Passport Through Darkness by Kimberly L Smith

Passport Through Darkness is the heartbreaking reality that Kimberly L Smith got when she dared to ask God for something more from her life. Kimberly and her husband Milton packed their bags and headed for the other side of the world and a lifetime away from the comfort of home in America. What they found waiting for them was a heartbroken people with no hope. Abuse, rape, torture, these are things that some people deal with on a daily basis in the world that Kimberly and Milton entered, it broke their hearts and changed their lives. Together they founded Make Way Partners, a mission organization committed to ending human trafficking. Through this new ministry Kimberly was allowed to enter Darfur and it was there that she encountered the blackest of all nightmares. What she saw and experienced is, sadly, normal for the people living there. Kimberly's story will break you, make you question your own purpose and cause you to grieve for the hopeless and the courageous half a world away. There were many times that I had to put it down and walk away from it to clear my head. It's hard to understand how these things can happen, especially when we sit in the comfort of a home that's too big for us with plenty of things to occupy our time and keep our thoughts from wandering to those less fortunate that us in the USA.

Watch the book trailer for Passport Through Darkness here.

About the book:

Each one of us longs to know we matter. We hunger to know that we have purpose, our life has meaning, and God dreams great dreams for us. In Passport Through Darkness: A True Story of Danger and Second Chances, Kimberly Smith invites us into her own struggles as an ordinary woman who feels those aches, asks those questions, and stumbles through a quest to find her place in a broken world.

Smith was an average American woman—a wife, mother, corporate executive, and faithful church member. But she knew something was missing from her life. When a bone-chilling experience awakened her desire to find true purpose, Smith and her family began a lifelong adventure serving those who never knew a greater purpose could exist.

Traveling around the world and deep into the darkness of her own heart, Smith’s worst fears collided with her faith as she and her family discovered the atrocities of human trafficking. But in that broken place a self-centered life was transformed into an international effort to save thousands from modern-day slavery, persecution, disease, and genocide.

As Smith and her husband risk everything for orphans in Eastern Europe and Africa, they see God work again and again in impossible situations, especially in their own lives and marriage. They see God change them—even in their exhaustion, marital struggles, and physical limitations. They see the beauty of living out God’s dreams.

This is a book of hope for anyone who longs to see God’s redemptive power heal broken hearts, fill empty bellies, and shelter uncovered heads. It is a call to take one more step on your own journey to know God’s heart and purpose for your life. It is a guide from one ordinary person to another to find a life that matters.

Smith writes, “My prayer is that God will use my wounds and my transgressions to encourage you to risk losing everything to discover the life God dreams for you. It’s life on the edge, where so much is uncertain, maybe even scary, certainly out of our control. But it’s also where true freedom lives.”

Your story may be different from hers, but God’s hopes for you are just as big. “Your destination,” Smith writes, “is the same as mine—an intimate encounter between you and your Creator. But your route will be filled with adventures, both mild and wild, made just for you. It will lead you to where God’s pleasure and your purpose meet.”

Let Kimberly’s remarkable story show you the grit, the pain, and the beauty of letting go of it all to find the dream God dreamed when He shaped you in His Hands.

About the Author: Kimberly L. Smith is the president and cofounder of Make Way Partners, a mission organization committed to ending human trafficking. She is currently leading Make Way Partners to build the only private and indigenously based anti-trafficking network in Africa and Eastern Europe. A devoted wife, mother, and grandmother, Smith lives with her husband, Milton, in Sylacauga, Alabama.

Thanks to The B&B Media Group for providing this book for review.