Memoirs of a Bible Smuggler

Review\nTitle: Memoirs of a Bible Smuggler
Author: Jeana Kendrick
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir
Audience: Adult
Word Count: 64,000
Assessment:
Plot/Idea: This work chronicles the author's courageous and sometimes harrowing adventures as a bible smuggler during the Cold War. There is much here to engage the reader as the unique story unfolds.
Prose: This is a beautifully-written work, and the author demonstrates an excellent command of language, pacing, and storytelling.
Originality: This is a highly original work that combines the author's own personal story with a fascinating glimpse at Cold War-era history.
Character/Execution: The author does a fine job of elucidating the reasons she and her husband are called to travel overseas to supply bibles to those living behind the Iron Curtain. Faithful readers will find much to inspire them in this powerful narrative.\nScore:
Plot/Idea: 8 Originality: 10 Prose: 10 Character/Execution: 9 Overall: 9.25Report Submitted: November 10, 2022
You are welcome to use this Critic's Report as promotional copy or as a blurb to promote your book. Please note: When attributing quotes from this Critic's Report, you must credit The BookLife Prize.\n"Memoirs of a Bible Smuggler" by Jeana Kendrick is a true story set during the Cold War, an era in the East Bloc when many who resisted the Communists’ godless decrees faced prison or death. These persecuted Christians were brave and daring, willing to risk all for Christ. A naïve thirty-year-old housewife in the East Texas piney woods, Jeana dreamed of being a Bible smuggler. She and her husband Jeff, a building contractor, began praying an extra hour in the evenings. Before long, Door of Hope International (DOHI) President Paul Popov asked Jeff to remodel the mission’s Austrian base of operations for covert Bible deliveries. The Kendricks arrived in Spittal on der Drau, Austria in the early spring of 1980. The DOHI base there was thirty minutes from both Italy and the former Yugoslavia. While Jeff remodeled the base, Jeana refurbished the interior and prayed for the chance to smuggle Bibles and meet the suffering faithful. God answered her prayer. The couple smuggled Bibles into Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria that summer. Popov said they were naturals and asked them to return for a full year the following spring. Back in Texas, six weeks before their departure for Europe, a falling tree struck Jeana. She suffered a compression fracture and was briefly hospitalized. Nevertheless, the couple left as planned. After several years, the Kendricks were appointed co-directors of DOHI’s literature distribution into Eastern Europe. They developed a network of contacts behind the Iron Curtain and teams of trained couriers to deliver Bibles. Carpenters, bankers, nurses, stockbrokers and others used their vacations annually to smuggle thousands of Bibles. Confronted by challenges like the mission's RV busted at the Romanian border or their own arrests in Russia, the Kendricks rejoiced at God’s continued deliverance. Once border guards drilled into a camper wall between two rows of Bibles, hitting insulation instead of paper. One afternoon, the Kendricks gave away the last of their money, one thousand dollars. An hour later Jeana and Jeff learned that someone had anonymously deposited five thousand dollars into their bank account. God was faithful. When the Iron Curtain came tumbling down, the Kendricks were there to test the new freedoms and to help. During their thirteen years as missionaries, the many miracles, obstacles overcome and victories won, enriched their lives and those of countless others.\nFrom the Back Cover\nThis is the story of a young Texas couple who helped smuggle thousands of Bibles to persecuted Christians behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.