A Gentle Breeze From Gossamer Wings (Judeo-Christian Ethics Series [Library Binding]

Gordon Beld (Author)

Book Description

Series: Judeo-Christian Ethics Series | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

Pol Pot was the Khmer Rouge leader whose reign of terror caused the deaths of up to two million Cambodians in the mid-1970s. He masterminded an extreme, Maoist-inspired revolution in which those Cambodians died in mass executions and from starvation and disease. This book of historical fiction shows the plight of refugees from this reign of genocide. "I'm pleased to recommend A Gentle Breeze from Gossamer Wings. Every Christian in America should read it. It's a story you won't want to miss--and it could change your life," says Robert H. Schuller, Pastor, Crystal Cathedral. This book is part of PREP's Judeo-Christian Ethics Series, as well as a PREP Reader's Group Selection.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Living with her extended family in her grandparents' home in Phnom Penh, Savang Kim Ang epitomizes the traditional Cambodian daughter: loving, obedient, and hard-working. After the war raging in her country tears her family apart and she endures years of horror, she ends up in Mendon, IN, in the home of Ken and Donna MacKenzie, a college professor at a Methodist college and his devout wife. Ken's apathy toward the church disappears as he becomes involved in the project to relocate refugees to America, and Kim's arrival opens his heart. Beld's provocative look at the devastation caused by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot in the 1970s is interwoven with factual accounts and a discussion list for reader's groups.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A Gentle Breeze From Gossamer Wings" will warm your heart and stimulate your mind. From opposite sides of the world--killing fields of the Cambodian holocaust and the quiet, shaded streets of a small Indiana college town--its principal characters come together to demonstrate the power of love. Every Christian in America should read it. Get a copy and you'll be inspired by what happens. It's a story you won't want to miss--and it could change your life." -- Foreword by Robert Schuller, Pastor, Crystal Cathedral

"Beld dramatizes not only the grave difficulties Cambodian refugees from the Khmer Rouge face but also how concerned Americans can help. He tells of a professor and his wife living in a small Indiana college town and a young Cambodian woman facing homelessness during and after the communist takeover. How God brings these people together is the book's plot and the title's basis. As a novel it's interesting reading...As a motivational tool to enlist Christian involvement in helping Cambodian refugees, it's very well done. This story reminds readers of a need that still exists at a time when most of us have forgotten about this far-off country and its people's plight. -- CBA (Christian Booksellers Association) Marketplace Magazine

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 320 pages
• Publisher: Prep Pub; 1 Ed edition (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885288077
• ISBN-13: 978-1885288073
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,005,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gordon Beld began writing professionally more than six decades ago at age 16 as a part-time sports writer for The Grand Rapids Press. Following service as a U. S. Constabulary trooper in the occupation of Germany after World War II he wrote sports for The Grand Rapids Herald until 1959 when it ceased publication. Invited to return to The Press, he was a member of its editorial staff, sometimes part-time and sometimes full-time, until 1965 when he became public relations director at Alma College, a position that he held for 24 years. Particularly interested in local and regional history, he was the first chairman of the Historical Commission of the City of Wyoming, Michigan, and later served on the board of the Holland (Michigan) Area Historical Society. The first of his more than 200 historical features in newspapers and magazines were six series on Michigan and Midwest history in Sunday editions of The Press during the 1960s. He now is a regular contributor of text and photos for Michigan History and Grand Rapids magazines. Since 1980 he and his wife, Martha, have been involved with refugees -- first with Cambodians when a foster daughter, who had fled from the Khmer Rouge, joined their family in Alma, Michigan. Later they befriended Vietnamese families in Grand Rapids, then Kosovars and Cubans who came to Holland. Since retiring from Alma College in 1989, Beld has provided voluntary editorial assistance to Exodus World Service, a Chicago area agency that links refugees with caregivers. Several of his articles, and his only work of fiction, concern refugees and persons who befriend them. Using vacation time just prior to his retirement from Alma College, he interviewed Hmong refugees in New York, Wisconsin, and California and wrote The Hmong in a Promised Land for the Presiding Bishop's Fund of the Episcopal Church in 1987. More recently, he wrote Entertaining Angels, a six-week study guide concerning what the Bible says about refugees, for Exodus World Service. Among books for which he has contributed chapters is Within Our Bounds: A Centennial History of Alma College. His only effort to write fiction, A Gentle Breeze from Gossamer Wings, was produced by PREP Publishing of Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1999. A graduate of Wyoming High School, he has a bachelor's degree from Hope College and a master's degree from the University of Michigan.