{Book} Review: ‘Til We Meet Again by Ray & Betty Whipps

Disclosure: I received this product free in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. Your opinions and results may vary.

Reading a true story set against the backdrop of WWII that leaves you with an overwhelming feeling of upliftedness, hope, and peace is not commonplace. However, that is exactly how I felt after reading ‘Til We Meet Again.

As a busy homeschool mom, it’s not often that I get a chance to sit down and read for pleasure. Oh, I’m always reading! But most of what I read is related to homeschooling — either educating myself on how to teach or reading aloud to my kids. So when I carved out a chunk of time to read this book, it was a special thing. I read it from cover to cover in four hours flat.

About the Book

Ray and Betty Whipps both served in Europe during WWII: Ray as an infantryman under General Patton in the trenches of Normandy, Paris, and Belgium, and Betty as a field nurse in Cherbourg, France. The two met when Betty tended to Ray after he was injured in a mortar blast. Both strong Christians, the two bonded over their shared faith, and as Betty nursed Ray back to health, they fell in love and vowed to marry after the war. However, soon after Ray returned to his unit, he was captured by German forces and held captive in Stalag VII, Germany’s largest prisoner of war camp. It was there that Ray’s faith was put to the ultimate test as he endured the most horrific weeks of his life—weeks marked by brutality, malnutrition, back-breaking labor, and near-constant death. The only thing that kept him alive was the dream of someday reuniting with Betty.

'Til We Meet Again
Written by Ray & Betty Whipps with Craig Borlase
ISBN: 978-1496405487
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
288 pages

watch on tyndale.com

What I Thought

One of the most remarkable things about this story is the absence of hatred on the part of both Ray and Betty even through some of history's darkest times. You will meet with true love and faith in the pages of this book. You will feel the grit and horrors of the battlefield, but through a lens of reliance on God, trust in His purpose, and trust that He will see you through. You will carry away from this book a sense of peace and hope that the same God will be with you in the trenches of your life and will remain just as faithful to you as He was to Ray and Betty. That kind of testament to God's faithfulness is what I will remember most about this book years into the future.

In addition to seeing God at work throughout Ray Whipps' life, you get a very good dose of history in this book. I found myself wanting to hang onto this title to give to my [future] high schoolers as an example of a living book for this time period. It would be fantastic to read this book with a world map at your side so you could follow along with each place Ray ended up.

I highly recommend this book!

Find it from the publisher here or on Amazon.

MFW ECC: What's different this time around?

I am so excited to go through Exploring Countries and Cultures again. The last time my kids were so little -- 3rd grade and Kindergarten. And now they are in 5th and 8th grades! They have grown so much over the past five years. As I began to think about our plan for this year, I realized two things: 1) my gifted eldest child remembers just about everything we covered in ECC the first time, and 2) my younger one hasn't had many of the basics that ECC covers. So I was faced with a dilemma -- how do I adjust ECC to suit the very different needs of both children? How do I shift the focus for my 8th grader to aspects of ECC that she hadn't spent time on before (such as types of governments, imports and exports, etc.) while also taking my younger child through the more foundational information that he missed when he was just a kindergartener? ECC is designed to be parent-led, family learning, with a supplement for 7th and 8th grade. But I came to the conclusion that I need to deco...

Pilcrow pajamas

I finally finished a sewing project...it's been a while, huh? Little Guy has outgrown most of his pajamas and bodysuits. He has several onesies, but they're mostly short sleeved which isn't really appropriate for this time of year without a cardigan. Ottobre to the rescue! I had traced off the "Naava coverall" (Ottobre 6/2009, #3) but it was already a size too small. I "remedied" that by simply cutting it out a little larger all around and keeping my original seam allowance...a bit sloppy perhaps, but time-saving! I actually cut out two at the same time from the same material. I was going for practicality (something for the kid to wear!) rather than fashion. The other one is nearly done - just the leg binding and snaps left to do. Still, I needed to do something fun to spruce 'em up a bit. The other one was voted by hubby to be video game themed, so I decided to make this one reflect my abject nerdiness personality....

Letter posters with memory verses

I have very fond memories of the cursive letter banner that was posted around the top of the walls in my fifth grade classroom. I thought it would be fun to make something similar for our homeschool classroom (a.k.a. our kitchen). I decided to include a Bible verse for each letter. At this point it's mostly for my own benefit since Miss M doesn't read yet. They serve as great reminders to help her memorize these important bits of Scripture while her little mind is still a sponge. (It saddens me that my memorization skills are not what they were when I was a kid!) The fun part is I saved my work in a pdf file for you to use too! Just click the image above to download the file. I laminated mine before sticking them around my kitchen walls with ticky tacky. (The laminator is a new toy!) Enjoy!

CHRISTEPHI

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