Venturing with God in Congo Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

My family loves reading books about Missionary adventures and seeing how God is using His people to spread the gospel. Thanks to Conjurske Publications we have been enjoying Venturing with God in Congo.

This stunning looking hardback book is 290 page chapter book. The chapters are short stories of the Champlin family and their adventures serving God deep in the jungles of Congo.

Venturing with God in Congo is written by a missionary named Darrell Champlin. The book is his memoir of his time as a missionary in Congo. Told in first person and is a series of short stories throughout the book. My son said, “It felt like you were reading someone’s journal or diary.” Overall the stories follow a timeline with some jumping around of events going back in time or even jumping ahead.

The story starts out with Darrell Champlin early years growing up in Salt Lake City in 1932. It talks about his home and his home church. It talks about how many men became missionaries during that time period. He shares about his wife and her family how she was raised in Congo. It goes on to talk about how they were able to get back to Congo. The stories are a collection of 10 years over in Congo before they had to leave before war broke out in the country.

My son also noticed how direct the stories where and didn’t beat around the brush with the details of life in Congo. He enjoyed how the book had a variety of stories of the people accepting Jesus as their Savior, to animal hunts, protecting the villages of wild animals, sleeping in the huts, termites eating everything in the huts if you didn’t take precautions.  The food was unique from eating monkey, snake, leopards, and various birds. We found out that the cassava leaf is ground into flour and is a major part of meals. Most of all we enjoyed hearing the stories of the people who came to the Jesus as their Savior. Some people hated and even feared the white man’s God. One memorable story was of the village of Ongo. After countless times of trying to reach the people and the witch doctors putting fear of a life time of superstitious beliefs. Eventually the village separated from it and built a Christian Village.

The book has a Pronunciation Tips for Lingala. (This is the Bantu language spoken in the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo.)

A fun Timeline of Important Events based off the story in the book is included. A family tree of both Darrell and his wife's family is also included in the book.

My family always loves it when there is a map with the location of the story. Seeing a map of Congo in the book was delightful.

Another feature in this book is black and white photo gallery of that go along with some of the stories within the book.

My son is a strong reader and read the book in a few days. He enjoyed the reality of the dangers of being a missionary in Congo. We read a lot of missionary stories but this one really hit home the dangers, joys, and hardship that those in the mission field had to endure. He also enjoyed the stories about the animals and the hunts.

I read the book late into the night over a few nights. I enjoyed these stories immensely. They are heartfelt stories of taking the Gospel to a people deep in the jungle of Congo.

I wasn’t sure how my 17 year old special needs daughter would react to the stories so I wanted to read it first before I read it to her. She had many questions and wanted to know more about Congo. We found Congo in our atlas and on our globe. She wanted me to search the internet for current photos of the area. So far she is enjoying the stories, but she is my child who wants to know about animals or other things mentioned in the story as we are reading along.

This is a heartfelt story that will take you deep in the depths of the Congo jungle and the changed people who came to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

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