Road Trip to Redemption by Brad Mathias

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After discovering their middle daughter had been molested, the Mathias family heads out on a seven-thousand-mile trip across the country in a desperate attempt to reconnect their family. This book tells their story.

Road Trip to Redemption, unfortunately, is an accurate description of a lot of "christian" families today. Parents who are so busy with their lives they aren't spending the time with their kids they need to, unchecked behavior from children, playing at church and christianity and expecting it to be enough to ground the kids in the faith...the list goes on. While I may or may not agree with the way he may do things with his family, just realizing the fact that going to a "hip" church once a week is not the way to grow you and your family spiritually is something that many still don't grasp. Your kids need a PERSONAL walk with the Lord. They need to see you living for Him and not just going through the motions at church and doing your own thing at home. I appreciate the honesty of the author that many of the issues in the family were his "fault" and not trying to pass the blame along.

One thing about this book that really got to me was the fact that they were strongly urged not to take legal action against the guy who molested Bethany for her "mental and emotional sake" and so nothing was done. It isn't clearly stated in the book exactly what was done to her, but that mindset is one reason so many sexual assaults aren't reported and these guys get away with it again and again. I had to wonder how many other girls this guy has assaulted and will assault in the future do to their inaction.

I really enjoyed the journal entries at the end of the road trip chapters that show the kids' different perspectives of the day. As a mother of four, I know that each child is different and will look on things differently. What one child may see as horrible or very boring, another may love it. One may see the small things--the eggs in the nest or the sun glinting off a leaf in a particularly gorgeous way--while another may be content to sit down and enjoy the awe-inspiring vista as a whole.

I was expecting this book to be more about the road trip itself, but the book was nearly half over before the trip ever began. The "back story" was way too long and drawn out. I appreciate the fact that some of it was needed, but it was drawn out so long that the trip that was supposed to be the whole point of the story felt incredibly rushed. I'm sure it felt like it in real life as well. For someone who is trying to do something to draw his family closer, nine-hundred-mile-a-day drives seems more than a bit odd, especially since he clearly states that they don't do well on 3 hour trips! I really felt sorry for his family. Their map-reading skills were another story. To look at a map and think you can drive from Sioux Falls to Rapid City in two hours made me laugh out loud. I drove that road many times when we lived outside of Rapid City, and you're lucky if you can make it in 5 to 5 1/2 hours--it took them six.

The trip descriptions were very disappointing as well. "Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is a nice town...or so I've heard. We didn't stay long enough to find out." Mt. Rushmore was barely described, Yellowstone was deemed "amazing", but very little description of the places they visited there and he seemed rather unimpressed with the Grand Tetons at all.

This book had some great possibilities, but instead it felt drug out for the first half, and seriously rushed for the last half. The trip itself that he seems to be pushing for families to do is well outside the budget for a lot of families. $300 to $450 per day might as well be $1,000 per day to many families. The "insights" at the end, while true are pretty basic. Don't be a hypocrite--live what you teach. Look for changes in the heart, not just behavior, pray, don't be guided by fear. You don't have to go on a super long, super expensive trip to learn this lessons. Get into God's Word and draw close to Him and let HIM lead you as you lead your family.

I received a copy of this book from Tyndale for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.