This is not really a book about missions, as some people think. It's Peterson's "growing in Christian faith" story.

She starts out naive, optimistic, arrogant, and with a savior complex. She ends up realizing that real life and real faith are messier than we would often like. We don't always get to understand why God does what He does. While I could certainly relate to a lot of her growth, and therefore want to extend some grace to her, I feel it necessary to say that at the end of the book, she still seemed just as arrogant... her positions had changed, but she is just as convinced of her own "rightness."

Peterson is very critical of "traditional" missionaries, even though her own experiences were only possible because of the groundwork these missionaries laid. No missionary, no Christian, no person is perfect, and nothing we do will be 100% inscrutable. However, I felt that she was trying to apply 21st century principles and practices to people and organizations who lived in completely different eras and cultures. This just isn't fair. In another hundred years, how harshly will future Christians be judging us for everything we messed up? Will they acknowledge any of the good that happened? Will they acknowledge that the "missions" that were recorded in the Bible were also messy? Will they acknowledge God's sovereignty?

I find it very frustrating to hear young Christians preach to all Christians, including those with far more experience and wisdom, about how "wrong" the Church is doing everything - how they know the "right" way to do these things.

So this book is valuable for what it is: a memoir - one person's experience and opinions. But it left a bad taste in my mouth at many points. ( )