Have you ever read a novel or biography that leaves you with an entirely new veiwpoint? Well, I have, numerous times in fact, and the latest book has impacted my life greatly. THE STORY OF DON MCCLURE : Adventure in Africa, by Chales Partee, is a book written about an amazing Christian missionary who impacted many lives from Khartoum to Addis Ababa in Five Decades.

I have decided to write about certain aspects of the book, taking out excerpts, with credit to the author, and showing you what I have learned!

Partee writes "This book is the story of Don McClure, his family, his coworkers, people of the tribes - Shulla, Nuer, Dinka, Anuak, Surma - to name a few, and the nations of Sudan and Ethiopia through the middle of the 20th century. The story is told largely through letters of McClure who documented many of his experiences and impressions in vivid and engaging prose!"

"Salted with anomalies, ironies, and unexpected events, McClure's story reads like well crafted fiction. One could hardly invent a more compiling adventure about a man who was called to be a preacher of the his gospel and yet spent so much time of his life healing the sick. This gently and peaceful man was seldom seen without a rifle, a symbol of his commitmet to the protection and intervention on behalf of his parish. And though his purpose was clearly a spiritual one, his skills as a mechanic, veterinarian, engineer and farmer did much to help establish and manifest the kingdom of God among the people he served."

Here is an excerpt of a letter he wrote to his mother after leaving the New York coastline: Last night as I watched you and Father disappear down the deck, the first realization of my leaving came to me. It hurt to leave, Mother dear, but now that feeling is all gone as I see the wonders of the ocean and enjoy the salty breezes. I sat up late and watched the lights of New York and then those of the Jersey shor fade from sight, and as the last of the beacons sank into the sea, I waved a farewell kiss to dear old America and all of you who have filled my life these last years. They have been great years, and I will always try to live so that people who come in contact with me will realize what a wonderful mother and father I have had.

Don's work began in Sudan at Khartoum (which means "Elephant's Trunk" in Arabic), where the Blue Nile and the White Nile join and where the colors remain seperate for a while until they finally become mixed on their common journey to the sea. His first assignment was to teach at the Boy's School, which had sixty-nine boys who were boarders adn one hundred others who came in for the day. His schedule includd waking at 5:30 a.m., breakfastng at 6:15, reading and praying for a time, and then teaching from 7:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. His class was like a small League of Nations, with Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Sudanese, Abyssinians, and Arabs. The copts (a native Egyptian Christian minority) woudl have nothing to do with the Muslims, whom they considered beneath them, and both despised the Sudanese as a slave race. In addition to managing these tensions, Don had to work hard to keep ahead of the class; especially in English grammer and arithmetic. He wrote: The difficulty is that the arithmetic problems are given in the English money and the metric system and do not look at all as they would appear in a sensible language.

While teaching, he studied the Arabic language and he had to pay fifty cents per hour, but he also had to spend twenty cents for a bridge toll and make a twenty-mile bike ride. He thought it was a serious hardship to ride that far to study an hour of "this fool language." On one occasion he told his parents that there were three types of Arabic:

The everyday language, the middle style into which the Bible was translated and which those with a goodeducation could understand, and finally a classical style used by preachers in prayers and on special occasions - including those in which they were unprepared to speak and did not want anyone to recognize the fact. With the natvie people I am communicating by signs and wonders. That is, I make a sign, and they wonder what I mean. Don was learning to love the Sudan. I like the days and nights of cloudless skies. I even like the miles and miles of sand through which the life-giving Nile flows. Without water, everything is burned brwn by the merciless African sun, but the soil must be rich. It has been tested and no seeds are found. Yet when the rains come and the Nile overflows, what was formerly desert becomes a vast meadow. Today it is 112 degrees in the shade, and the wind off the desert is like the breath of a furnace. The other day a sandstorm , or haboob, struck us. It would be hard to imagine the magnificence of the tremendous cloud that enshrouded everything. It looked as if a genie had opened a magic jar and released red and amber smoke. We saw a solid wall of sand about three hundred feet high and ten miles wide. The first part soared over our heads, and then we were struck in all its fury. We could feel the house quiver as sand blasted against it. The air was so fiery hot that doors had to be left open. Our hair was stiff, breathing was difficult, and ears and mouths were filled. Now I know what it means to get a taste of the country.

I love the Sudan. It is easy to see why so many missionaries call this their real home. Here life, and each day, demands everything you have. I was discouraged at first because the need is so great that meeting it seems hopeless. Missionaries here are not overworked with heavy duties, but are overwhelmed by innumerable trifles. I am usually disgusted with what I have been able to accomplish, but it is a joy to give my all. Everything we do is appreciated. My students have begun to comb their hair on the same side as I do and, as much as they are able, to dress like me. One of them asked if it cost a lot to dye my hair red. I said it was very costly, and rolling up my trousers, I told him that it was even more expensive to make the hair on my legs the right color!

Now that you have had a taste of what the book entails, I hope you will come back as I will continue to write little excerpts of this amazing, comical and heartwarming, man who did so much for christianity.