Picking Olives and Breaking Bread Book One - A Memoir

A whitewashed Spanish village. Golden Greek islands. Vast Egyptian deserts. Trouble.

Picking Olives and Breaking Bread, Book One, is a poignant story about a couple who find God, grow spiritually, encounter adventure, trials, and success in some of Europe’s most beautiful places. The story begins in Spain where the previous book, Where Wild Olives Grow, leaves off. Jailed in a Spanish village and stricken with hepatitis, Ken and his wife, Barbara--former hippies and brand new Christians--recouperate in a lonely pension.

While there, angels disguised as fellow sojourners minister to them. They learn that hope and divine inspiration can restore wasted years. Finally recouperated, they travel to Germany and wind up in a Jesus People commune. Later, they move to Greece where he enrolls in college and she teaches English. They smuggle Bibles into a Communist country. Ken sails the Aegean as a charter skipper to pay the bills. They go on to establish a church in Athens where Ken's entrepreneurial talents provide the means to live for the next nine years.

In this true story, Ken nearly dies in a hurricane on an offshore oil rig. He becomes a charter boat skipper, an Austrian ski-tour operator, a carpenter, an engineer in Egypt, an international consultant, the director of a major ministry, and a missionary. The story takes place in the “olive crescent”—Sunny, southern European countries that line the Mediterranean from Turkey to Spain. The couple also lives or works in Egypt, Alaska, Morocco, Texas (a foreign country of sorts), and Hawaii. Another forty or so countries are mentioned. Yes, forty. Tough lessons learned in extraordinary circumstances compells the reader to journey with them ... and gain valuable insight on taking risks and trusting God. The book includes end-of-section discussions and applications.