chapter on the life of John Newton. The story is told imaginatively yet factually from the childhood of Wilberforce through to the Abolition of Slavery and the death of Wilberforce. At the end of the book a series of one-page 'Thinking further Topics' poses questions on each chapter, encouraing readers to think about issues from a Biblical perspective.
 The Roots of Endurance by John Piper (IVP) is a biography of William Wilberforce and two other great men of God - John Newton and Charles Simeon - who persevered despite opposition and persecution. After an introductory chapter on the Biblical 'roots of endurance' it provides three biographies looking at the men, examining their thinking and how they applied Scriptural principles to their lives.
The section on William Wilberforce is scheduled to be reproduced separately by IVP. This discusses not only Wilberforce's campaigning for the abolition of slavery but also his efforts to address other social and moral issues of his day.
 Abolition by Richard S Reddie, discusses the struggle to abolish slavery in the British Colonies, identifying the role of the Africans themselves in working alongside their European counterparts to achieve emancipation. The book disscusses the growth of Britain's military power in the 16th century, the way in which the slave trade helped transform Britain into a leading industrial nation and the efforts first to abolish the slave trade in 1807 and then slavery itself in the 1830s.
Published by Lion, Abolition is a fitting companion to Tompkins' biography of Wilberforce (see above).
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12 Disciples by Andy Flannagan & Anne Calver
Young people's stories of crisis and faith
 Andy Flannagan tells the discipleship stories of 12 young people in this inspiring and encouraging ‘post-modern pilgrim’s progress’.
Using ‘gritty, unforgettable stories of faith, hope and love’, he highlights the ways in which the young people involved with Youth for Christ are spreading the hope they have in Christ, and sharing the Good News with the different people they encounter from day to day.
The testimonies of these modern-day disciples are told along-side the story of one of the original 12; Simon Peter.
In a time when the stereotype of young people is becoming predominantly, and increasingly, negative, it is particularly encouraging to hear about the positive impact some are having on other people’s lives.
God's Smuggler by Brother Andrew
 Meet the man who founded Open Doors. It all started in a little country called the Netherlands where God called Andrew to go to the Christians who were being persecuted behind the Iron Curtain. So Andrew went, first, with only a few Bibles and just one car. And in thirty years it grew to an international organisation supporting persecuted Christians worldwide.
This book has inspired millions of people, including myself. It looks at the real life of a missionary, alone on the road, in a strange place, far away from home and with all the troubles, struggles, worries and doubts that fill every Christian from time to time. It is a story of what can happen if we just listen to God and do as he says.
In recent years, Brother Andrew has shifted his attention to the Middle East. This story can be read in his second book Light Force.
End of the Spear by Steve Saint - (Hardback) £8.99
 Fifty years ago the savage massacre of five missionaries in the Jungles of Equador made news headlines all over the world. Their deaths at the hands of the Waodani Indians, better known at that time as ‘Aucas’ (savage killers), inspired hundreds of Christians to commit their lives to mission in the following decades. Meanwhile, within months, the sister of one of the missionaries went to live amongst the Waodani and teach them about ‘God’s carvings’ and how to ‘walk His trail’.
In 1994 Rachel Saint died and Steve Saint, son of pilot Nate Saint, returned to Equador for his aunt’s funeral. While there he learnt for the first time the background to the massacre, from one of his father’s killers. The Waodani asked him to return to Equador and help them deal with the challenges presented by modern “civilisation”. This is the story of how Steve Saint returned with his family to live in primitive conditions to help the Waodani develop basic health care and even to fly, whilst retaining their independence and much of their traditional lifestyle. But the experienced also changed Steve Saint and the direction of his life.
This book has also been made into a movie.
Wounded Prophet – A Portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen by Michael Ford £10.95
 This is the first major biography of Henri Nouwen. In the telling of his life story, it gives a depth of insight into Nouwen as a person - an attractive and complex human being, a passionate and gifted priest and communicator, yet one who was also very aware of his own weaknesses and struggles. He was able to take what he had learnt of the spiritual life and share it with his hearers and readers in a way that was both down to earth and inspirational.
Michael Ford is a journalist and broadcaster. This is his first book.
Saddam’s Secrets by Georges Sada with Jim Nelson-Price - £7.99
 Georges Sada was one of Saddam’s top military generals and advisors. A committed Christian in a brutal regime, and a truth-teller to an evil dictator who beheaded those who gave him ill news, this is the story of how God used him to save countless lives and influence a monster for the good. As an eyewitness to history Georges reveals Saddam’s plans to destroy Israel and dominate the entire Arab world. He tells of the situation in Iraq today and all the positive strides forward that the popular media refuse to report. And, most controversially, he reveals the truth for the first time about the elusive weapons of mass destruction. Personal and alarming, truthful and compelling, this is the courageous story of an agent of God in the heart of darkness.
Journey into God's Heart by Jennifer Rees Larcombe - £7.99
 Journey into God’s Heart is an epic saga of one woman’s journey through fire.
Jennifer made national news headlines when she was miraculously healed from a virus that had left her wheel chair bound and in great pain for eight years.
But what of life after a miracle? The consequences are wide – and often unforeseen – some have been heart warming and joyous but others have led to pain and distress themselves. Jennifer reveals how her faith has been tested over the years. For the first time she talks about the tragedy of the death of her baby granddaughter – why, she reflects, did she receive a miracle but not this tiny infant they prayed so hard for? She also speaks of the shock and grief at the disintegration of her marriage and her recent divorce.
With What Remains by Lesley Belinda - £7.99
 In 1994, Lesley lost her Rwandan husband in the Rwandan genocide. In this book she describes with great honesty her return to Rwanda ten years later to search for the truth of what had happened to her husband, and what she eventually discovered. She shares her fears and memories, as well as the traumatic truth that emerged…..and alongside this is the story of her journey of faith and forgiveness.
An inspirational book.
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