Take Your Best Shot

In graduate school, I tailored all of my projects, papers, and presentations to the issue of AIDS in Africa, and though I've never been able to visit sub-Saharan Africa like many of my friends (all of whom would thoroughly enjoy this book), I am still rather passionate about HIV/AIDS issues, specifically how the disease affects the African peoples, and so it should come as no surprise to those of you who know me that I chose Take Your Best Shot: Do Something Bigger Than Yourself as my first book to review for Thomas Nelson.

I wasn't sure how good I was expecting the book to be, but I was absolutely blown away (I literally couldn't put the book down and finished it in just a few days). The narrator is Austin Gutwein, a young teenager who founded a non-profit called Hoops for Hope, which helps to raise awareness and funding for AIDS intervention programs in Africa. The book is aimed at the teenagers and older children, challenging them to allow God to use them to make a difference in the world. Gutwein relates how when he was nine years old, he watched a video presented by World Vision which showed the desperate situation in sub-Saharan Africa. That video changed his life, and through a series of events and much prayer, he found himself shooting free throws at his school gym on World AIDS Day (December 1st) in order to raise money for AIDS orphans. He and his family thought it would simply be a one-time event, but the Lord obviously had other plans, and soon thousands of people in several countries were shooting hoops for hope for the AIDS orphans in Africa. To date, Hoops for Hope has helped fund the building of a school and a clinic/lab in Zambia, a water system in Kenya, and another clinic will open in 2010.  You can see their goals for this year, as well the goals from past years here.

Gutwein is brutally honest not only about the issues going on in Africa, but about the need- the command from God- for us to serve others, as well as the challenges and difficulties we will encounter for doing just that. One of the most memorable statements from the book is: "I wish we lived in a world where people didn't spend so much time challenging others' motives and just went out and did something." And yet, he provides much encouragement for us to get out and "do something", even if we're the only one doing something. There were several points at the book which I found tears streaming down my face; I could just imagine how so many lives were going to be changed for the better because one little boy (literally- he was nine when the whole process began) was faithful to the work the Lord was laying on his heart. And of all those lives that he helped change, imagine how many lives those individuals will then in turn help change? It is a beautiful thing, my friends.

One of the things I admire most about how the book is presented is that it's not simply a plea to get you to join Hoops for Hope. No doubt, Gutwein and World Vision would be delighted if readers did, but Gutwein continually reminds us that we need to be faithful to what the Lord would have us do- even if it's not partnering with Hoops of Hope. At the end of each chapter, there is a short devotional that also includes ideas about how to get involved in our communities or other non-profits. Truly, Gutwein explains that the worst thing for the you do is finish the book, walk away, and never think about doing something bigger than yourself again.

I heartily recommend this book; if you're a parent and you have a teenager, this would make a great gift to them. In fact, this would make a great gift to adults as well because even though the book is decidedly directed towards the younger generation and we're decidedly older and probably a bit more jaded, we can still make a difference in this world.