Safely Home

I’ve read this book several times and it moves me deeply. God is faithful. I was giving this one as a gift but the book binding was broken, was very sad.

Let's face it, the title "Safely Home" has a placid, unappealing sound to it. In fact, before seeing the cover, I thought perhaps Randy was delving into the Christian romance market. That all changed when I saw the Chinese writing on the dust jacket. Having travelled in China, smuggling Bibles and sharing my faith, I was intrigued. Then, I peeled back the jacket to discover the amazing picture of a Chinese believer held in Jesus' arms. Standing there in the bookstore, I was hit with emotion, with moisture in my eyes. Suddenly, the title "Safely Home" made sense. The persecution of the Chinese church is real, and Alcorn shows clearly the difference between the state church and the underground church. I've met some of these underground believers. Alcorn captures their heart for God in ways that I've never seen in fiction before. He captures much of the Chinese believers' humility and struggle in this heartfelt novel. The contrast between two former college friends, one a Chinese doctor, the other an American businessman, is credible and lends itself perfectly to the contrast in their levels of faith. Through the looking glass of this story, Alcorn forces us to weigh our own faith. Do we know what it means to stand for our beliefs? Do we know what it means to pay a price for our integrity?Although Alcorn can come across as preachy at times, he always has something worth saying. By mixing a fascinating cultural and spiritual struggle in a fictional form, he opens our hearts to hear the truth...The response is up to us.

An insightful look into Christian persecution in China (and in the US, if you can call it persecution). The book presents a look into the life of the Chinese house church Christians and wraps it in a fictional, but very believable, story. As an Asian-American, I appreciated how well Randy Alcorn immersed the reader into the Chinese culture. The use of pinyin for key phrases throughout the book really made me believe I was there listening to them speak (though I believe "Zhen jin bu ba huo lian" should be "Zhen jin bu PA huo lian"). There's a lot of interesting information throughout the book about Chinese history and culture, language appreciation, persecution, and governmental corruption. It also takes on addressing several issues such as human rights, civil disobedience, God allowing suffering, and what is heaven like. While reading the book, it was apparent a lot of research and prayer went into it. The book has personally challenged me to live a life of picking up the cross daily and to pray for those around me and the persecuted Christians throughout the world.If you want to learn more about China and be challenged in your Christian walk, I'd highly recommend Safely Home.

Safely Home is a must read book. As always Randy takes us places where we should go more often and think about more frequently. He takes real facts and truth and weave's them into a very thought and prayer provoking fictional story. I was unaware of the Chinese Chrisian history as well as the persecution that they are under and endure. Safely Home is a very sobering and kind message for me, a Christian in such an affluent land of the free. I love Randy's charactures and excellent perspective of heaven. Safely Home, as well as his other novels never cease to make me laugh, cry, or well up with joy over the areas of my heart he obviously (no doubt from experience) knows how to touch. Another excellent Alcorn novel.