My husband and I eagerly accepted positions as private tutors for a visionary princess in Saudi Arabia. She dreamed of providing the best education possible for her children and secretly opened a private school. We championed her dreams as if they were our own. However, a year later, we encountered a medieval system of palace intrigue and subterfuge. Under threat of imprisonment, we were detained and coerced into signing false statements. Would God's deliverance come in time or would we be forgotten and imprisoned in a foreign land? Journey with us to the center of the human heart and to the mysterious Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the shifting sands are full of dreams, intrigue and revenge.
Kristin Decker: Author, U.S. history Teacher, Tutor of Royalty
An American Teacher Who Tutored Saudi Royalty Shares Story of Hope, Mercy and Deliverance
Dallas, TX Saturday, July 25, 2009
About Kristin Decker
Before serving as tutor to the royal family in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Kristin Decker spent 10 years teaching inner city students in Los Angeles. After living for a year in Athens, Greece, she returned to America and is teaching American history to 8th graders near Dallas, TX. She wrote The Unveiling while husband Randy was dying of cancer and published it on the day of her wedding anniversary. She has a master's degree in theology and a bachelor's degree in education. She now teaches classes and presents at conferences aimed at increasing the understanding of Americans about the Muslim people and the Islamic religion.
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Kristin Decker: Author, American Teacher, Tutor of Royalty
A native Californian, Kristin Decker and husband Randy taught in the public schools of South Central Los Angeles for almost 10 years before accepting an assignment as private tutors for the royal family of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.
Following a wonderful year of teaching the prince and princess's daughter and son, the Deckers were falsely accused and expelled from Saudi Arabia. After working in Athens, Greece, they returned to America in 1998 when they thought it was safe to do so.
Randy entered the financial services profession and Kristin continued her teaching career in Los Angeles County. Moving to the Dallas, Texas area, Randy was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. After a year and a half in remission, the cancer returned to other abdominal organs and Randy died in 2007.
It took Kristin 10 years of research and writing to complete The Unveiling while working fulltime as an American history teacher. The book was published on their wedding anniversary. The Deckers were married for almost 25 years.
The Deckers fully enjoyed their year as tutors of the royal family and during that time learned much about the history and culture of Saudi Arabia, about Mideastern thought and customs, and the solid grip fundamentalist Islam has on Muslim leadership. To this day, the author admires the prince and princess who were her employers, misses the children greatly, and harbors no ill feelings toward Saudi Arabia, the Middle East or the Muslim people. Kristin went to extreme efforts in The Unveiling to hide the identity of the prince and princess because they had violated Muslim law by running a private school for their children.
Kristin attended the University of Alberta at Calgary and then Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, where she met Randy and earned a bachelor's degree in education and in 1985 earned a master's degree in theology at Fuller. She also taught English at the American School of Switzerland in Athens, Greece.
The author has done volunteer mission work among orphans in Peru, did volunteer work to help orphans in Ethiopia, and is active with Sudan Sunrise which brings food, clothing and education facilities to refugee camps. She also taught a "Building Bridges to Islam" class in Plano, TX, and was a presenter at "A Look at Islam" conference in 2006 for the Texas Council of Social Studies Teachers in Fort Worth, TX. She enjoys reading, movies, intercessory prayer, and ice skating but especially enjoys her time with her two golden retrievers, Junebug and Angel.
