Three new books

Among the new books that have landed at the Herald offices recently are three books by Mennonite Brethren writers. Here is a brief introduction to these books and their authors.

—Dora Dueck

A troll with a difference

“I’m a tickle troll,” Brad Thiessen would tease, in a little game he played with his son Kyle.

One evening when Kyle begged for a made-up bedtime story, Thiessen picked up on their game and the tale of Orso, a troll “who couldn’t scare,” was born.

Orso: the Troll Who Couldn’t Scare (CDS books, available at Chapters and other bookstores) is Thiessen’s first book, but it’s far from his first experience with publishing. In 2000, while working for MBMS International, he produced the coffee table book, True Life. Recently he edited and designed Out of the Strange Silence: The Challenge of Being Christian in the 21st Century for MB Biblical Seminary, where he is now director of public relations.

Brad Thiessen

The story of the young blue troll, who knows he is supposed to scare people coming over the bridge but chooses to be something more friendly instead, is illustrated in vivid colours and detail by Jeremy Balzer of Denver, Col. The collaborators met when Balzer was debriefing in Fresno, Cal. after a MBMS International TREK assignment.

Children, parents and reviewers are responding with delight to both text and pictures. One reviewer called it an “exuberant, joyful book full of positive messages.” Thiessen, now living in Oregon with his wife and two sons, says he has a second kids’ book up his sleeve – about another troll.

An incredible life

Paul Boge’s day job is engineering, but he also loves to write. His first book was a novel, The Chicago Healer. Now, in Father to the Fatherless, Boge, a member of Winnipeg’s North Kildonan MB Church, tells the true story of Charles Mulli, a Kenyan whose life goes a Christian step beyond “rags to riches,” into “servanthood.”

As a child, Mulli experienced violence and abandonment by his parents. As a teenager, he committed his life to Christ and then found further stability with Esther, “a wonderful wife.” Mulli bought a matatu – “a cross between a taxi and a transit bus” – and soon had a fleet of them, as well as other enterprises. In 1989, however, compelled by God’s call, his childhood memories and the plight of Kenya’s street children, Mulli gave up his wealth and founded an orphanage.

Paul Boge

Today, the Mully Children’s Family Orphanage houses and educates more than 800 children. In 2003, Boge was among the many volunteers who assist at MCF every year. Mulli asked the young man to write his story so, besides teaching at the school, Boge spent long evenings interviewing its founder.

Boge tells this story, of a man whom hundreds of children call “Daddy,” in dramatic and appealing fashion. The book is available in bookstores or through PaulBoge.com. A sequel about MCF is in the works.

Planting hope

Elaine Froese, a member of the Boissevain (Man.) MB Church for 26 years, has recently published Planting the Seed of Hope (see Kindred Productions to order). Froese’s particular passion, she says, is “to encourage farm families and prairie people to be intentional about the choices they make for their lives.” She does that through speaking, working as a mediator/coach, and writing a column, “Seeds of encouragement,” in the farm paper, Grainews.

Elaine Froese

Her book is a collection of some of these columns. While set within the farming world, many of the topics Froese addresses, such as anxiety, change, seasons and extended family relationships, adhere equally well to life off the farm. She’s a great advocate of openness and conversation (in sorting out farm succession issues, for example) and thoroughly contemporary in views of farm women as “farm partners.” But, she doesn’t soft pedal old-fashioned virtues like respect for the older generation or taking responsibility for one’s behaviour. She freely shares what she’s learning, from living and from others, to encourage and inspire.