William P. Young

The Shack

This is my first experience with William P. Young and while I found The Shack to be sound and orthodox, I would pick another of his books with caution and would be on the "look out" for heresy as I read it. But I likely would read it.

William has an unusual life experience as he grew up as a missionary kid in New Guinea among a tribe that had not seen white people before and practiced canibalism. He was the only white child there and became a translater for Wycliff as he spoke both languages. He was sent away to boarding school at the age of 6 and became very diassociated with his parents. He first understood that he was not black when he first went to school as he had not realized he was different when he spent his first 6 years of life with the tribe. He was then molested by older boys as initiation at the boarding school and this became part of his own "great sadness". He is a husband and father of six children and has two grandchildren on the way.

He wrote the story for his kids - not with an agenda. He works several jobs and is very down-to-earth. His wife encourages him to write and thus begins the story of The Shack. He is Mackenzie in the story.

He states that "to me, everything is about Jesus and Father and the Holy Spirit, and relationships, and life is an adventure of faith lived one day at a time." (www.theshack.com) That sounds pretty awesome to me.

I encourage you to read The Shack.

http://theshackbook.com/index.html

You tube video on William P. Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsOeILVa3wQ