Christie publishes youth novel on Livingstone

Returning from a successful biography release last year, Christian author Vance Christie has announced his latest book telling the life of “David Livingstone: Africa’s Greatest Explorer.” Unlike the more than 700-page scholarly biography of Livingstone that came out in 2023, however, this new telling of the missionary’s life is in paperback novel form and is intended for a young adult audience. It also comes in at just 158 pages. 
The former Aurora pastor spent six years writing his first Livingstone biography, “David Livingstone: Missionary, Explorer, Abolitionist,” which received praise and was awarded the Gospel Coalition’s Award of Distinction last December.
Prior to its release, he was encouraged by his publishers to recreate the telling for younger readers.
“I welcomed the idea, because I would have the opportunity to share Livingstone’s life with a younger audience,” Christie said. “I thought that the book would be of interest to them in learning about this remarkable missionary from the past who had a colorful and adventuresome career.”
Like its predecessor, the new book tells of the accomplishments made by Livingstone, who has been recognized for his exploration of the southern regions of Africa, his dedication to sharing the Christian faith to the local tribes and his commitment to ending the slave trade.
However, Christie said the book is a complete retelling of Livingstone’s story while following the earlier biography’s thorough survey of the missionary’s legacy. 
“This is a completely new rewrite of Livingstone’s life that is put into a language that kids can understand and also includes topics that I thought would be beneficial for them,” he stated.
“Bearing in mind that I was writing for a younger audience, I’ve included many instances of action and adventure that actually took place throughout Livingstone’s decades of colorful service in Africa,” he noted.
The youth book also includes a rigorous timeline that focuses on crucial events of Livingstone’s life as well as a map of southern Africa documenting his journeys. Christie says one of his goals was to help readers understand Livingstone’s conflicts so they can overcome their own obstacles.
“I think plenty of kids will feel like, ‘Well, I don’t have it that bad, but I do have challenges of my own,’” he said. “I think they’ll be encouraged to read how Livingstone went about overcoming the challenges of his boyhood.”
The author said the book will also provide readers insight into how they can serve others through faith as Livingstone did.
“For a young Christian person, there’s often the desire to devote what they do in life to serving others and serving the Lord,” he said. “There would be that issue of how God guides a young person in their vocational work of life. There’s a lot in the book about looking to the Lord and trusting him to help a person through the difficulties in life.”
At the end of the book Christie includes a section called “Thinking Further Topics,” which has application questions for each chapter. The questions are intended to help readers reflect upon the conflicts in Livingstone’s life and think through how they can overcome them through faith.
“In chapter three, there’s a question that relates to how Christians can be helping orphans, widows and others in distress,” Christie noted. “Chapter four talks about the wonderful wife Livingstone married and how she was a great help and blessing to him their shared ministry. There’s a chapter that talks about where Livingstone had to exercise great perseverance at a particular phase in his ministry. Then the application question is, ‘What does his example teach us about persevering in our work for God?.’”
Having written over 700 pages documenting the events of Livingstone’s life, the author says it was a challenge to condense all of Livingstone’s accomplishments into just 158 pages.
“There is so much to Livingstone’s life, both in terms of important events and different adventures that he experienced, that it was still quite a challenge to pick and choose what would go into this shorter account of his life and what should be left out,” he said.
While the previous book covers both the positive and negative aspects of Livingstone’s life, the new book primarily focuses on the darker subject of the East African slave trade and slavery as an institution.
“It was just an evil practice that destroyed scores of thousands of lives every year and involved the most brutal treatment of people who were being enslaved,” Christie stated. “I sought to say enough that would help kids understand that this was a tremendous problem and evil that existed, but I certainly didn’t go into gruesome detail.”
“What I tried to do with that issue instead was to keep the focus positive, talking about how David communicated the problem of the slave trade in Africa,” Christie said. “He communicated that back to his acquaintances and government officials in Britain and that was used to make the British public and the government aware of this huge problem in Africa... It really stirred up the nation of England and all of Britain to the point where they said, ‘We need to step in here and help put a stop to this.’”
For his book release, Christie plans to visit local churches during their midweek kids ministry to share his book with them and encourage them to think about the themes presented in it. 
With the publishing of the new book, Christie said he has two more books currently in the works. One, a biography on William Carey, who was one of the first foreign missionaries, and another children’s biography. This one chronicles the life of Luis Palau, a famous evangelist that Christie described as being second only to Billy Graham.
“Ultimately, we want God to be glorified through the lives of these prominent Christians,” Christie said. “It was God’s grace that called these people to believe in Jesus and to serve Him, and it was God who gave them the gifts and abilities that they could do so fruitfully.”