I had the privilege last summer, to read a brand new book by my Uncle David Laity, entitled “Remember the Lord: The Musings of St. Peter’s Wife”. (note: this is posted in 2018 due to finally getting a decent headshot of Uncle Dave in February 2018)

My uncle is a retired missionary, Bible College/University-level professor, former Teen Challenge Director, and now fill-in pastor in the local Central Okanagan region. Throughout his life and ministry he has had a love for history, particularly Jewish history and has made more than one trip to the Holy Land. I enjoy looking at pictures of Israel whenever my aunt and uncle bring them out.

So when he asked if I would write a review for his book, I readily accepted. Unfortunately for me, life is fairly busy and it wasn’t till mid-August when I had a free evening and sat down to read. For a book-lover such as myself, the book is a fairly quick read at only 132 pages. Editing was very well done with only four potential mistakes that I found throughout the entire book. Editing and formatting are always part of my review, because in the world of self-published authors, it is more important even than traditionally-published authors to present as well-prepared a manuscript as possible. I will reserve what few formatting issues I found for sharing with my uncle directly. Again, I found effort that went into this phase of publishing to be very well done overall.

The book itself is a novel, almost a letter if you will, as Peter’s wife muses about life from growing up to marriage to meeting Jesus to life after the Holy Spirit fell and finally to their imminent martyr’s deaths. Occasionally, the text reads as if she is educating the reader about her home town and region, or about life in Jerusalem or about some other facet of the years as they passed. One can be forgiven for thinking such a thing because Uncle Dave is an educator and loves to teach, so it is understandable that portions of the book would read in this manner. Consequently, such a novel would be great in rounding out studies of Early Church history for students of all ages, but most notably students from ages 9 – 14. If they can read avidly for themselves, they can read this book. Wording used is very easy to digest, and for the curious mind, words are included that will give further insight into the life and times of the disciples and apostles should the student choose to look up such words for further self-education.

History is a wonderful, fascinating thing! Adults who enjoy a quick read will also enjoy reading this book. Many tidbits of well-known early Church history are woven together with lesser-known facts and trivia to give a better picture of what our church forefathers faced as they first grappled with who Christ was to how they handled life when persecution fell hard and heavy.

I won’t give any examples from the book, but encourage you to get a copy for yourself and for the young student of history in your family or school community. As his niece, I’d love to see Uncle Dave’s book show up on required historical readings lists for Christian schools everywhere! One can dream, can’t she?

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