Dangerous Territory: My Misguided Quest to Save the World

by Amy Peterson

Overview

Amy Peterson grew up in church, where she loved the adventurous stories of missionaries in foreign countries who won people to the Lord. After college, she was ready to “do big things for God” on the mission field herself. Dangerous Territory is a captivating memoir that tells Amy’s personal journey from wide-eyed adventurer to questioning believer to simply a beloved child of God. Her story will challenge your notion of “mission work,” showing how you can have a vital relationship with God that naturally spills over to affect others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627075978
Publisher:	Our Daily Bread Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/2017
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,135,846
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Amy Peterson is a writer, English as a second language instructor, and assistant director of honors programming at Taylor University. She has a master’s degree in missions and intercultural studies from Wheaton College, and has used it to work with people from more than a dozen countries. Amy lives with her fellow adventurer husband and their two children on two acres of Indiana farmland. Read more of Amy’s writing on her blog, amypeterson.net. 

Table of Contents

Introduction 13

Part 1 Sent

1 I Can't Tell You This Country's Name 17

Interlude: A Brief History of the Missionary Narrative 27

2 Backpackers and Wanderlust 29

3 Expats Will Change the World 35

4 Do Not Easily Leave 41

Interlude: A Brief History of Short-Term Missions 47

5 The Strictest American 51

6 Locusts and Miracles 57

7 Long Walks on the Beach 63

8 The Backstreet Boys and Salvation 69

9 Christmas Parties 73

10 Solos at Karaoke 79

11 Headless in Thailand 83

Interlude: A Brief History of Women in Missions 89

12 Further Out 93

13 Deeper In 99

14 The Impossibility of Self-Care 103

15 High Places (Mistakes Were Made) 109

Part 2 Stripped

16 Home 115

17 "The Police Were Following Him" 119

18 Instant Messages 123

19 Saying Thank You in the Dark 141

20 Due to Curriculum Changes 145

21 Choosing Cambodia 155

22 Why Are We Here? 159

Interlude: Imagining Other Ways of Doing Missions 163

23 The Spirit of Christmas Past, and Other Ghosts 167

24 The Killing Fields 173

Part 3 Surrendered

25 A Whittled Arrow, Hidden 181

26 Falling in Love 185

27 Being, the Beloved 191

28 Fireflies and Honey 195

29 Gethsemane 199

Interlude: The Missionary 205

30 Speaking Faith as a Second Language 209

Epilogue: No Longer at Ease 213

Further Reading 219

Acknowledgments 221

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/12/2016
Debut author Peterson recounts her trek to Southeast Asia to teach English and serve as a missionary, although she loathes the term because of the negative associations it carries. Like many who were raised in the Christian faith and have thought about overseas work, Peterson longed for God to do something big in her life, admiring the “glamorous” missionary stories of Amy Carmichael, George Muller, and Jim Elliot. Her memoir chronicles two years in a closed country where evangelism is forbidden (she can’t even tell readers her exact placement for fear of putting others in danger) and shares how her faith unraveled when she was discovered as a Christian. Forced to come to terms with results she didn’t want or expect, her understanding of God began to shift and grow in different ways as she experienced a spiritual reorientation. “Was ‘making a difference’ really something I was called to do?” she asks. “No verse in my New Testament asked me to make a difference.” Interspersed throughout her memoir are “interludes” that discuss the background of missionary work and the consequences—good and bad—that stem from it, which adds a nice touch of critical analysis to her personal narrative. Peterson is a thoughtful writer whose honest prose will appeal to any readers wanting to align themselves with God’s will, whether in a foreign land or at home. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Amy Peterson’s Dangerous Territory is too honest to indulge the hero façade and too authentic to avoid the unresolved questions. But real stories are like that. If you want to read a real story, a well-told story, a story where shallow Christian missionary triumphalism is replaced by the messy, unresolved, and sometimes tragic life of faith, then read this story. In Dangerous Territory we set aside our adolescent faith with its tidy answers and clean endings, and we take up an adult faith; a faith with real risk, real loss, real questions, and God’s presence on the other side of pain."

Scott Bessenecker

"Do not read this book if you are content with safe categories, messiah complexes, or serving God as a way to serve yourself. Do read this book if you want to wrestle with a God who works outside our boxes and humbles us in the process. By sharing so freely from her own life, Peterson gives us the opportunity to invite His work into ours. Simultaneously devastating and comforting, Dangerous Territory calls us beyond our simplistic notions of commitment to God to a place of full surrender."

Hannah Anderson

"In this book Amy Peterson opens up her messy, ordinary, and beautiful life to let us see what it meant for her to go from a young woman wrapped in the mythology of missionary heroes, through dark days of disillusionment, into a deeper, more grounded understanding of faith and calling."

Brian M. Howell

Dangerous Territory is a must-read for anyone, like myself, who longs to be a part of the global story of God’s coming kingdom. Here, Peterson unpacks the layers of the traditional missionary narrative in ways that are subversive, profound, and ultimately hopeful.

D. L. Mayfield

"Peterson's thoughtful and vulnerable exploration of her missionary experiences urges us to peel away the layers. To learn, finally, what it is to rest in our own Belovedness."

Addie Zierman

"Amy Peterson is one of my favorite writers."

Rachel Held Evans

"Amy Peterson's writing is vulnerable and beautiful, and she is a good companion for Christians in search of an earthy, ordinary faith."

Michael Cosper

"Amy Peterson's wise and provocative words should be required reading for any Christian about to immerse herself in another culture or community."

Lauren F. Winner

There is a disarming determination in these pages not to let Christian faith go until its blessings are known and felt.

Wesley Hill

Amy’s is a story of a life broken open and remade: imperfectly, beautifully. We need more brave stories like hers.

Micha Boyett

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