Rating: 
Summary: Great Read! Worth the money
Review: I've read and re-read this book several times. I've read the reviews here and most simply missed the point of the book. The heart of the story is about the love these women have for Jesus and their compassion and desire to help people in need. I've re-read this book at times when I feel my life and circumstances are too difficult to bear and it also encourages me. I LOVE the fact that Heather struggled with fear while in prison because that is how I picture myself reacting! You can relate to how she feels. I was encouraged and uplifted to read about these women who gave so much to the people and never expected anything in return. Get it from the library if you want but give it a read. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read! Worth the money
Review: I've read and re-read this book several times. I've read the reviews here and most simply missed the point of the book. The heart of the story is about the love these women have for Jesus and their compassion and desire to help people in need. I've re-read this book at times when I feel my life and circumstances are too difficult to bear and it also encourages me. I LOVE the fact that Heather struggled with fear while in prison because that is how I picture myself reacting! You can relate to how she feels. I was encouraged and uplifted to read about these women who gave so much to the people and never expected anything in return. Get it from the library if you want but give it a read. It's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: A Testimony of God¿s Faithfulness
Review: In August of 2001, we were introduced to American missionaries Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer. Each had accepted their calling into missions and was serving the people of Afghanistan. While many lives were changed as a result of their work, the Taliban arrested them for sharing their faith. For over three months the world watched and prayed for their release and eventually in November 2001, these prayers were answered. While many of us believe that we have heard the whole story, there is more. Told candidly in first person, Heather & Dayna take the reader into their world. We are introduced to the people they impacted, their experiences in Afghanistan, and those who also were involved in their journey during their time in prison. You will truly be moved as you read of the experience that made both women stronger and passionate like never before. Prisoners of Hope is a powerful, moving, and compelling story, one that is true testimony of God's faithfulness and mercy even through the most difficult of times. Dayna and Heather are incredible women and as a young Christian woman I salute them for heeding the call and sharing the gospel to the Afghan people. I pray that God will continue to bless them both greatly. Reviewed by Kanika (Nika) Wade
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating: 
Summary: Loss of Faith
Review: It's amazing how poorly this book is written. It's really dull. The book tells the story of how un-Christian these two girls are. Jesus and God cannot be pleased with their selfish and rude behavior in Afghanistan and back in the US. These two girls and all missionaries are making the world worse by their horrible work and their un-Christian manners and acts. Hopefully, these kind of people will disapper from the book world and the real world.
Rating:
Summary: A light shone in the darkness.
Review: Its interesting to me to see that the the harshest critics of Heather and Dayna's Mission to Afghanistan used the review to preach their own 'belief' system instead of reviewing the book. A friend of mine worked in Afghanistan for three years in the 1960's,with the Canadian University Programme.The conditions at that time were exactly what they still are, mainly poverty,and misery. I enjoyed the account of Dayna and Heather's experiences and marvelled that in the midst of darkness the light of human kindness still shone.From the workers care of the Afghan people to their concern for their Afghani female prisoners,is a testament to the power of Christ's love,even in the midst of darkness and oppression.
As a Psychiatric Nurse I can understand the tremendous pressure they were under, and to survive the ravages of war,psychological torture and fear, is a testament to the courage and faith of all these workers.
They can join with Paul as he wrote,"I have fought a good fight,I have finished my course,I have kept the faith."
2Timothy chapter 4 :7.
Thanks Dayna and Heather for an excititng read.
Rating:
Summary: Well worth reading
Review: Prisoners of Hope is a great adventure story and well worth the reading. It is the account of two of a handful of westerners in Afganistan during the Taliban regime and is worth the reading for that reason alone. I was surprised to read so many passionately negative reviews of this book by Amazon[.com] readers. I myself did not approach the book with feelings of sympathy for these ladies, but I walked away from it with a greater understanding and acceptance of their point of view, a point of view which is by no means evil as the other Amazon[.com] reviewers seem to imply.
