Book Review: Crumbs from the Cookie Jar

Crumbs from the Cookie Jar

By David Rhew (Westbow Press)

When that last delicious cookie has been devoured, tasty crumbs remain to be savored. In Crumbs from the Cookie Jar, David Rhew invites readers to enjoy delightful bits and pieces from his life and calling.

Born in 1941 and weighing under four pounds, Rhew grew up in Corpus Christi with cerebral palsy. He also grew up with heavy braces and a heavy heart. However, in the era before mainstreaming, David’s parents determined their son should attend public school with nonhandicapped children. Encouraged by a Christian first-grade teacher, he thrived.

David accepted Christ at age 8 and began an imaginary pastorate and radio ministry. After graduating from high school, he entered the University of Corpus Christi, a local Baptist college. He especially enjoyed Baptist Student Union and worked in the campus library. That job led to a library degree and positions at Tarleton State University and the Texas State Library. In Austin, he preached his first two “real” sermons.

Rhew clearly felt God’s call to work with students. Although encouraged to earn a master of divinity degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, he didn’t get a BSU job “because they did not want me to be frustrated.” Instead, over the next 30 years, God opened doors in Baptist colleges and seminary libraries, in teaching theological courses, in earning a doctor of ministry degree, and in serving part-time on church staffs, as an interim ministry or as a supply preacher.

Through each experience, the author shares inspiring Crumbs from the Cookie Jar. In so doing, Rhew demonstrates how a life dedicated to God and bathed in prayer can be victorious, no matter what.

Kathy Robinson Hillman, immediate past president

Baptist General Convention of Texas

Waco