Passport Through Darkness

A True Story of Danger and Second Chanes
Kimberly L. Smith
2011
David C Cook
Non-fiction/Religion

Reviewed by Cindy Loven

Kimberly and Milton Smith, lived the average rat race life, and neither was happy with that.   Once they both realized that something had to change the path got rocky!  Milton knew he wanted to go back on the mission field.  Convincing Kimberly was the issue, at first.  But once in Spain on a mission, she knew she was where she needed to be, because it would lead to ministering to children who were being used as sex slaves, and to helping to rescue children from such situations.
The big challenge would come however, when a trip to the Sudan was suggested.  Milton's health would not allow him to go, and Kimberly was determined to go, and once there, she fell in love with the Dinka's.  She knew she had to minister to these orphaned and forgotten children.  Convincing the world, convincing Milton and raising the funds would be hard, but that would not be the hardest part of this mission.  Kimberly would nearly loose herself in this work.  She bottled up the hurt she was seeing, trying to protect Milton, but driving a wedge between them.
This book included horrific stories of the nightmares that she would see in the Sudan, she would never erase some of the images from her mind.  This was not an easy book to read, due to those horrific nightmarish experiences.  But it was a compelling story that you just had to keep reading.
I found this book very interesting, it is hard to say I enjoyed this book, because it was a book full of suffering.  The writing style was interesting and you had to keep reading.  The stories were heartbreaking, and you felt the pain of the author.  A book to stir your heart and spirit.  251 pages US $14.99 3 stars.

This book was provide by B & B Media Group for review purposes only, no payment was received for this book.

Media Release 

Each one of us longs to know we matter. We hunger to know that we have purpose, our life has meaning, and God dreams great dreams for us. In Passport Through Darkness: A True Story of Danger and Second Chances, Kimberly Smith invites us into her own struggles as an ordinary woman who feels those aches, asks those questions, and stumbles through a quest to find her place in a broken world.

Smith was an average American woman—a wife, mother, corporate executive, and faithful church member. But she knew something was missing from her life. When a bone-chilling experience awakened her desire to find true purpose, Smith and her family began a lifelong adventure serving those who never knew a greater purpose could exist.

Traveling around the world and deep into the darkness of her own heart, Smith’s worst fears collided with her faith as she and her family discovered the atrocities of human trafficking. But in that broken place a self-centered life was transformed into an international effort to save thousands from modern-day slavery, persecution, disease, and genocide.

As Smith and her husband risk everything for orphans in Eastern Europe and Africa, they see God work again and again in impossible situations, especially in their own lives and marriage. They see God change them—even in their exhaustion, marital struggles, and physical limitations. They see the beauty of living out God’s dreams.

This is a book of hope for anyone who longs to see God’s redemptive power heal broken hearts, fill empty bellies, and shelter uncovered heads. It is a call to take one more step on your own journey to know God’s heart and purpose for your life. It is a guide from one ordinary person to another to find a life that matters.

Smith writes, “My prayer is that God will use my wounds and my transgressions to encourage you to risk losing everything to discover the life God dreams for you. It’s life on the edge, where so much is uncertain, maybe even scary, certainly out of our control. But it’s also where true freedom lives.”

Your story may be different from hers, but God’s hopes for you are just as big. “Your destination,” Smith writes, “is the same as mine—an intimate encounter between you and your Creator. But your route will be filled with adventures, both mild and wild, made just for you. It will lead you to where God’s pleasure and your purpose meet.”

Let Kimberly’s remarkable story show you the grit, the pain, and the beauty of letting go of it all to find the dream God dreamed when He shaped you in His Hands.

About the Author: Kimberly L. Smith is the president and cofounder of Make Way Partners, a mission organization committed to ending human trafficking. She is currently leading Make Way Partners to build the only private and indigenously based anti-trafficking network in Africa and Eastern Europe. A devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, Smith lives with her husband, Milton, in Sylacauga, Alabama.