Book #34: To a Different Drum by Pauline Hamilton
To A Different Drum by Pauline G. Hamilton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Christian missionary Pauline Hamilton was young, she attempted to commit suicide. She got in her car, and drove it towards a cliff, but then...
One of her tyres got a puncture, and the car stalled. Taking this as a sign from God that she shouldn't end it all, she changed her life around and ended up moving to China to share the Gospel with others. In 1968, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and given just two months to life, yet miraculously she lived for several more years.
She wrote this book in 1984, several years after her diagnosis, and four years before she passed away.
I really enjoyed reading her memoir about how she converted many people, and the effects she had on peoples' lives, with many stories about how people came to be Christian, a lot of whom had previously persecuted Pauline because of her faith and what she was doing. There are a lot of examples in the book of how a seemingly terrible event turned out good, such as what happened after she had a car accident, and the number of people who turned to God after visiting her in hospital. She even mentions how she rejoiced even in the face of a terminal diagnosis, knowing that she was ready to face God.
This was definitely a challenging read at times; I probably wouldn't have Pauline's boldness to share the Gospel in the face of persecution as much as she did, but it was an encouraging read, and a book where I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next.
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