Dangerous: Engaging the People and Places No One Else Will by Caleb Bislow

MY REVIEWAt first, I thought this was going to be sort of a missions story on steroids. I was not even close. This is far more than a missions story. This is a story about God going about His business using His children who are ready, willing, and able to listen to His urgings and obey His commands.

I have never been so moved reading a nonfiction as I was devouring this book. I read it in one sitting... I couldn't put it down. My heart, my mind, and my soul have been stirred beyond imagining.

This should be a "must study" for every youth group, and every church group.

Yes, it is graphic in places, but God's work is not always G-rated. The hurting, the downtrodden, the lost are not found in clinically clean places, sitting around waiting for some good Christian to come along and share the Gospel. Jesus ate with the prostitutes, the demon-possessed, and the tax collectors. We should do no less. Funny how Christians think setting on pews, and hatching out nothing is doing God's will. Where is the fruit???

Caleb Bislow listened to God's voice, and obeyed the summons, "As you go make disciples." He followed Paul's example by discipling a few then challenging them to "Go make disciples." Only Caleb did it with some dangerous people in despicable places. 

Any problems in your church?
Complacent church members -- tell them some of these stories.
Shy youth -- challenge them with some of these Bible verses and the illustrative true stories.
Dare devil young men -- let them read of some Dark, Dangerous, and Despised Places... Places that burdened the heart of Caleb Bislow.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Bislow’s debut book, Dangerous (Bethany House, September 2013), written with Ted Kluck, is part inspirational memoir, part devotional, and part field guide for the aspiring evangelist. Since that first trip to Africa, Bislow has founded a missionary organization called Unusual Soldiers that trains American Christians, and increasingly foreign nationals, to minister at home or abroad and almost always under adverse circumstances. Bislow’s vision for the organization is to take humanitarian concern and Christian teaching to places with no Christian contact.

Bislow writes that his first experience in Africa, which led to a church being planted there, “wrecked” him, and set him on a course to raise $50,000 in order to conduct more work among the Maasai. “As we hiked back up a trail, my mind raced. How many years had this village been waiting to hear the gospel? How many generations had come and gone by without Christ? A sense of brokenness came over me. It was as if these people had just been waiting for someone to come and bring them the good news. Just waiting. I found myself angry that no one had ever taken the gospel to these people. That all of the churches and people with Jesus bumper stickers on their cars had forgotten [them] . . . I was even angry with myself . . .”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Caleb Bislow, a farm boy from Nebraska, went from a restless life as a Christian youth pastor in the Midwest, to quitting his job, emptying his bank account, and traveling deep into Africa—a long flight plus a two-day, bumpy car ride with a translator—to tell the Maasai people about Jesus. Was he a fool or was he courageous? Bislow wondered that very thing as he took his first steps as a missionary with little idea what he was doing. He has since gone on to minister around the world, often to places he calls “despised, dangerous, and dark,” including the Congo, and Guatemala’s Pavon Prison, which is literally run by the inmates.

Bislow has been humbled to advance God’s kingdom on every inhabited continent in the world. He was trained in survival by former British commandos, is the director of Unusual Soldiers training events, and is a sought-after speaker through Kingdom Building Ministries. Caleb and his wife, Jessica, and their three children call Franklin, Nebraska, their home. Learn more at www.unusualsoldiers.com.