Jackie Macgirvin

In the novel The Designer Bag at the Garbage Dump (2012), Julie, a nominal Christian meets Jesus, and learns to listen to His voice, and obey whatever he commands her to do. It sounds like slavery, but it's meant to show the real impact our deeds have in the lives of people around us. In Julie's case, her two-day trip away from home is turned into a real mission trip to Mumbai, India to learn to trust the Lord in providing her everything she needs. More than that, she gets the chance to care about a group of orphans at a dump, victims of modern slavery, and trafficking by Mr. Shah. Miracles, God speaking directly to humans, and love for the homeless children are practiced.

Adding God directly into a fiction novel is tricky. Remember, everything that's said and done comes out of the mind of the author, despite the many Bible quotes and good intentions. It's one of my struggles with overtly - sometimes cheesy or too heavy loaded - 'Christian fiction'. In my opinion, a more clever composed parable styled after e.g. C.S. Lewis' Narnia chronicles, a non-fictional recount of saving children from trafficking or a real novel without Jesus Christ as the protagonist would have worked better for both believing and non-believing readers.… (more)