No Regrets

Title: No Regrets
Author: Julia Anna Vaughan with Ken Vaughan
Major Themes: Africa, Ivory Coast, Missionaries, War
Synopsis: A family follows God’s leading for their lives, and find themselves caught in the crossfire of an African civil war.

I’ve always liked to read autobiographical stories, especially if they are well-written. It’s rather rare to come across one as good as No Regrets. This book held my interest from the beginning to the end. Julia has done a superb job of telling her family’s story.

Both Julia and her husband grew up in California. They married fairly young after a courtship I loved reading about, and soon had three children. After helping to get two Christian schools in California going, God called them to Africa—Ivory Coast, to be exact—to teach in a school mainly for missionaries’ children there. Their first 15 years or so in that country were pretty peaceful. Then, things changed.

Suddenly, war broke out in Ivory Coast, as a group of rebels tried to take over the country, while the current government, of course, tried to stay in power. Julia has written an account of these years that makes you feel as if you were there. She makes the bullets whining overhead seem real—but also the presence and protection of God. This is an incredible story of God caring for His people. You have to read it to understand!

If you are interested in missions, I highly recommend No Regrets. Although Ken and Julia were, as the subtitle states, caught in the crossfire of an African civil war, they constantly saw God’s protection and provision. Your faith will grow as you read this story.

I enjoyed learning more about a nation I had never read about before, Ivory Coast, and the pictures sprinkled through the story really help bring the scenes to life. The discussion about Third Culture Kids was quite interesting to me. Our own children, to a lesser degree, are in this situation, since we moved nearly halfway around the world several years ago. Another thought that really struck me was the thought process Ken and Julia went through when deciding to return to the war-torn area after evacuating: “Does such a place (with less stress) exist anywhere this side of heaven? Whether it’s political unrest, rebellious children, job disgruntlement….” This was a very interesting book, and I am glad I was able to read it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through BookCrash.

WARNING: Rape and murder are mentioned at times in the chapters about the war.