| Author: |
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Susan Scott Krabacher
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| Title: |
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Angels of a Lower Flight: One Womans Mission to Save a Country . . . One Child at a Time |
| Moochable copies: |
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No copies available |
| Amazon suggests: |
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| Topics: |
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| Published in: |
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English |
| Binding: |
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Hardcover |
| Pages: |
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336 |
| Date: |
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2007-10-09 |
| ASIN/ISBN: |
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1416535144 |
| Publisher: |
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Touchstone |
| Weight: |
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0.95 pounds |
| Size: |
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5.5 x 8.6 x 1.3 inches |
| Previous givers: |
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1 jory (USA: IN) |
| Previous moochers: |
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1 Maureen (USA: MI) |
| Wishlists: |
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| Description: |
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"In this world, you were loved." The inspiring story of how one woman's message of hope and opportunity will change the lives of an entire generation. Three schools, two orphanages, a hospital, and an abandoned-infant home -- constructed in the poorest country in the western hemisphere -- were the result of one quick television commercial. The ad was for a charity, asking for donations to help impoverished children in a third world country. Though author Susie Scott Krabacher had a little money to give, what she wanted was to hold the hand of every child she saw and tell them that they were not forgotten and that they too were important. When Susie called the charity, it wanted only monetary donations -- and every other overseas nonprofit she contacted couldn't or wouldn't take on an inexperienced volunteer. So Susie set out to change the children's lives on her own. In this heartbreaking and inspiring memoir, Susie Scott Krabacher tells how the pain in her past caused her to doubt if God really loved and protected her. From her abusive childhood to her experiences as a Playboy centerfold during the 1980s, Susie details with frank honesty how she lost her faith along the way and how her experiences helping children in Haiti, an impoverished nation only five hundred miles from Florida, brought God back into her life. In a country where 10 percent of all children die before the age of four, Susie mounted a brave effort to provide not just charity but opportunity. By treating the children she helps as individuals, Susie gives them the tools to save their own country. Although some of the children she's tirelessly worked to rescue do not survive, Susie will never again lose her faith. |
| Reviews: |
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JenniferB (Canada) (2009/07/07):
“Former Playboy Playmate Does Good”: a subtitle that would accurately encapsulate the thrust of Susie Scott Krabacher’s autobiography Angels of a Lower Flight. What this subtitle wouldn’t capture are the nuances of pain – that of Krabacher’s abusive childhood and perhaps more importantly, that of the thousands of Haitian children that she now feeds and cares for through her charitable foundation Mercy and Sharing.
Angels of a Lower Flight chronicles Krabacher’s first-person recollections of the abuse and strictly religious home she grew up in. Not a happy, feel-good read by any stretch of the imagination, she doesn’t skirt away from her grandfather’s predatory sexual abuse nor her mother’s mental disorders and violent tendencies. Seeking to escape her childhood home, she dropped out of grade ten, took an office job, and before long found herself sinking into the moral depravity and boundary-free world of a Playboy playmate. Sinking into drug addiction and a doomed marriage to a criminal, she eventually finds herself homeless and working as an unskilled domestic.
After her remarriage to a successful attorney, Krabacher eventually feels led to aid children in poverty-stricken countries. Without training or the support of any official organization, she strikes out to see what can be done for the children of Haiti. Krabacher’s fortitude and persistence in setting up orphanages, feeding programs, and schools in this spiritually dark country are amazing to read, considering her complete lack of what many would consider to be the requisite formal qualifications.
Her descriptions of the pain, fear, hunger, and death that she encounters in her journey are heartbreaking. Reading her memoirs, one can’t help but be captured by the pleas of these Haitian little ones as they are cast away, mistreated, and purposefully disposed of. Haiti is now indelibly imprinted on the hearts of my family, and our home has been filled with prayers, conversation, further research and much heart-searching.
Not a read for the timid, Krabacher doesn’t shy away from describing her drug binges, recollections of sexual abuse, tales of wild parties, and life in the Playboy mansion. Neither does she gloss over the realities of life in Haiti for abandoned children: little ones with heads grown into crib bars, extraordinary degrees of starvation and malnutrition, children abandoned on the streets with broken bones, and the list goes on.
Turning to God as her support through the many trials and difficulties that she encounters in her work, the pages of her work are scattered with meaningful scripture passages – particularly the psalms, and occasionally references to her faith. She also clearly draws into view the spiritual roots of the darkness, poverty, crime, and so on that are rife in Haitian society. However, this is not primarily a spiritually focused title; rather, the thrust of her work is humanitarian in nature. No clear-cut conversion experience is shared, and readers may be left uncertain in regards to Krabacher’s spiritual standing, as she continues to model nude sometime after returning to church. There’s no clear delineation line where she passes from darkness to light. I can only hope that certain portions of her spiritual journey remain untold here.
While sharing the many challenges faced during the establishment and growth of Mercy and Sharing, Krabacher continually amazed me with her seemingly contradictory traits of tender mercy and iron-will. With such a heart for children, she continues to soldier on, though her heart’s been broken countless times. She presses on through each struggle, refusing to surrender. Amazingly devoted to the cause, she’s worked since 1995 without drawing any wages, and all the profits from her book are going directly back into her ongoing work in Haiti.
Reviewed at quiverfullfamily.com
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| URL: |
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http://bookmooch.com/1416535144 |
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