Serengeti Friendship: Soccer Forgiveness (revised edition)

By Bruce William Deckert

Chosen for World Cup Exhibition at NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION - original edition REVISED EDITION: 2017 - The revised edition has a brand-new beginning, woven into the story's original opening, and various other revisions. Make sure resale books are this edition, not the old one. KUDOS from DR. THOMAS HOWARD - renowned C.S. Lewis scholar, author, longtime English prof "Serengeti Friendship is amazing, delightful, and actually quite moving. ... I'd love to see the book break through to an enormous audience." IN THIS STORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE OF ALL AGES, the giraffe remembers clearly. The elephant? Not exactly. The cheetah defends his memory - but the zebra calls him a lying cheetah. So: 4 friends and teammates + 2 wildly opposing stories = 1 big mess. Oh, there's another friend: a gazelle, caught in the middle. When a crisis of trust threatens to tear apart the heart of the African Animals, soccer success appears to be a mirage, the least of their concerns. Except for a minor detail - the Wild Animal World Cup begins soon. But hope is in the air - and the sky. Literally. During the dispute, a high-flying owl soars over the savanna and invites the friends for a visit. So a trio skips a warm-up match and seeks the owl at his upside-down tree. At the match, the keeper makes an outrageous save - the first of its kind, according to the ELIONS Sports Bureau. Meanwhile, at the upside-down tree, can the owl point the way to forgiveness? And help mend the heart of friendship for these teammates on the Serengeti? And save the soccer day ... in time for a World Cup victory? PLUS: Five (hopefully) helpful appendixes, including a glossary, outtakes and Appendix E. Appendix E is aimed mainly at the young at heart who are typically called "young adults" and "adults" and addresses the owl's reference to the "ancient writings." So Appendix E contains some musings (and, quite possibly, brain cramps) on certain ancient writings and their relationship to the creation/evolution debate, the faith/science fracas, the journalism/history question and more! MORE from DR. THOMAS HOWARD "Serengeti Friendship is amazing, delightful, and actually quite moving. I'd love to see the book break through to an enormous audience. It stands at a polar extreme from everything that comes at young people - well, all of us, let's face it - in this chaotic epoch of ours. The sheer, transparent goodness at work in it is immensely refreshing." Featured on morning radio show on WTIC 1080, Connecticut's news station Highlighted in the Hartford Courant Featured on TLV Sports Talk Show

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 197966675X
• ISBN13: 9781979666756
• Release Date: November 2017
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

Unlike anything else I've read - it's two books in one

Serengeti Friendship, Soccer Forgiveness is really two books in one. It is unlike anything else I've ever read, probably the first ever unpretentious book tackling the need to forgive, and as an added bonus, serious theological issues. The first part is a story written for kids, but instructive for adults, which makes it a perfect read for parents looking for a substantive story to read with their kids. The characters are animals-as-children, playing soccer. They talk like kids. They're quirky, silly, and funny. Yet, the story isn't childish. It revolves around a disagreement about what was really said, hurt feelings, stubbornness, forgiveness, and redemption. The story is not pie-in-the-sky predictable. It does not end the way you may expect. It's refreshing because it is real world. The author infuses theology and life lessons, so much so I wrote notes in the margins. It's sprinkled with Biblical allusions (for example, the tower of Babel, God's place in human disagreements), but most of all, it's about forgiveness. You need not be a Biblical scholar to read, understand, or enjoy this book. Your kids will enjoy the silly humor from the playful characters and the drama of a soccer match. If you want, it's a good springboard to having a conversation about how to meaningfully respond to those you have wronged, those who have wronged you, and how to manage inevitable daily conflict. The second part of the book is more of what I call a "logical theological" conversation the author has with the reader, and, at times, himself. He discusses faith and the existence of God, reconciling God with human suffering, faith healers, reading scripture in context, and heaven. He argues everyone has faith in something, or someone, and that no man is really neutral on the issue of who God is. The author tackles these subjects almost in a stream of consciousness tone, or the way you would with someone you respect while watching your kids at a ball game, but he always arrives at his point. This style gives him, ironically, credibility because his opinions are honest, thoughtful, and careful to admit his own limitations. It is not a classic theological text, thank God. He discusses science and religion, technology's role in atheist's objections (even interjecting top 40 song lyrics to illustrate his points), and he answers the "how can we know Jesus is who He claimed to be" objections in a calm, rational way. He even discusses how God could allow hell. These are real theological questions, honestly confronted. It's not, by any stretch, a complete theological text, any more than Blue Like Jazz is. In this section he inevitably skips across a few theological holes (predestination/election doctrine, sovereignty) which would have made this a complete theological text, but that would have been beyond the scope of the effort. Read the first part to your kids. Read the rest of it with your older kids/teens. It's different from anything else you