Reading between the lines

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Salvos Online continues a new weekly column – Three Books. Today’s guest bookworm is Debbie Serojales, who is Corps Officer – Team Member at Merri-bek Corps in Victoria.

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Besides the gospels and Psalms, which is your favourite book in the Bible and why?

When I was growing up, I would flit between various books of the Bible, yet I would always find myself drawn back to the pages of Philippians, as I found it to be one of positive encouragement in my newfound faith. I guess I also enjoyed reading it because it was like picking up a letter written years before and having a sneak peek at the thoughts and opinions of someone from many years before.  It is also known as a “letter of joy”.

I love that Paul not only wrote to offer support and give advice, but he was also vulnerable as he shared his own experiences. What an example that is for me, that when we work in teams, to be open and honest and share our own lives, especially if we expect people to be like that with us.

Although written so many years ago, these words, filled with joy and wisdom, continue to offer insight to us even today.   

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Besides the Bible, what is a Christian book that has strongly influenced your faith?

I love reading biographies. I see it as an honour to, in some way, be invited on the journey of another person who has faced their most vulnerable moments and also their ultimate life-changing experiences.

A few years ago, I read the intimate story of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, The Pastor and the Painter.  What a powerful story of two young men who were charged with drug trafficking and landed them in Kerobokan Prison in Indonesia. The book follows their transformation from anger and defiance to rehabilitation and hope.

On the day they were executed, they were not “two drug smugglers, but a pastor and a painter” who not only changed their own lives, but also many of the prisoners whom they led to faith.

This is the first time I have ever cried while reading a book, and I will admit to never singing the song 10,000 Reasons in the same way again!  A challenging, heart-wrenching and life-changing story that showed me anyone can turn their lives around when they allow Jesus to guide their choices even during their darkest moments.

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What is a secular book that has revealed to you a Christian message or theme?

‘My friend’ Eddie Jaku OAM wrote a memoir of his experiences during World War Two, a story of survival and one of hope. In his book, Eddie says that those who took the time to read his story have now become his friends. I also had the privilege of attending an online book discussion, where he shared his story with a small group of us, and during this, he offered to sign our books. After posting a copy of his book to him, it was returned to me signed, “to my friend Debbie”.  He lived with a simple message: to always make time to show kindness, and he challenged everyone to look for ways to make others happy. 

For years, he did not speak of his experiences in Buchenwald and Auschwitz; it was simply too hard. Yet in the end, he chose to share the story because there were millions of others who could not. Having faced unimaginable horror, Eddie chose to focus on kindness, friendship and hope. 

This book was published when Eddie was nearly 100 years old. As he shares his story of loss, heartache and immense pain, his main goal was for people to know that happiness can be found even in the darkest of experiences.

Stories of Holocaust survivors are always so hard to read, yet Eddie shares how he found gratitude and hope in such a traumatic time. At the end of a book filled with the horrors of his experiences, the last lines say, “after you put this book down, please remember to appreciate every moment of your life – the good, the bad”.

I think we all struggle through challenges in our lives, yet the simple message from Eddie, “make yourself a friend to the world”, showing kindness, is one we could all attain too. 

“Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you!” – Eddie Jaku