Story Overview

This is the story (told in nearly two hundred short recollections) of a surgeon from a family of surgeons, raised in the Arkansas oil country of the Jim Crow South. A churchgoer from his childhood, he came to a saving knowledge of Christ (along with his wife Cathy) only in the late 1970s.

Turning Point and Service

And from that turning point, they proved themselves to be choice servants of the Lord in countless ways--in John''s case, as a deacon, a surgeon in the Amazon region, a denominational and parachurch board member, a conference speaker in Eastern Europe, a free-clinic doctor in Southwest Missouri, and a church staff member.

Notable Events and Encounters

Along the way, he took note of a host of engaging events, characters, and conversations, whether among fellow Air Force doctors on parade, with medical colleagues observing a gratifying, ancillary effect of defibrillation, or in the company of an aunt who introduced him to Roy Rogers and Stan Musial. There was even an Elvis sighting.

Themes and Narratives

The book is rich in theological, ecclesiological, missiological, familial, sociological, psychological, and medical narratives and observations.