Mission of Mercy: Allowing God to Use You to Make a Difference in Others By Nancy Alcorn Book Review

In Mission of Mercy, Nancy Alcorn was very transparent in sharing the details of her rough childhood and what lead her to founding Mercy Ministries. Nancy Alcorn minored in social services, psychology, and criminal justice in college. At the time, she didn’t know that she would be using all of these background skills in helping young women in an organization that she began. Mercy Ministries helps thirteen to twenty-eight years old women that struggle with eating disorders, cutting, sexual abuse, drug addiction, suicidal victims, and pregnant teenagers. They take in young women for a period of six months in their homes around the United States and they have a few homes overseas. They guide them in learning about God, and they assist them in healing from their past, and they instill hope back into these young women’s lives. An enormous point Nancy reminds readers of there is a story behind every single person and we’re not called to be the judge over their life. Instead we’re supposed to love them and display compassion. The book included many personal transformation stories that Mercy has contributed to in the journey of freedom of these women.

 

Nancy Alcorn has to endure pain in her own life. One day at school, she remembered being called out of class by the principal assistant. She noticed that her one brother and her three sisters were all heading down the hallway to the office. They were all waiting to be picked up from school by their aunt. She recalled that thirty minutes early, she heard sirens and it was very rare for their small town. She felt that something terrible has happened and she worried it was her parents or her little sister, Beverly. While she waited for her aunt to arrive, she kept replaying in her mind how she treated her little sister the night before. She was practicing basketball and didn’t want to be bothered and she called her sister a brat and told her to get lost. She heard Beverly crying herself to sleep. Little did, Nancy know the horrible events that would unfold the next day. When they finally got home, her mom’s sister explained to the children what happened. Her dad was on the tractor and it got stuck and her mom helped pull the tractor with the truck. Her dad had Beverly on the tractor with him. The tractor and the truck jackknifed and her body was crushed between the steering wheel and his chest. Beverly was killed instantly and her dad broke all of his ribs due to the dramatic force. Nancy Alcorn revealed her struggle with her fears of losing more people that she truly cared about. During the next few years, she also lost her pastor and his wife in a car accident, then her boyfriend was killed because he was drinking drunk. Lost was following her around and she had trouble coping and she didn’t understand why God was allowing all these bad things to happen to the people she loved. Her past gave her the building blocks to where she is today. She also admitted to receiving Christian counseling to help her process her emotions and feelings.

 

The book also had an additional appendix in the book that contained more stories from Mercy Ministries graduates. Throughout the stories, the readers get to read and experience in their own words what these girls have been through. The stories are very real and eye opening in the healing process and the hope they found in Christ.

 

I would recommend this magnificent life captivating book to anyone who is needing some inspiration and encouragement from others people’s stories. This book will help readers to understand that judging others in their struggles and challenges they have encountered in their life isn’t supportive. There were countless stories about women who struggled with depression, had suicidal thoughts, were bulimic or anorexic, some were raped, others grieving, drug addictions, and some were pregnant and alone. The stories the young women presented in this book has been through is truly heartbreaking and appalling. I immensely enjoyed reading about how Mercy Ministries is serving our teenage women in discovering the freedom that Christ offers and they show them the love of Christ. I also believe that they should be a ministry like Mercy Ministries for young men as well that is needing extra help in obtaining liberty. Nancy Alcorn is an astonishing writer and I loved how she described her own personal pain especially when it was difficult. If you’re looking for an excellent book written to help teenagers and adults, then this is a great one on showing mercy to others in dealing with their pain from their past!

 

“I received this book for free from The Booketeria/ Charisma House for this review”.

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Mission of Mercy, then check it out on Amazon.com or Christian Book.com:

 

 http://www.amazon.com/Mission-Mercy-Allowing-Difference-Others/dp/1616389621  

 

http://www.christianbook.com/mission-mercy-discovering-behind-help-hurting/nancy-alcorn/9781616389628/pd/389628

 

Book Trailer:

 

 

Journey of My Run Week 2 : Day 1

Week 2


Day 1 - Friday, April 23

I got up the courage to tweet to Christian Singers, Mary Mary or also known as Erica and Tina. They retweeted my tweet about helping St. Jude’s about a week ago. Thanks girls for listening and reposting to your followers! Then Friday, I asked Mary Mary, what they would like to tell teens out there. I asked them this, “If you could tell teens; one thing what would it be?” Mary Mary said, “~Listen!!!!!!Slow Down n Seek God!!” I agree with this statement.

