Mobile Ministry Magazine

I came across this ebook browsing I think about 18 months or 2 years ago. Published by Zondervan (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Streams in the Desert was originally published in 1925 but has been recently updated. Cowman was a missionary with her husband to China & Japan in the early 1900's. Cowman wrote this book following the death of her husband after 6 years of caring for him when he became sick. It's no surprise then that Cowman knew all about trouble and heartache and the 366 daily readings are a gold mine of encouraging Christian devotional writings incorporating poetry, references to scripture and remarkable little stories that could only come from experiencing many years of trouble, pain, suffering and through it all being sustained by God and his scriptures. If you follow the Christian path, you can expect trouble in this world - the New Testament makes that clear (e.g. see Matthew 24:9). Other than the Good Book, I have come across few writings as enduringly calming and helpful as this one so far - having had some persistent troubles in recent years. Cowman makes use of writings from a number of learned Christians she has known and the result is a fountain of wisdom and reassurance flowing from every chapter. It has become my most regularly read book - a 'days chapter' being read most days. Even if I'm struggling top get into the Scriptures the writings in this book will often provide much needed wisdom and turn me, to paraphrase how the author put it 'to learn to see things from Gods perspective' - his thinking is not like ours, especially in times of trouble! The daily readings are not long either - so carried on your PDA it's ideal for a few paragraphs of quick encouragement, on the train, in the Dr's waiting room, in 'the bathroom’ (!) - I must have read this book in bits more places than maybe any other! So, I highly recommended for mobile reading

It's reasonably priced at ereader.com ($8.99) and you'll need a copy of the eReader book reader software which you can download (www.ereader.com) there too for free -there may be other ebook sellers selling it too (let us know if you find it cheaper!) Also I've seen it for sale at the likes of amazon.com in 'hard copy' form should you want it as a gift or just the old fashioned way :-)

Here's the ereader.com link : http://ereader.com/product/detail/5831

Article by Adrian Stephenson (UK)