The Grace Effect

The Grace Effect

How the Power of One Life Can Reverse the Corruption of Unbelief

Larry Alex Taunton

Thomas Nelson Publishers

November 2011

Sitting in the restaurant well past closing, apologist Larry Taunton carries on a conversation with well known atheist Christopher Hitchens. If present, you would be sitting in on a conversation much like the public debates they both regularly appear in: God or no God, and the way His presence or lack there of effects the world we live in today. But in all of Taunton's debating, teaching, studying and learning, he never imagined his biggest lesson learned would come from a little Ukranian girl, Sasha. 

Having been left behind while his wife and three sons traveled to the Ukraine on a mission to help in theorphanages, he could not have prepared himself for the email he received from his son shortly after their stay. His family had fallen in love with one of the orphans, and wished to discuss adopting her.

A year later, family in tow, he traverses across the world in hopes of bringing their little girl home with them. Meeting with much opposition from a corrupt Ukranian system, they learn much about a desolate country and it's attempts to better itself through Socialistic/Communistic customs and teachings. Having learned nothing from their painful past, the Ukraine has become the trash heap of history.

Through many trials, much extortion, and utter shock of just how nefarious this country has been and become, Taunton learns a lesson in Grace. He sees a world through the eyes of a child that has been lost tofaithlessness. With  new insights, he returns home with a new strength in his belief that a world cannot and hasnever been able to function, when people and society try to govern themselves without a God.

I really learned a lot while reading this book. The author is a very good teacher, while retaining the non-scholars interest. It is always enjoyable for me to learn history in the midst of a good story. The story of Sasha is heartwarming, and quite honestly made me wish I could bring all the attention starved orphans into my home. He paints a very undisguised picture of modern day Ukraine, and while it isn't pretty, I desire to step foot on their soil and see for myself a country that has rejected God as far back as their history has been accurately recorded. I did wish for a little more development into his own thoughts on grace verses Atheism, but overall, a very good book. I think a wide range of persons will enjoy this.

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