Rating:
Summary: Dangerous and mind-boggling naivete.
Review: Since when is dumb, dangerous, arrogant and criminal behavior worthy of praise?
Apparently, only when this behavior is conducted by Christian evangelists peddling Jesus in foreign countries. Under the guise of "aid workers", Curry and Mercer went to Afghanistan to convert Muslims to their Christian religion. Real humanitarians provide the necessities of life - food, shelter, medicine - without any religious strings attached. Yet all Curry and Mercer could provide were copies of The Jesus Film and heartfelt sentiments about their relationship with Christ. That doesn't qualify as aid in my book and it doesn't make them aid workers, it simply makes them evangelists looking for easy prey among a desperate and destitute people. Of course, since religious proselytizing was against the law in Afghanistan, Curry and Mercer simply lied about their real activities and motivations. That not only makes them dishonest, it makes them criminals. It also makes them a danger to others. They put Afghanis in danger, they put real aid workers in danger, and since they required rescuing, they put the anti-Taliban forces who sprung them from prison at risk. And, perhaps worst of all, they damaged the efforts of real humanitarians who, as a result of Curry and Mercer's dishonesty, are unjustly tainted by the evangelism brush. Yet despite the fact that they had broken the law and their own government was bombing the Taliban, Curry and Mercer were treated respectfully by the Taliban. They were fed well, were protected during their captivity, and were allowed to conduct their religious practices freely (and, ironically, free of the very proselytization that they subjected Afghanis to).
The Taliban, despite their other crimes, comes off as being much more humane and sensible than these two dangerously naïve young women. One fact emerges clearly from this book: Mercer and Curry went to Afghanistan to meet their own needs, not to meet the needs of Afghanis, who didn't invite them and whom they provided precious little aid to. They went to satisfy their own evangelistic impulses, to gain brownie points with a god who demands evangelization, and to flirt with their own fantasies about martyrdom and self-sacrifice.
Engaged in the relentless Christian battle of "spiritual warfare" against non-Christians, Curry and Mercer were nothing more than enemy combatants in a foreign land. Curry and Mercer are lucky that their captors showed them much more respect than these women showed anyone else. This book does a great - if unintended - job of showing just how dangerous, foolish and self-serving the actions and motivations of Curry and Mercer were. It proves the point made by Charles Dickens over a hundred years ago: "Missionaries are perfect nuisances and leave every place worse than they found it."
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Read!
Review: Some people may have a problem with the fact that Heather Mercer and Dana Curry are Christians, but I don't think anyone can doubt that they are dedicated and courageous souls. My daughter, whose a big admirer of these girls, gave me this book for father's day and I wasn't sure I would really like it, but I have to say that I found it really interesting. It almost felt like an adventure story at times, kind of exciting with their arrest and with US troops coming in to Afhganistan. And through it all they just held themselves together with prayer and their faith in God. I hope my daughter doesn't take off like they did, but I do really think they're brave for putting their lives in danger like they did for what they believe.
Rating:
Summary: dumb dumb dumb
Review: Stop me if you've heard this one:
So these girls go into Afghanistan, then one of the most repressive theocracies in the world. They are -- get this -- missionaries, and they wander around trying to convert the "heathens" to Christianity, which is a little like opening a synagogue in 1930s Germany. It would make a good sitcom, in the tasteless manner of "Hogan's Heroes," but it makes a lousy book. Religious zealotry is the worst thing on the planet and these two crullers merely wanted to exchange one type of fanaticism for another.
Rating:
Summary: Informative and inspiring
Review: The book captured me! I am not a great reader and often lose interest, but I found this to be interesting, creative in its presentation and honest in its perspective on the life of missionaries. These women are noble, but thank God this book shows their moments of doubt and how their faith prevailed. I was touched and I think their story is awesome for anyone who faces questions of relevance of scripture in today's world. One of the best books I have read in many, many years.We can learn from them - every single day, you have to pick up that cross...
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