Sunday, April 13, 2014

Hope Runs

Cover Art

She went to Kenya to climb a mountain. But God had other plans.

     When Claire Díaz-Ortiz arrived in Kenya at the end of an around-the-world journey, she decided to stay the night, climb Mount Kenya, and then head back home. She entered an orphanage, seeing it as little more than a free place to spend the night before her mountain trek.
     Sammy Ikua Gachagua had lost his father to illness, his mother to abandonment, and his home to poverty. By age ten, he was living in a shack with several other children and very little food. He entered an orphanage, seeing it as a miracle with three meals a day, a bed to sleep in, and clothes on his back.
     Hope Runs is the emotional story of one American tourist, one Kenyan orphan, and how one day became one year that would change the course of both of their lives forever. It's about opening your heart to outrageous possibilities. It's about what it means to hope for the things you cannot see.
     It's about how God can change your life in the blink of an eye.

Claire Díaz-Ortiz is an author, speaker, and technology innovator who has been named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Claire was an early employee at Twitter, where she still works, and over the years has been called everything from "a mover and shaker" (Mashable) to a "force for good" (Forbes). She is the author of several books, includingTwitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet at a Time. She is a frequent international speaker and writes a popular business blog at www.clairediazortiz.com.
Claire holds an MBA from Oxford University and a BA and an MA from Stanford University. She is the cofounder of Hope Runs, a nonprofit organization operating in AIDS orphanages in Kenya. She has appeared widely in major television and print news sources such as CNN, BBC,Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fortune, Forbes, Wired, and many others. Find her on Twitter @claire.

Samuel Ikua Gachagua was born in rural Kenya in 1992. After losing his parents at a young age, he struggled to survive until he was placed in an orphanage in Nyeri, Kenya. In 2009, he received a full-ride scholarship to Maine Central Institute, granting him a rare US visa and the chance to begin his sophomore year of high school under the guardianship of Claire Díaz-Ortiz. After graduating from high school, he spent a year serving in Ecuador as a fellow for Global Citizen Year. He is an up-and-coming motivational speaker and can be found on Twitter @sammyikua.

My Thoughts:
     Hope Runs is one of those books that restores one's faith in mankind. It's always heartwarming to know that there are folks out there that truly do make a significant difference in someone's life. Mother Teresa said "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." Claire is an example of someone doing those great things and is an inspiration to me to keep doing small things with great love.Hope Runs was a page turner that was difficult to put down when life called; I hope that Samuel (or Claire) will write another book as he does great things in his life.


This book was provided to me by  Baker Publishing Group; I received no monetary compensation for my honest review

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