"YESTERDAY'S HEROES" STIRS TODAY'S TEENS TO RADICAL FAITH

A NEW BOOK series is challenging today's teenagers to learn about radical faith from yesterday's heroes.

Launched less than a year ago, the Christian Heroes: Then and Now library already has more than 100,000 copies in print, with YWAM Publishing hard pressed to keep up with demand.

The seven titles released so far retell for ten to 15-year-olds the life stories of some of the most admired missionaries of the last century - among them Gladys Aylward, David Livingstone, Hudson Taylor, and Amy Carmichael.

Despite coming from another era the biographies connect strongly with young readers, said YWAM Publishing director Tom Bragg. "They are true stories, and truth never dates. And they are well-written; we have had many people saying that other Christian hero books for young people are so boring.

"We want young people to read these stories and be challenged to aspire to be men and women of God like them; to see that serving God is the greatest thing they can do with their lives,"

The series is being distributed by mail order, through Christian bookstores, and at home school conferences across the country. Bragg also hopes to see the books accepted by public libraries. A home school curriculum tied in to the series is also being developed. Future titles are due to include contemporary figures such as George Verwer, who started Operation Mobilization, and YWAM founder Loren Cunningham.

The 200-page biographies are written by husband-and-wife writing team Geoff and Janet Benge, former missionaries with YWAM for ten years. "We have highlighted each person's young life, up to the time they were about 20, to show the type of conflicts they went through, and that these people were facing the same sort of issues, deep down, that young people do today," she said.

"The other aspect that seems to be appealing to readers is that these people had a tenacity that you don't see in a lot of modern Christian settings. They just did it; they stuck with it to the end."

YWAM Publishing distributes more than 500,000 books each year from its Seattle, Washington offices. The missions-based catalogue includes 100 of its own titles.

Christian Heroes: Then & Now - $8.99 each from YWAM Publishing, PO Box 55787, Seattle, WA 98155

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