I love end-of-year lists! I like seeing something I’ve read or listened to on a list and finding new gems. I’ve compiled two short lists for you in this last-post-of-the-year at A Life Overseas. Bonus? I nominated categories for each book or episode. Happy reading! :).
3 Books I loved in 2024
Surprise Delight
Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere by Savannah Guthrie was recommended by a member care friend who knew I might roll my eyes thinking that an American morning news show host might offer spiritual depth. Sometimes it’s good to be wrong and this was one of those times :)! I checked it out from a library and listened to it. The audio version has a beautiful reflective practice at the end of each chapter.
Most Likely To Make You Annoying to Those Around You
If you’re the kind of person who has to read out loud beautiful or profound sentences to anyone near you, watch out. Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture by Alastair J. Roberts and Andrew Wilson will have you become the most annoying person in the room.
Though the title might sound a bit academic, do not let that fool you! I could not stop reading this and it has become my go-to gift book. If I could, I would buy everyone at A Life Overseas a Copy!
If You Only Read One Book for Personal Growth
You need to make it the Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well by Amy C. Edmondson. I heard her speak at the Global Leadership Summit and needed to get her book immediately. Not all failure is the same. If missionaries grew in understanding basic failure, complex failure. and intelligent failure, we’d be better able to serve to those we’ve come to serve.
3 Podcast Episodes I loved in 2024
Unique Angles on Familiar Topics
I was on It’s Not About the Money: In Search of Grounded Fundraising hosted by Heather Winchell and Andy Brennan and it might be tacky to have this be one of my favorite listens from 2024. But guess what? I loved this conversation and I hope you will too: Amy Young on Your Humanity in Fundraising
When the Path is Hard
When the episode Suffering Well & Walking in Faith: Can You Do Both? with Scott Shaum from Modern Day Missions hosted by Stephanie Gutierrez came across my feed, I listened to about three minutes before sharing it with a friend who is a major season of suffering. Isn’t this what we all want to be able to do? Suffer well and Walk Well in Faith?
Fun to See Differently
Rule Of Life is hosted by Jon Mark Comer in which he and his cohosts dedicate each podcast season to exploring different parts of the Christian Life. the more recent season was dedicated to generosity. Many of us in cross-cultural work are on support or have a different relationship with money than many of our peers in our passport countries. This is the first episode in the series: There is More Joy in Giving than Receiving.
So, those are three books and three episodes I enjoyed in 2024. Leave a comment and help others to start of the new year with a few reads and listen for the new year!
And in the name of generosity here’s a podcast episode from Global Trellis in which we talked with Michele Zintz about reflecting and preparing as a cross-cultural worker at the end of a year.
