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Text Box: A story of the signature of God’s Spirit bringing transformation in darkest Africa.

“The Signature” is the proposed title for the novel that has recently been written by Dan and Theresa McArthur. The idea for the book came through a dream that Dan had in September 2008. He woke up the following morning knowing that the dream was from the Lord. The rest just followed. Dan wrote the story and Theresa edited and seasoned the book. The book is nearly completed and the McArthur’s are in the process of making a proposal to publishers via Christian Manuscripts Submissions online. Dan is already busy writing the sequel to the novel. Please pray for “The Signature” to be published and that what started as a dream will become a reality. The following is a summary of the proposed book.

Chipo Sibanda, a young African girl living in a rural area of Zimbabwe, flees her abusive father seeking a better life in the capital city of Harare. She meets and falls in love with Ethan Benham, a young British man from a titled family on his own vacation adventure in Africa. With promises of enduring love and commitment, Ethan returns home only to be met by resistance and deceitful manipulation from his family, preventing him from fulfilling his promises to his African lover.

Feeling betrayed Chipo finds herself pregnant and alone. Trapped again in the clutches of her unfeeling father, Chipo gives birth to a baby boy. Infuriated that his daughter would shame him this way, Chipo’s father steals the child away and gives him to a young couple working for a Non-government Organization in Zimbabwe. Once again fleeing her father, Chipo finds herself living a life of shameful prostitution in the city. Her disappearance aided a deceitful plot on her father’s part, allowing him to convince everyone that their beloved Chipo was dead. Everyone, that is, except her maternal grandparents who would not give up believing and praying for their granddaughter’s return.

The adoptive parents, a young Netherlanders couple named Hans and Ingrid Grundey, along with their adopted son Nyasha, are caught as by-products of a regional war when their vehicle hits a land mine and is thrown into the deep waters of the Zambezi River. Hans winds up on the Zimbabwe side of the river while Ingrid, being knocked unconscious, is swept over to the Zambia side of the river and upon wakening finds she and her young son are lost in a strange land. After searching in desperation, each assumes the other is dead.

In anger, Hans seeks his revenge for the killing of his wife and child by joining forces with the mercenary group fighting against the rebel forces responsible for planting the land mine. His anger fuels his actions, causing him to become very good at what he does; a hardened and unfeeling killer.

Carrying Nyasha in her arms Ingrid wanders to a nearby village and is embraced by the loving care of a local African woman named Susan and the surrounding Christian family. Wanting to forget her loss, Ingrid throws herself into her nursing work alongside Susan in the village clinic.

A familiar ribbon intertwines the three characters, Hans, Ingrid and Chipo, and leads them on a journey to find forgiveness, redemption and the power of God working in and through their lives, transforming them and leading them closer and closer to finding one another. In the process of their journey they find the meaning of the signature of God upon their lives; that seal of the Holy Spirit that transforms us and releases us to walk in power and victory against all odds.