"I know that I speak for the Board when I express deep appreciation of your contribution to the life of the Mission and the Church in India. Many of the tasks that you have carried out have been of the type which are arduous without giving much evidence of reward. Nevertheless, you have performed them willing and well. It is our prayer that God may continue to bless you, enriching your last months of service in India and giving you more years of usefulness to the Church both in India and in America subsequent to your retirement."
-Dr. Reed of the Foreign Mission Office, to Robert Maxwell upon announcement of his retirement, 1941
The Page Turners selected this book for November because it was written by one of our members, a special friend, and was newly released. The book is essentially the biography of "Robert Maxwell: Missionary to the Punjab 1900-1942" (a subtitle), who was the author's grandfather. Paige has said that she intended the book to be not just a family memoir but a history of the period from the Civil War through WWII as experienced by one family, a family very much involved in God's work.
Robert Maxwell's story begins before he was born when his father, a Union prisoner in a Confederate camp, promised God if he made it out alive he would educate a son for the ministry. So Chapter 1 is "George Small Maxwell's Vow"and the final Chapter 11 is "A Promise Kept." Everything in between describes events that happened in the process of the promise keeping---and you can probably imagine it was not all a bed of roses!
Author, Paige McRight, is a retired Presbyterian minister, the daughter AND granddaughter of ministers. The apple did not fall far from the tree! When a sizable collection of Maxwell's letters were found by Paige's cousin, the question arose: What should we do with them? This book was the answer and what an amazing undertaking it was, taking 7 years to complete! I am quite sure Robert Maxwell and Paige's father, Pollock, are both smiling down on her accomplishment.
Through the reading of the book I thought often of the missionaries our church has supported with prayers and monetary support and love. Thankfully those were available to Robert and his wife, Maud, in their mission work, as well. The obstacles they faced were different than today's, yet even now there are many difficulties to overcome in the mission field. I think only very strong, faithful, dedicated people can succeed.
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When Page Turners met to discuss A Promised Life, the author, of course, was in attendance! Our policy is not to rate a book when the author is present. Normally for our discussions we use questions found online from the publisher and this book is too new for that so each attendee was asked to bring a question or two. This made for a very interesting discussion that enhanced our understanding of the book. Folks wanted to know if any family of her generation became ministers other than herself and when she knew she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father and grandfather. We learned that Paige's grandfather died 3 days after she was born and grandmother Maud lived 10 years after that. Apparently Maud was a strong, assertive woman and Paige admits she was referred to as Little Maud by her family, at times. We were awed that Robert's father promised him to the ministry and he never seemed to question the path laid out for him or to waver in his resolve. We couldn't help but wonder how likely (or unlikely) such a thing would be today.
I thought a map might have helped me since I did not know the area of India/Pakistan so well and someone else thought a family tree would have been an excellent addition to the book. I wondered about the exclusion of captions with photographs but had failed to notice the subjects of the photos are listed at the end of the book on page 145. Several of us thought the inclusion of historical events gave us better perspective of the times and enhanced the story. I think we all agreed that Paige had taken on a HUGE project and done an outstanding job!
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