They will shoot you on the mountain pass.' As the Communists gained control of China, all foreigners were forced out. The small team in Lisu province loaded their mules and set out across the mountains. As they ascended the icy slopes, the bleak mists mirrored their inner distress. Joan had spent years trying to get to China. War and family problems had hampered her progress. Did God even want her there? But finally, reaching Zhajoue, Joan felt that she belonged somewhere. Then the communists came. Did God really have a plan? 60 years on, God's faithfulness and sovereignty are clear. Joan's story shows there are some lessons we can only learn with hindsight.

This is the history of Prudence Bell's family, going back several generations to set the scene for the missionary couple,Herbert and Elizabeth, who went out to Xinzhou, Shanxi Province, China, and were brutally killed in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. It is a thoroughly written historical account,which ends on a high note when Prudence visits the church of the martyrs in 2006, to receive an astonishing welcome, discovering she is the answer to their prayers, and that the church of her great-grandparents has a congregation of over three thousand. Quite harrowing in places, but with an ultimately happy ending, this is an inspiring read for anyone facing the challenges of truly living all-out for Christ in a hostile world.

In a WWII POW camp the dying Olympic runner, Eric Liddell, gave Steve his running shoes and challenged him to pray for the Japanese. But how could he?

Steve and his classmates at the Chefoo school in China--for the most part the children of missionaries--were interned in 1942. Resentment of the Japanese, particularly the brutal prison guards, became a way of life. Eric Liddell, by then a missionary and fellow internee, and a hero to the boy, charged him with an impossible challenge--pray for his enemies. But was it really possible to pray for the men who stood guard over them with guns?

Painfully, reluctantly, Steve began to pray and as he continued to pray, his heart was profoundly changed. At the end of the war the China Inland Mission (now OMF International) was seeking young men willing to go to Japan. Steve trained, packed, and went. Thus began Steve's lifelong love of Japan. Over the years he would tussle with a culture where courtesy wins over truth; where suicide is an honorable choice; where to be foreign is to be forever alien. Time after time he would encounter miracles of healing, provision, and protection as God looked after him, his wife, Evelyn, and their growing family. In a resistant culture--that at the time had been recently bombed by the Christian nation of America--he would see many come to Christ. This is the story of how a boy's grudging prayers were remarkably answered.