Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for taking this journey with me. As I started doing the research for this book, I found myself afraid that you, as a reader, would find the plot unbelievable. Surely the story of a humanitarian crisis dealing with so many issues — from cholera to measles to rebels — could only be fabricated and would never happen in today’s world. Yet as I read story after story of individual refugees I found myself weeping with them over what they experienced. And I realized that, if anything, I had sanitized my story to make it more believable, because the facts tell another story.

According to the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders, there are forty-two million people in the world who have been displaced by war and violence. Read that again: forty-two million. So while the story behind Blood Covenant, including the setting, is fictional, the issue of those being forced to leave their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their back, often after witnessing murder, rape, violence and kidnappings, is very real. But in spite of this horror, I didn’t want to stop the story there. Drawing from my own experiences across Africa over the past twenty years I wanted to tell a story that went beyond the adversities and gave a message of hope.

The truth is we don’t have to travel around the world to see people hurting and exploited and needing that message of hope. They’re real people we pass every day, living in our neighborhoods and attending our churches and schools. They’re empty and broken, searching for freedom and hope in an often hopeless world.

But maybe, like Paige — and myself — you often feel too small and inadequate to do what God is calling you to do. Paul says that it is through our weaknesses that we are made strong because of Christ’s power. At the greatest moment of weakness from the world’s point of view, Christ’s death on the cross brought victory and allowed God to enter into a relationship with us through that sacrifice.

Interestingly enough, God has done the same thing in my own life as over the years He has stretched me with new opportunities. Several years ago, Lynne Gentry, a close friend and fellow author, started The ECHO Project, a nonprofit organization where ordinary people like you and me can make a difference in changing the world one individual at a time through assistance with education, compassion, health, and opportunities.

It’s tempting to believe one person cannot make a difference. But when we dare to become involved, the ECHO can be heard around the world. Find out how you can invest in an individual today in order to reap a changed world tomorrow by visiting our website.

It all starts with each one of us, wherever we are, letting God take us on that amazing journey He’s prepared for us.

Be blessed today,

Lisa Harris