Ian and the Gigantic Leafy Obstacle

by Sheila Miller

Book by Miller, Shelia

Genres: Picture Books, Christian, School, Childrens, Pre K

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1982

Reviews

[Robin E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweet tale of how an obstacle in our path can actually be God's leading us in His direction.

[Margaret Chind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Has it really been almost a decade since we first read this missionary story? It seemed I used to hear stories all the time of what I call God-moments. I want to include more of these in our daily life. God is always working, we know this but take it for granted and shouldn't. Especially today.

We have this as part of the 2012 Sonlight Curriculum P3/4, now known as Sonlight Core T (toddler). My son, Rascal (6.5) seems to enjoy this story much more than my oldest did at three.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is a bit long for my 3 yo, but we read it in chunks. My 5 yo remembered the storyline from when we read it two years ago and she kept 'telling the next part'. Its a great testimony of how God answers prayers.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A faith promoting and hope inspiring story of a missionary and an obstacle that brings about miracles. We may pray for help, but we may not always know how God can bring about answers.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

We just re-read this missionary story from Thailand. As my son gets older, this story just gets better. We had a good discussion over how God answers our prayers and just the reason for missions.

[Rhonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful example of God working in the lives of a modern missionary & how prayer is answered (almost always through natural means & not supernatural means.) An annoying, hindering obstacle (aka the gigantic, leafy obstacle) turns out to be a chance for the missionary to visit a village he didn't know exist. And after his visit, an amazing coincidence (miracle) happened to remove the annoying, hindering obstacle. My children & I found the story very moving & inspiring.

[Emma Filbrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ian was a missionary in Thailand who was showing a film about Jesus in the village-at-the-end-of-the-road. When he left the village to go down the mountain, there was a tree across the road! The villagers suggested that he pray about the problem—he had been teaching them about prayer, after all. He prayed, and nothing happened. However, a man showed up and asked him to come back up the mountain to his village! It turned out that there was another-village-at-the-end-of-the-road. So, Ian went back up and showed his film in the real-village-at-the-end-of-the-road, and taught the people about Jesus. When he started down the mountain again, the tree was still there. You’ll have to read the story yourself to find out how God answered his prayer.

Read my full review here.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story illustrates the wonderful relationship between prayers of faith and God's movement on behalf of His glory. A missionary in Thailand encounters an immovable obstacle and is challenged to "pray to your God about it" by one of the people. Engaging illustrations complement the simple narrative. Credit to Sonlight home school curriculum for inclusion of Sheila Miller's gem, and to Overseas Mission Fellowship (OMF) for it's publication.

[Megan]

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