God's Golden Acre

God's Golden Acre is the biography of Heather Reynolds, by Dale le Vack. It is the inspiring story of a South African Woman, from the KwaZulu-Natal province, who has spent much of her adult life caring for thousands of orphan children - victims of the AIDS pandemic of south eastern Africa.

This is a heroic story, of Heather's determination to be a mother to those who no longer have an able parent to care for them. The need is great, the situation desperate and the task daunting, but there are few obstacles which Heather has not removed by sheer hard work and her indomitable spirit, in her quest to provide a haven, now known as God's Golden Acre.

The book is written in three parts. Part 1 retells some of the key events that have become the milestones in Heather's journey; they set the scene for the other sections. Part 2 recounts her childhood, early adult life and her roller-coaster spiritual journey, leading up to her first encounter with AIDS orphans in Uganda in 1973 and the life-changing realization that God was calling her to be involved in caring for these most vulnerable members of any society. Part 3 is the establishment of her ministry God's Golden Acre, in its various locations to the place where it is now, looking out over beautiful rural Africa. Many miracles take place, both in the raising of finance and in rescuing children from intolerable conditions. She eventually sets up a network for international volunteers to participate in her project and many of them retell their own stories in the book.

Heather is now an ambassador for her foster care system throughout Africa and is a well respected and much loved South African. God's Golden Acre has now received much media attention and the American chat show host Oprah Winfrey recently became one of its main financial contributors, raising the charity to international status.

Much of Heather's story is told by herself, as first person narratives from the interviews that Dale recorded as a preparation to writing the book. Twenty-four full-colour pages of photographs are inserted into the book's centre and the cover has photos of Heather with some of her children.

I thoroughly enjoyed this true story. It is challenging and heartrending in places and definitely shifts you out of your comfort zone, but also helps to dispell cynicism against some charity work.