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The Very Worst Missionary

A Memoir or Whatever

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
After finding Jesus at a suburban megachurch, young Jamie Wright trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her husband, kids, and the family cat, she intends to serve God and make converts. But she soon loses faith and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair. Fortunately, Knives the cat is there, looking on with just enough disinterest to make her laugh...and dare her to try another way. That other way turns out to be telling the truth. She launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, which against all odds soon wins a large and passionate following around the world. Slowly, she begins to see that being a bad missionary-awkward, doubtful, skeptical-can mean that you're just the kind of person someone else might be willing to hear...and that loving others is just as much about changing yourself as it is about converting them.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Madeleine Lambert brings the words of shameless Jesus-lover Jamie Wright to life in this memoir describing her crazy missionary adventures. With just the right amount of sass and sarcasm, Lambert recounts Wright's complicated journey with Christ and her doubts about Western church culture. Moments of vulnerability and honesty are expressed in soft speech at a perfect pace, while perfectly placed witty remarks and even profanity lighten each chapter. This down-to-earth audiobook is enhanced by Lambert's seamless delivery of Wright's thoughts on current missionary tactics. With its surprisingly transparent title and touches of humor, this audiobook offers a window on the life of a zealous yet realistic follower of Christ as she challenges Western theology. V.T. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 26, 2018
      Wright, founder of the Jamie the Very Worst Missionary blog, exposes her disenchantment with missionary work in this irreverent, fast-paced memoir. A rebellious teenager, she wound up pregnant at 17. After marrying the child’s father, she converted to Christianity, added two more children to the family, and moved the whole crew to Costa Rica to become missionaries. It wasn’t Wright’s faith that unraveled during her stay as much as it was her alignment with “churchianity,” she writes. Her frustration began when still living in the U.S., and it deepened when confronted with the realities of missionary work: it takes away opportunities for local laborers; the funds raised for missionary organizations are hard to track and can be easily abused by those who simply want to live in cities and hang out at coffeehouses; and it is fraught with manipulative stunts such as planting actors in the crowd to pose as converts. Conformity, Wright admits, has never been her thing; as if to prove it, she laces her refreshingly honest reflections with f-bombs. Readers don’t get a sense of her intimacy with God and how that relationship changes over time, but Wright still effectively conveys to Christians that their true calling should be love.

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  • English

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