Journeying Towards Nonviolence

About this book

As a young missionary sent to Idi Amin's Uganda fifty years ago and then to war torn Sudan, John Ashworth's faith is quickly tested when he is kidnapped by rebels seemingly intent on killing him. Forced to survive marching through the bush in the face of a looming death sentence, the purpose of his life starts to become clear. In this compelling memoir, Ashworth examines what it means to be a missionary, an aid worker and a peacebuilder in a world driven by power and profit where war and intolerance run rife. His is a story filled with adventure, from that first death sentence through years of dodging bullets, navigating humanitarian bureaucracy, singing bawdy songs in Irish pubs around the world, discovering a spirituality based on Gospel nonviolence, and falling in love and making a home on the edge of Africa's Great Rift Valley, while still finding time to indulge in his lifelong passion for steam engines. Ashworth's extraordinary life story is evidence that love, hope and meaning endure even in the darkest of places.