AT Book Recommendation: Loving You – I Went to Africa by Deanne Hoehn with Jack Hoehn

Loving You—I Went to Africa

by Deanne Hoehn
(with Jack Hoehn)
Published October 16, 2023

Does AFRICA do anything to your pulse? Do you think of safaris with giraffe, lion, zebra, elephants, and monkeys? Are you thinking of explorers in pith helmets? Are you thinking of gold, diamond, and copper mines? Would you like to explore Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lusaka, or Nairobi?

How would a beautiful young nurse with her young doctor husband experience these places? How would Africa living under apartheid react to young Americans who didn’t accept political or social racism?

This is history as it happened but a “her”-story, not a “his” story. This is how a woman’s life of love, service, joy, sorrow, and faith met the realities of an Africa then encumbered by tribalism, poverty, disease, and colonial exploitation. This is how Deanne met those things in the quiet, personal, cheerful domestic and professional ways she served and connected with so many people.

This is a book men and boys need to see how girls and women can change the world. It will encourage and delight women and girls to significant lives of love and service. This is history, adventure, off-roading through flooded rivers, surviving a freedom-fighting war, kitchen diplomacy, pet monkey care, faithful and unfaithful lover stories through a remarkable young woman’s eyes, written as it happened. It features many people you may know. It is well illustrated and includes articles giving context to Deanne’s adventures.

Readers say:

“What a beautiful story. Completely drew me in
and I read every word. The pacing, the way the events unfold
feels like hearing a friend talking about an exotic life of service
that could not even be imagined in its complexity.
The letters create an intimacy…as if reading someone’s diary
and learning what really happens and how it feels.”

“The interesting (often unexpected) adventures
of a wife, nurse, and mother are woven into a narrative
that gives a (sometimes breathtaking) glimpse
into the daily realities of adapting to life in a radically different culture.
Reading this (from the comfort of my living room) I can almost re-live
the challenges and anxieties that confront the young family, and how they dealt with each
as they happened in real time. One can (vicariously) share the excitement
of observing wildlife in their natural habitat that most of us only read about.
Great storytelling, great read, hard to put down.”

“I could hardly put the book down!
I wanted to read all day and yet didn’t want the story to end.
What a treasure.”

(All profits from the book go to support Adventist Today.)

Paperback $22.00       Kindle e-book $9.95