ENDEAVOUR FORUM NEWSLETTER No. 127, MAY 2007
BOOKSHELF
Australian Women of Grace: Edited by Robyn Hipkiss 
Published by Irrepressible Press
Price $19.95, order from jrhipkiss@optusnet.com.au
Reviewed by Dr. Daphne Hennelly.
Robyn Hipkiss has collected in one volume five autobiographical stories, including her own, all of which make fascinating reading. Here are five Australian women from different backgrounds and nationalities telling us their personal stories, family upbringing and ambitions, sorrows and joys, disappointments and hardships included. One of the stories is by Betty Hocking, formerly Coordinator for Endeavour Forum in the A.C.T.
One contributor is particularly unusual as she takes up textiles and weaving as a career, later working in the A.C.T. and taking part in a presentation to the Queen.
Along with this variety of female characters, all in different circumstances and with different ambitions, there is a common thread running through all the stories. They have all come into contact with evangelical Christianity which has profoundly influenced their lives, thus making Christianity their focus for living. The attractiveness of the Christian religion impressed them intellectually, influencing all aspects of life, including the difficulties of living in Australia, distances from family and home, how to acquire a good education, make a living and support children.
This book is interesting and entertaining reading, all the more so because these are true stories with which all of us can identify, a vignette of how the history of the violent 20th Century impacted on the lives of normal people. We are presented with an insight, described in colourful language, of a variety of responses, knowing that in the end we are dependent on the Providence of God.
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