Love, Amy

An Accidental Memoir Told in Newsletters from China

By: Amy Young

Narrated by: Laura Young

She came to China with a lesson plan. What she found was a new sense of purpose.

Amy Young traveled to China in the mid-1990s to teach English to educators. But she never expected the profound way they would enrich her soul. With the influence of the enchanting country and its extraordinary everyday people, Amy extended a two-year assignment to nearly two decades far away from home.

Starting shortly after her arrival, Amy shared her stories and her unique perspective through a series of letters. Her nine years of correspondence demonstrated a country going through growing pains: from political unrest to the SARS epidemic to budding prosperity. Amy battled language barriers, cultural faux pas, and invasive mice with nothing to lose. She even fought for her life with a potentially deadly illness, unsure if she'd survive to share her tale.

Throughout her journey, Amy drew strength from God and came to appreciate the beauty and power of an ordinary life lived well. Love, Amy: An Accidental Memoir Told in Newsletters from China is one woman’s deeply moving journey of self-transformation. If you like humorous anecdotes, immersions in Eastern culture, and honest stories that aren’t afraid to dig deep, then you’ll love Amy Young’s heartfelt tale. Buy Love, Amy for an inspirational guided tour into the heart of China today!

©2017 Amy Young (P)2018 Amy Young

Deluded Green Girl Writes Home to Church Fan Club

Amy’s so-called book is actually the dutiful fund-raising letters back to her church community that sent this terribly green girl out to China to convert to her sappy brand of Christianity Chinese people who only wanted to perfect their English. The church organization sent her to China but apparently could not see to it that her living accommodations were clean and free of rats, bats and palm-sized spiders. Amy writes her letters to remind her organization’s supporters to keep sending money. Yes, she has a Master’s Degree, but the woman seems clueless about “finding food” and is shocked that the Chinese spit in the street. And to make it all even worse, her sister narrates the work extremely fast and all on one tone blah blah blah. I lived in San Francisco many years and studied Mandarin at the Chinatown extension of the junior college. [I have also lived in Spain and Germany, both free of such unhealthy conditions as poor stupid Amy saw fit to tolerate to the glory of God.] Of course I could see great differences between educated Diana Chi’an across the street, the polished Chinese-American legal secretaries I worked with, the grocer’s son who was late for our date, and all the little grandmothers who pushed to get on the bus.] I do know how difficult it is to speak to small-scale merchants, to ask for what you need and then learn how to cook or use it. There is always a harpy who won’t let a girl sample the lipstick colors [Germany] or touch the gorgeous tomato [Paris]. In Madrid, I bought mouthwash to clean my floor; it was among the cleaning products and looked like Spic-n-Span. Still, people around the world eat vegetables and some kind of starch. The veggies can be steamed, boiled or sautéed if you have a little oil. Noodles can be boiled. The Chinese surely have systems for cooking rice. And once Amy and her buddies figure out how to cook for themselves, she doesn’t describe any of that. No, interesting descriptions are thin on the ground. They get very sick and also suffer what I believe was a spider bite. So we are treated to pathetic descriptions of grim hospitals. For a lovely listen, I recommend Mao’s Last Dancer, which describes a young man’s home-sickness, his fervent prayers and struggle to perfect his dancing, tremendous success around the world, and eventual embracing of Christianity. I trust that for would-be missionaries, Amy’s letters will provide food for thought.