Desperate Hope: When Faith in God Overcame My Despair

By Candi Pearson-Shelton

Book Overview

A fiercely honest yet deeply faithful meditation on the "gentle whispers and hard-learned faith lessons" that follow tragedy--in this case, the death of Candi Pearson-Shelton's 23-year-old brother to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1434766144
• ISBN13: 9781434766144
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: David C. Cook
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.1" x 0.6" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

A choice and highly recommended read

When at the brink of death, you begin to see the importance of faith. "Desperate Hope: When Faith in God Overcame My Despair" is a recollection of faith from Candi Pearson-Shelton watched her younger brother fight a losing battle for his life. Even though it ended in tragedy, the experience renewed her faith and she hopes to share her experiences and explain why the worst of things had a silver lining. "Desperate Hope" is a choice and highly recommended read.

An Inspiring Book

This is a beautiful book. Candi Pearson-Shelton shares the faith lessons she and her family learned during her brother's 40-day fight with cancer. This is no Pollyanna book about accentuating the positive and pasting on a smile. Rather, it is an honest, sometimes painfully so, account of Candi and her family's journey and how, at every turn, they saw God. Sprinkled throughout the book are excerpts from Rick's own journal as well as a testimony of how God used the blog chronicling Rick's illness to bring together believers from all over the world and create a cyberspace fellowship that is a beautiful picture of the church described in Acts.

A Phenomenal Book

"Desperate Hope: When Faith in God Overcame My Despair" is one of the most phenomenal books I have ever read. I've written book reviews before and I've used words like "great," "excellent," etc. but I've never used "phenomenal" until now. Desperate Hope was written by Candi Pearson-Shelton and it chronicles her family's journey through a time of great sorrow. It sounds like this is a book about grief. It is not. Yes, the story of Candi's precious brother, Rick, his illness and his ultimate triumphal embrace with his heavenly Father at the young age of 23, is woven throughout this book. Included in this book are some of his journal entries. When he became too sick to write, Candi or other family members took over. There are comments in response to those journal entries from friends, relatives and people who never met Rick in person. Hundreds, thousands of people were greatly affected by his life and witness, especially through those journal entries posted on a website to have people praying for him 24/7 and to share his testimony. Rick's motto was "Either way, I win." He meant, of course, that if God chose to heal him here on earth, he would joyfully remain here with his family and continue his work for God. If God chose to heal Rick by bringing him home to Him, that was definitely a win! Yes, you will need a few Kleenex. But still, it is not a book about grief. It is a book about hope. There is no doubt in my mind that God used Candi Pearson-Shelton as His vessel to bring the message of His hope to this world. His anointing is all over this book from the moment you pick it up and begin reading until you turn the last page. It is a book that will change your life. If you are grieving the loss of a loved one, this book will give you hope. If you are depressed or ill, this book will infuse you with hope. If you have lost your hope--your faith, God will graciously restore your hope and faith through the words He wrote by Candi's hand. And if you simply want your faith to grow more, this is the book that will cause your faith to grow. I feel like I have not done Desperate Hope justice in this review. It is my earnest heart's desire for you to understand that Desperate Hope is an encouraging, restorative book that offers hope to everyone. Without going into detail, I will say that God used this book to restore my hope and my faith in Him. My prayer for you as you read this book is for God to instill in you faith the size of a "mustard seed" and that your attitude will always be "I win!"

Dealing with the loss of a loved one

In Desperate Hope, readers follow Candi Pearson-Shelton's emotional and spiritual journey through her brother's cancer diagnosis, fight with the disease, and finally, his death. The book is filled with the raw emotions and spiritual highs and lows of the painful journey. Journal entries from her brother, Rick, allow readers to see the story from his point of view. The book closes with actual blog posts and comments from Rick's update blog as well as a scanned image of letter Rick wrote to his fiance. Included in the book is a link to download a song, One Breath, that was written specifically for this book. All profits from this book will go to the Rick Pearson Memorial Fund. I received a copy of this book from the B & B Media group for review purposes. No other compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

A story of faith, hope and love

Desperate Hope is the story of the tragic death of 23 year old Rick Pearson, brother to the author, Candi Pearson-Shelton. Rick Pearson's life was taken by leukemia in 2005, and he left behind not only his immediate family, but his fiancee' Suzanne. Candi writes about her personal struggle related to her brother's death and how her faith was rocked. Losing her brother caused Candi to ask a lot of questions and it also helped her solidify her faith in Christ. This book details her journey and ability to find hope mixed with faith and in the end, proclaim that God is faithful - no matter what. I found this book to be a beautiful expression of Candi's faith and trust in God, and also a moving tribute to her brother. What I found most inspiring about this book was at the very end (Page 223). Candi writes that all of the profits from the sale of this book are going to her brother's memorial fund, called Legacy. Legacy supports various interests and organizations that Rick supported when he was alive - to learn more about this fund, visit [...]