Published testimonies from Christians who have same-sex attractions are nothing too unusual. However, “Out of a Far Country” has a big difference, it consists of TWO people’s testimonies – one of the prodigal son and one of the always-welcoming mother. What makes this approach interesting is that every chapter alternates between the testimony and point of view of the son (Christopher Yuan) and his mother (Angela Yuan). So you’re literally seeing the story unfold from 2 people’s point of view – each coming from their own perspective, giving us essentially 2 sides of the same story. Layered on top of that, you get to see the unique personal struggles of both Christopher and Angela – both of them struggled with very different things, and how God worked on Christopher through his journey with same sex attractions, addictions, high-flying LGBT lifestyle and drugs, while Angela struggled with her son’s rejection of her love, her son’s homosexuality, her strained marriage and her broken past. It’s a book filled with the full range of human emotions and God’s work in turning them both from unbelief to belief, from hopelessness to hope and from death to life.
What really struck me about this book is how well-written and well-articulated it is. The writing is refined, it’s not crass, it flows extremely well chapter-to-chapter. When reading it, I felt the pain, desperation, turning points and joy that both Christopher and Angela experienced. The descriptions were so vivid that it felt as if I was present at the dining table with Angela, at the dining table with Chris and family, at the train station with Angela, at the parties then in jail with Chris, and at the prayer room with Angela, and so on. Because Christopher and Angela Yuan have both gone through so much in their lives, there is so much to follow in the book and it kept me reading literally non-stop. Every chapter spurred me on to read “just one more chapter” because I was keen to find out what happened to them next. Furthermore, because each chapter is quite short, I end up reading a good number of chapters on each sitting! And every chapter feels different and interesting. Because it comes from two angles, it made this book twice as touching and impactful for me. I found myself cheering for Angela, for Leon (Christopher’s father) and of course, Chris himself. It is a modern real-life tale of the prodigal son and long-suffering parents… and a long-suffering God, who loved them all so much that He gave His Son for them all, and saved the Yuan’s entire family.
I said there was a sting in the end and the sting is this: I felt a bit sad at the end because Christopher indicated that he continues to live with the reality of HIV, and so he must continue to monitor himself – and there may come a point in time he may have to actually start taking medication to treat it. That said, it is so good to see how God had completely turned the Yuan family’s lives around – especially Christopher, when he could’ve been dead countless times! Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Jin Wan