Book Review: A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger by Steve Peifer

One Man Turns Personal Tragedy to Inspiration, Feeding and Educating Thousands of Kenyan Schoolchildren Every Day

 

Steve Peifer’s new Book A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger Released on March 19, 2013

 

 

"Steve Peifer was living the American dream—good job, nice house, a wife and two kids with one more baby in the way. But when their newborn child tragically died from a chromosomal disorder, Steve and his wife found themselves thrust into a new, horrible “normal.” Desperate for a change to help them escape the heartache of their loss, they agreed to be dorm parents at a school in Kenya. But a one-year experiment prompted a personal and family pilgrimage that transformed a seemingly ordinary middle-aged American man, husband, and father into perhaps the most unlikely internationally influential hero you’ve never heard of. Until now.

 

Being thrust into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy---drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death—the Peifers did not arrive in the service of any divine calling. But the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubledhearts. And that’s how a corporate executive who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants ended up feeding lunch and teaching computer skills tostarving African schoolchildren every day.

 

Today, thirteen years after their original short-term assignment, Steve Peifer and his team have built 20 solar computer centers and still provide daily lunches to more than 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools. Surely he had never dreamed a dream quite so big as that.

 

Steve Peifer, along with Greg Lewis, has chronicled this amazing, triumphant story in the new book A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger (Zondervan, March 19, ISBN13: 9780310326090). Readers will treasure the touching story of how a Kenyan boarding school turned an ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero and will be inspired to pursue similar lives of service."

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My Thoughts:
 

If you are looking for a book to make you slow down in life and reflect on what you have, and how you can contribute to the greater good, then you will want to pick up a copy of Steve Peifer's book, "A Dream So Big."  After losing his infant son, Steve and his wife were looking for an escape, and found themselves taking a missionary trip to Kenya.  Little did Steve and his family know that this was part of the big plan God had in store for him.

When Steve arrived in Kenya, he never expected to see children laying on the floor in the classrooms due to hunger.  He knew that they needed to be educated, but in order to be able to concentrate and better their lives through education, they needed to be well nourished.  This book follows Steve and his family on their journey to feed the malnourished children of Kenya, in hopes to end childhood hunger.

I laughed, I cried, and was overall moved to want to be a better person and do more for others.  Steve needed to travel to Kenya to find his purpose in life, and come to terms with the passing of his infant son.  Like they say, God works in mysterious ways.  And, this book shows one instance.  "A Dream So Big" is truly an inspirational book of one family's journey to come to terms with the loss of their child, while taking on the feat most others would turn a blind eye to.  I am so happy to have had the opportunity to have read about Steve's journey, and can't wait to share his amazing story of redemption with fellow book lovers and friends.

About the Author:

Steve Peifer serves as Director of College Guidance for Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. He established a rural food program in 2002 that provides lunches for 20,000 Kenyan schoolchildren a day. He has also built the first solar-powered computer-training center in Kenya, and is now developing twenty computer classroom labs for rural schools. For his work on behalf of Kenyan children, he was awarded the CNN Heroes Award for Championing Children in 2007, the 2007  Yale Counseling Award and the 2010 NACAC Excellence in Education Award. Steve and Nancy have four children.   

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher in order to write up an honest and thorough review. The views above are mine and mine alone.