Red Ink - Review

I was recently given the privelage of reading Kathi Macias's Red Ink, the third novel in the Extreme Devotion Series.
1. No Greater Love
2. More Than Conquerors
3. Red Ink
4. People of the Book


 
On the Back:
Zhen-Li-Raised to observe the party line, including it's one-child-per-family policy- falls in love, marries a Christian, and adopts his faith.  Though the couple downplays their Christianity in an effort to survive, Zhen-Li's family is appalled, and she and her husband are ostracized.  When she becomes pregnant for the second time and refuses to have an abortion, the persecution begins in earnest.  Zhen-Li's parents, under pressure form the government, pay to have Zhen-Li kidnapped and the baby aborted.
It is then that Zhen-Li  decides she must live up to her name- "Truth" -and take a firm stand for her faith, reguardless of the consequences, and so she beings to regularly teach children about Zhu Yesu (Lord Jesus) and to distribute Christian literature every chance she gets.
Based loosely on the life of Christian magazine editor Li Ying, currently serving a ten-year prison sentance in China, the story of Yang




At first, I found this book hard to read.  Not becuase of the writing, not becuase of the names and Chinese language sprinkled, (I actually quite enjoyed that, and now find myself saying Zhu Yesu instead of what I usually say for Lord Jesus) but because I hate to see this persecution as truth.
You hear about the persecution in other countries, but until you read about it or see it, those stories are well...just stories.
This novel took my heart and emotions and threw them in the face of reality, and I loved it.

Zhen-Li is a young Chinese woman forced to serve a prison sentance for distributing unauthrized material to children. 

She befriends another young Chinese woman and finds it her mission to witness to her.

An American teenager gets into drugs and a bad relationship and is taken down a path of terror.

Two sweet, gentle, kind, loving Christian elders find THEIR mission in praying for, the granddaughter of a new resident and all that comes in contact with them and a woman in China (Zhen-Li).

Through this book, I learned a new way to see God.  Kathi Macias shows the reality of our God as presence a to be reckoned with if you're against Him, but a presence to depend...no really...DEPEND on when you're on His side.

Apart from the great story and honesty it showed me, this book takes on a different meaning for me personally.
I'm writing something that deals with hard issues like this, and to see this people of China and what they believe, I'm learning how to write better (even though you can't tell by my grammar) what God is trying to get me to see.



Check out Kathi Macias here.