Scared – by Tom Davis

I’ve read Fields of the Fatherless and Red Letters by Tom Davis.  In both of these books Davis uses his  passion to convict the reader to care for orphans, the poor, the down-trodden, and AIDS victims in Africa.  When I heard he was writing a novel that wove these human sorrows into a story I was intrigued and ordered a copy before it was even released.

Scared is a story of two different people from two different worlds whose lives cross.  God works in both of their lives to lift them from the pit of hopelessness to a new found peace in him.

Both the hero and the heroin are in desperate times.  Adanna is a young girl in Swaziland that lives in a village where many of the adults have died or they are dying of AIDS.  She often goes days without anything to eat.  Life is desperate.

Stuart is a free-lance photographer.  His pictures of the massacre in the Congo earned him honors in his field but the images in his mind have left his personal life and career quickly spiraling downward and out of control.  Life is desperate.

Jesus is eluded to as the illuminated man that comforts Adanna, a voice that tells Stuart to feed his sheep, and a blue-eyed dark skinned man that helps save a child from a flooding river.  However, you won’t find the explicit gospel about sin, death on the cross, resurrection, and salvation.

This is a novel about redemption as a story.  I believe it is intended to wake up in the reader a realization of injustice in the world and a self-reflection on their own desperate life.  The story could come across rather emergent theologically but I have no idea if that is Davis' intent. If you’re a compassionate Calvinist like myself, enjoy the story and assume that Stuart and Adanna have heard the gospel and the story we are reading is God’s quickening of their hearts to the truth and a regenerated life.

I had a terrible cold while I finished the last half of this book.  This was actually quite beneficial to my manhood.  The story of Adanna and even Stuart’s awakening, brought me to tears at times.  Fortunately, since I had a head cold anyway, I could just grab a Kleenex, blow my nose, and my wife was none the wiser.

Finally, I did notice cynicism from Tom Davis about some Christians and some charitable organizations.  Tom Davis has spent years on the ground in the mission field with orphans and the poor so I have to give him the benefit of the doubt that the stereo-typed characters he displayed are realistic occurrences in Africa.  Shame on those he describes if it is so.

The examples I noticed was a loud mouth lady in the airport blurting out to everyone that she was there to save the heathens from hell.  The second example is a state supported charity organization that brings food just long enough for a photo shoot for some wealthy people to hand out small lunch bags (with tracts).  They then leave without meeting the village’s needs once the photo session is over.

The lady in the airport seemed more like a missionary spoof-type scene and the charity trucks episode seemed too unrealistic.  I got the point but the points seemed contrived.  Of course, it is a novel, which by nature is supposed to be contrived.  Even more likely, I’m probably just too naive.

I highly recommend this book.  But, if it moves you, don’t just put it back on the shelf and forget about it. Do something about it.

Mark 13:37

And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”