Beams of Heaven Guiding Me

Roy Adams has written eight books and hundreds of editorials and articles during the course of his writing career, but through it all has said very little about his background and formative years. In this memoir, he goes there, catching up the reader on some of the most arresting behind-the-scenes experiences of his life. You will read, for example, about the night God used a small army of cockroaches to bring him to a pivotal decision of his life; and about the frightening moments at a British Columbia border near Vancouver, where, with 33 cents left in his pocket, he came close to being refused entry into Canada-and all this after a harrowing journey from the Caribbean and an anxious, close-to-starvation five-day ride across the United States by Greyhound Bus. Looking back on his arrival in Canada after so many perils-and remembering that the following day he'd thrown those last 33 cents into the offering plate at church--Adams says in the book: "So here I was in a strange country without a single red penny in my pocket! Nothing! It was a defining moment. For it wasn't simply that I didn't have one red penny in my pocket; it was also that I had no money whatsoever, anywhere. Penniless in a new country! In retrospect, it scares the daylight out of me. Who else but God could pull off a thing like that! ... it makes me tremble--still." From a humble beginning in the Caribbean, Adams has traveled to every continent (except Antarctica), working as a pastor, seminary professor, and speaker. For the final two decades of his ministry, he served as associate editor of Adventist Review & Adventist World, international publications of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Caribbean compatriots will relate to Adams' description of his early years, with its many practices, customs, and superstitions. Readers in Canada will engage with his fascinating references to his student and pastoral-ministry days in that northern country. People in Central America, South Amer