cover image Miracles and Moments of Grace-Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains

Miracles and Moments of Grace-Inspiring Stories from Military Chaplains

Nancy B. Kennedy, Leafwood (Ingram, dist.), $14.99 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-0-89112-269-2

Tapping into a treasury of anecdotes from battlefield and crisis pastors through the ages, the author uses her journalism background to collect stories. From Iqbal, the boy who lived through the southeast Asian tsunami aboard a Navy hospital ship, to the barracks in Lebanon where 241 Marines were killed in a 1983 suicide bombing to the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Kennedy relates 50 stories, recounted with humor and tenderness. The chaplains are in the middle of the action. One builds a golf driving range in Baghdad; another baptizes a sailor while at sea in a fiberglass can used to store replacement engines for airplanes. Some of the stories are well told, while others need editing. There are few miracles. This book will appeal to the reader attracted to the Chicken Soup for the Soul inspirational series. (Mar.)