Friendship A True Story Of Adventure, Goodwill, And Endurance [Paperback]

Friendship: A True Story of Adventure, Goodwill, and Endurance shares the remarkable life journey of an African boy from the region made famous by the movie Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which was nominated for five Academy Awards. That movie brought attention to a rebel war in West Africa in which blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, were used to finance warlords and their activities. Two decades before the rebel war Thomas Johnson, a pilot from Minnesota, was employed to fly boxes of gems and alluvial diamonds in Sierra Leone from Yengema to Freetown, where a British Airways jet would fly the gemstones to London. This pilot met and befriended young Francis Mandewah, an impoverished Sierra Leonean boy, and gave him generous support that opened a new life of opportunity, which would eventually take Francis to America. Along the way Francis had many harrowing experiences, including crossing the Sahara Desert, which almost cost him his life. His challenges continued in Italy, Greece, and finally in America. In the end, Francis became aware that his real voice that has emerged through all his trials and tribulations is one of deep faith, and gratitude for God's miracles and wonders in his life. Book Excerpts On my way home I walked in a haze. I was in shock over the miracle that had just happened in my life. That night as I settled down to sleep on my mat on the floor of my cousin's house, I lay in the dark and prayed, 'Dear God, I can't take any more heartbreak. Please let this be real. What did I do to deserve such a blessing? I promise to do well in school and make You proud. Please don't let me die in my sleep tonight.' Dreams are peculiar things. They come to us both when sleeping and awake. They mix imagination and memory to project vivid images in our minds of what could be. Sometimes these images are delightful, remarkable. Other times they are horrific and unsettling. I have had a reoccurring dream since I was a child. In the lS4