Sometimes as teenagers, we don’t really listen as well as we should. Guys, occasionally have a huge problem in this area with communicating our thoughts and feelings. Most tend to avoid it. We all know, guys don’t talk as much as girls. We need to be better communicators and listen to one another. We don’t need to talk all the time. We need to listen more than we talk. I am not saying never say a word, we need to listen to one another. Most of the world is becoming me-minded. We need to say right things and be positive in our daily lives. Just listen to how people talk for a week and you will see.

Most teens use curse words a lot more these days. I know I am one of them. Of course, I am 20 now and still do. I will have to continue to work on this every single day. Even adults use curse words. We get mad at the neighbors, drivers, kids, friends, when we hurt ourselves or anything else when we don’t get our way. We all know what happens next, we say some words and maybe a few not so beautiful words slip out. Then, we do the blame game, well they made me mad! I was caught up in emotions. I didn’t mean it. You don’t know what they said to me. I regret it now. Boy, we got a long list to choose from. I remember one time, when I let one slip out and there was a child around. Way to go, Andrew!

I think sometimes it’s out of what can I get from that person. Most teenagers will not talk to the lonely kid sitting by himself at school. Why are we so afraid, we will lose our current friends? It must be out of fear or maybe it’s out of we don’t care. I mean look at the bulling going around. In the past, the bulling only could happen in real life. Now, we got kids on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Formspring, and any other social site getting cyber bullied. I am not saying these sites are bad in any way. We just have to use them for good purposes and not bad. You can pretty much invite the bully to come live with you at home. You bully me at school, why not just come live with me too. Guys and girls you can choose to delete them from your friends list. DON’T ADD THEM! BLOCK THE ACCOUNT! You might be scared and be thinking what if they come after me. Tell a professional at your school; if that person doesn’t listen go tell another one. If you know someone is getting bullied stop it and go tell someone. You could be their hero. Sit with the loners! If you already have a group, invite the loners over to be a part of your group. You might be thinking, well they are different. I guess you’re getting a different perspective on whatever you talk about at the table. We have got to start loving each other more. We need love! Maybe you’re an adult and there is a lonely girl or guy at work, talk to them. You’re never too old or too young to reach out and make a difference.

Oh and yes, I didn’t continue on my running journey today. But I will eventually. I ran four days this week! That’s a huge start for me. Remember to take time and love!

Haiti Earthquake Helping One Another

Haiti had an extremely bad earthquake it is said to be a 7.0 quake. The massive earthquake hit on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 4:53:10 PM. The official number is not even totaled yet. 50,000 people are feared to be dead from the quake. They are still looking for any remaining bodies.

If you can give any money or supplies to help the relief of the quake please do. Even if it's not a lot every little bit helps. Make sure you spread the word around and get your friends to help donate for the relief program. If you can only give one dollar that dollar could help make a difference. If you can send supplies then sent supplies. If you can give money give money. If you can't give anything offer up a prayer.

Some of the Top Organizations you can donate to are listed below.

http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/earthquake-haiti

You can even donate using text messaging from your cell phone. Your donation is added to your cell phone bill. All you have to do is send a TEXT with the word 'HAITI' to 90999 to donate $10 dollars to the Red Cross relief program. Another good one is to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund TEXT the world 'Yele' to 501501 to donate $5 dollars. The Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund is run by Hip-Hop artist Wyclef Jean. One of his most popular songs was with Shakira called "Hips Don't Lie".

The Red Cross link:

http://www.redcross.org/

The link to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund:

http://www.yele.org/

You can also donate to Joel Osteen's Ministries or Joyce Meyer's Ministries. They are helping in the relief program as well.

http://www.joycemeyer.org/OurMinistries/HandofHope/News/haitisupplies.htm

http://www.joelosteen.com/LandingPages/Pages/HaitiRelief.aspx

This is the time we need to start helping one another. We need to bring back the love. Thank you for helping make a difference in the world today! Get out there and make a difference!

God Bless,

Andrew