Michelle Wegner

The Pillars of the Earth

   I'm a little slow to the game.  I know this book came out a while ago, but I am just reading it now.  It's a book about the building of a cathedral in the middle ages.  Sounds simple, but the story is intriguing.  It's not too often that you are absolutely convinced by an author that the characters are real and you are a part of the story.    The story line is fascinating.  It's the kind of book that gives you a stomach ache when you start to see the demise of one of the characters.  Like in the movie The Never Ending Story I recently watched with the girls, I have found myself talking out loud to the characters in the book.  It is over 1000 pages long, so I have been busy.  It's funny how when you find an amazing book like this everything else goes on hold for a while.  At least that is how it is for me.  What's the best book you've read lately?

Blogging For Dummies

I've had a few different people say it to me.  I don't get offended.  I just laugh.  They say thing like, "I read Rob's blog, and it's so...well...deep.  I read yours to get a laugh or to check in on your family."  Does this mean I am not deep?  Ha!  I don't know.  Sometimes I can be. 

But...if you come to my blog to get a laugh, I hope you are entertained.  However, I am real smart and educated.  :O)

I did remove all the books from my blog page a few days ago.  Those books are all good, but I got tired of looking at them.  Most of them are non-fiction, really smart people books.  I don't always learn the most from those.  The books I tend to learn the most from are biographies and stories of how people got to where they are today.  That doesn't mean I'm dumb.  If you are an avid fiction reader, I think you are just as smart as people who read books with titles I can't pronounce or spell.

My new book list includes the 10 fiction books that have shaped my thinking just as much as a non-fiction book would.  It's funny how God made us all different, isn't it?

What fiction book has shaped your thinking?  I'd love to hear about it.  Maybe I'll pick it up!

Diet Eman, Things We couldn't Say

Since I was 10 years old, I have studied the life of Corrie Ten Boom and others like her who have suffered terrible atrocities for rescuing the Jews during the Holocaust of WW2.  Corrie's family was not Jewish, but they risked everything to save those around them.  They didn't hesitate to help those in serious trouble.

A few weeks ago, I caught the tail end of a Focus on the Family broadcast.  It was a woman with a Dutch accent telling a small part of her story of evading the German officers who were trying to arrest her because of her efforts in the Dutch Resistance movement.

I missed the end of the broadcast, so I ordered the book.  To put it mildly, I was absolutely blown away by her story.  I would only hope that I could have her courage if ever faced with the evil she and her friends and family faced and fought. 

Deit loved Jesus.  She was passionate about following his will, no matter what that meant.  She was engaged to a man who loved Jesus just as much as she did.  Their love story reminded me so much of me and Rob when we were dating.  They were great friends, yet partners in a greater cause they knew they were born for.

She and her friends were certainly "wise as serpents and innocent as doves," as Jesus called us to be.  I am blown away by their dedication in saving people around them.  They faced insurmountable odds, yet God guided them again and again. 

Deit and Corrie were from the same town.  They were at the same prison for a while.  After the war they became good friends.  They suffered together.  They saved God's people together.  Deit's fiance' Hein died in a prison camp.  Her story was a long time in coming because it was simply too painful for her to tell.  I am so glad she decided to.  I am a better person for reading this book.  This photo  is one of me at Auschwitz a few years ago.  I wrote my thoughts about that experience here if you want to check it out.   

I am so thankful for this woman.  I have a new hero.

Top 10 Books

Here's a list of the top 10 books that have shaped my thinking and rocked my world:

1. The Hiding Place-Corrie Ten Boom
2. No Compromise-Melody Green
3. The Chronicles of Narnia-C.S. Lewis
4. Till We Have Faces-C.S. Lewis
5. Amy Carmichael of Donhavur-Frank Houghton
6. Bruchko-Bruce Olson
7. The Ragamuffin Gospel-Brennan Manning
8. A Severe Mercy-Sheldon Vanauken
9. High Call High Privelege-Gail MacDonald
10. Edges of His Ways-Amy Carmichael
11. Spiritual Classics-Richard Foster

Eleven, I know.  How can I narrow it down to ten?  Eleven was hard enough.  The list of books that have shaped my soul is endless.  This is a small (very small) sample.

Really Cool Reads

I discovered these novellas by Francine Rivers last week at the library.  I have flown through 3 of them already.  They are amazing!  I am normally NOT a fan of "Christian Fiction" but when I stumble across something as well-written and meaningful as these books, I get giddy!  There are 2 series' that I have picked up.  They are two separate series, one called, "The Lineage of Grace," about the women in the lineage of Christ that faced remarkable odds but  carried on his line by being bold, daring, and faithful.  So far, I have read about Tamar, Ruth, and Bathsheba.  There are 5 total in that series .   I just started the "Sons of Encouragement" series, which follows the stories of 5 hero's of the Bible that sought to serve God faithfully.   As soon as my girls are old enough to read these, I am making them required reading.  I think they give a huge insight into what God did for us through these remarkable stories.

