Click Image to Visit "Out of a Far Country" page on Exodus Books

Regular readers of our blog know and appreciate when our guest blogger, Nathan, contributes to the discussion. Today I have a guest post from him that is a book review of Christopher and Angela Yuan’s, “Out of a Far Country.”  Nathan writes:

Testimony books often serve a useful purpose in demonstrating how a life touched by God can be changed. It’s not often, however, that such a book can serve two purposes. But Out of a Far Country by Christopher Yuan and his mother, Angela Yuan, more than succeeds in not only telling a compelling story, but also as a testament to the power of persistent prayer. In this case, the prayers of Christopher’s mother. Never underestimate the power of a mother’s prayers.

The book is told in alternating voices, Angela, then Christopher, then back to Angela. Leon, Chris’s dad and Angela’s husband is also a big part of this family story.

The book opens with Christopher’s coming out encounter with his parents.  While Dad is passive about the news, Angela, is horrified.  Chris leaves the house with Mom collapsed on the floor in tears.

The book tracks the next seven years of the Yuan saga, lasting from 1993-2000, with a final follow-up chapter bringing the reader up to date on Christopher’s incredible journey from drug dealing, promiscuous, criminal to where he is today: part-time adjunct professor at Moody Bible Institute and his ministry speaking on the issues of sexuality and HIV/AIDS.

Of no less importance is Angela and Leon’s own story.  Angela’s conversion to Christ just as she’s on the brink of suicide, Leon’s joining Angela in her newfound faith, and the resultant healing of the Yuan’s marriage. United, they pray for their son—never giving up.

Chris spares no details telling his side of the story—from his bartending in Louisville, stripped to the waist and occasionally hopping up on the bar to dance for patrons—to his drug dealing days and dalliance with “Jordan” one of the top gay porn stars of the day. Jordan was HIV positive and when he ends up with pneumonia in the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Chris and his parents are his only visitors.  Only weeks earlier Jordan had been the life of one of the gay “circuit parties” he and Chris attended.

Eventually, one of  Chris’s lovers, Derek, confesses that he’s HIV+.  That admission actually gave Chris a sense of freedom—of feeling like he finally belong to a fraternity of gay men who were “lionized” for their status.  (“Certainly AIDS was a terrible thing; but I felt, somehow, that I’d become a hero”).

Chris’s story has the common elements many readers will relate to—the childhood rejection by his peers, his perception that he had been born gay, his failed attempts at heterosexual attraction, and then his acceptance of his same-sex attractions (“I’m as gay as I am Chinese”) and the acceptance he felt from the gay community.

Ultimately, Chris’s success dealing drugs leads to his downfall as his life spirals out of control. Meanwhile, though estranged from Chris—through his decision, not theirs—Angela and Leon continue to pray, pray, pray for their son. And eventually those prayers pay off as Chris is arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. Mom, however, is not worried, seeing God’s ability to work through Chris’s incarceration.  In fact, she tells the judge to give Chris the sentence he deserves.  A year later at a hearing to reduce Chris’s sentence, Angela thanks that same judge for the harsh sentence he had handed down.  Chris indeed found Christ behind prison bars. It was there he also overcame his drug addiction and surrendered his sexuality to God.

Out of a Far Country will be enjoyed by readers interested in a wonderful testimony, but three types of readers will especially enjoy it:  men and women who are walking the same path away from homosexuality as Chris is, those who wonder if such a turnaround is possible for them—and finally, for parents who are still praying through the wilderness of a son or daughter caught up in an active homosexual lifestyle.

It all boils down to this: if you’re enjoying your homosexuality, you do not want to have a mother who prays for you by telling God, “Lord, whatever it takes.”

MORE:

Out of a Far Country on the Exodus Books website.

Destiny Bridge by Frank Worthen – Book Review by Nathan

A “Normal Gay Life” – Nathan Responds to Ray Boltz