I highly recommend these to anyone who wants to delve deeper into the lives of the characters we know so little about in the Bible.   

Museum of Science and Industry

We went to see the Virtual Reality tour of the World's Colombian Expedition from 1891 today at the Museum of Science and Industry.  Rob and I have read The Devil in the White City, a book about a serial killer during the World's fair, and a simultaneous story line of the development of the fair.  It was an amazing book.  Since then, I have read 2 different stories from this era.  When we heard about this exhibit, we knew we had to go!  It was amazing to see the images from my imagination come to life and scale.  It truly was a remarkable Worlds Fair for it's time.  A true Dream City. 

Lucky for us, My Uncle Bud (the handsome guy on the left) happens to be a volunteer at the museum, and he got us in FREE!  Growing up in Chicago, we used to go all the time free, but now it costs a small fortune to bring a family of 5 in for a day of fun at the museum.  Uncle Bud is one of the guys who runs the gigantic $3.3 train set in the middle of the museum.  Maddie thought it was hilarious as he pointed out a miniature Elvis on a street corner, as well as a dead body in the Chicago river. It's really there!  I had no idea.  I guess the Mafia used to dump bodies there, so it really is a part of history.

I love Chicago.  I love it's history.  It is my favorite city on Earth, and it was facinating to me to spend a day delving deeper into what has made it the amazing city it is today.  Thanks Uncle Bud!  You Rock!

I love to read about dead people.

If you talk to me for more than a few minutes, you will quickly learn that I love to read.  Some of the most helpful books I have ever read are the biographies of people who have lived in the past, and are dead now.  I love "alive" people too, but there is something about reading about people who have lived their entire lives.  I always want to know the end of someone's story.  I find myself disappointed so often when I hold up someone as an "ideal" Christ-follower only to hear some awful story about their immorality or indiscretions on the news.  Of course people in biographies aren't perfect, but, you've got the whole story there.  You can see how they responded to adversity, temptations, trials, etc.  Some of the biogrophies I have read have touched me so deeply, I think about them on almost a daily basis.  Here are some of those titles.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

No Compromise by Melody Green

Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank L. Houghton

These 3 books are among several that have shaped my thinking in the past 20 years or so.  I plan on writing a bit on each one of them in the near future.  These 3 people came from 3 completely different backgrounds.  They have all lived within the past 100 years.  They all found the calling of Jesus to be all they ever wanted or needed for their destiny.  They all lived out thier days serving and loving Jesus and his people with everything in them.  They all held on to the radical idea that Jesus wanted their all, their everything.  Something about that stirs me up inside, and makes me want to be like them right now, and for the rest of my life!

The Lost

This picture was taken at Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp located about an hour north of Krakow, Poland. Oddly enough, I have been learning and studying about the Holocaust since I was probably 11 or 12 years old. It started for me when I read "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. Since then, I have read a few dozen books and seen countless documentaries on the subject. I had no idea that on our trip to Slovakia a few years back that we would be visiting Auschwitz. It is something no one can really prepare themselves for in any way, so I am glad I didn't know about it until we were a day or so away from going.

I never talk about the things I am learning about the Holocaust with anyone except for Rob. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that it's not something that can come up in a casual conversation. It's something I don't think I will ever pretend to fully have my mind around or understand. I never want to consider myself an "expert" in any way. The suffering of the Jewish nation is just something that has always fascinated me.

I think the moment in the photo above was one of the most profound moments in my life. The quality of the photo is very low, those of us taking photos that day were almost ashamed to do so because of the sanctity of the place. But, that moment is forever locked inside of me, as I looked at the individual suitcases. Each one had a name and a birth date written on it. One name. One Birth date. This "Holocaust" became personal for me in that moment. It became one name. One person. One family.

I will not pretend to understand the learning curve I have been on the past 20 or so years. What I do know is that I have fallen in love with families and individuals I have been learning about.

I am currently reading "The Lost. Finding six among six million." It is an amazing book about One man in our generation tracking down the 6 lost relatives in his family that perished in the Holocaust. It is an absolutely fascinating story about these lost family members, but it is also putting me more in touch with my own family history and how important it is. The book is on the New York Times Bestseller list. It is an worthwhile read for anyone who has any interest in the Holocaust and WW2.