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Everyday Wonders: Stories of God's Providence
- Narrated by: V. Rev. Michael J. Oleksa
- Length: 3 hrs and 29 mins
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Publisher's summary
Popular author and speaker Archpriest Michael J. Oleksa has spent most of his life serving the Church in Alaska and advocating for the native populations there. But he has also had many adventures in other parts of the world. The unifying thread in all his experiences is the providence of God, leading him, providing for him, and guiding him through miracles large and small.
In this collection of reminiscences, Fr. Michael relates story after story of the wondrous love and mercy of God working in his life and the lives his ministry has touched. His faith and enthusiasm are contagious.
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Modern Shanghai: a global city in the midst of a renaissance, where dreamers arrive each day to partake in a mad torrent of capital, ideas, and opportunity. Marketplace's Rob Schmitz is one of them. He immerses himself in his neighborhood, forging deep relationships with ordinary people who see in the city's sleek skyline a brighter future, and a chance to rewrite their destinies.
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Deserving of better audio
- By Rachael on 02-19-18
By: Rob Schmitz
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Midnight in Siberia
- A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
- By: David Greene
- Narrated by: David Greene
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Through the stories of fellow travelers, Greene explores the challenges and opportunities facing the new Russia: a nation that boasts open elections and newfound prosperity yet still continues to endure oppression, corruption, and stark inequality. Set against the wintery landscape of Siberia, Greene’s lively travel narrative offers a glimpse into the soul of 20th century Russia: how its people remember their history and look forward to the future.
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Long String of NPR Short Reports
- By Sara on 04-13-15
By: David Greene
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Sovietistan
- Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
- By: Erika Fatland
- Narrated by: Jill Rolls
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan became free of the Soviet Union in 1991. But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world. Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the listener on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.
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Outstanding book
- By George MP on 04-24-22
By: Erika Fatland
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Travels in Siberia
- By: Ian Frazier
- Narrated by: Ian Frazier
- Length: 20 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Ian Frazier trains his eye for unforgettable detail on Siberia, that vast expanse of Asiatic Russia. He explores many aspects of this storied, often grim region. He writes about the geography, the resources, the native peoples, the history, the 40-below midwinter afternoons, the bugs. The book brims with Mongols, half-crazed Orthodox archpriests, fur seekers, ambassadors of the czar bound for Peking, tea caravans, German scientists, American prospectors, intrepid English nurses, and prisoners and exiles of every kind....
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I Loved This Book
- By Sara on 01-05-14
By: Ian Frazier
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The Home That Was Our Country
- By: Alia Malek
- Narrated by: Alia Malek
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parents' decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia portrays the Syrians—the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Kurds—who worked, loved, and suffered in close quarters, mirroring the political shifts in their country
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Syria as never read before
- By rami hachwi on 09-17-18
By: Alia Malek
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Sometimes Brilliant
- The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History
- By: Larry Brilliant
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Larry Brilliant's life journey has led him on a purposeful path across continents and countercultural movements, marching arm in arm with the men and women who defined a generation. A man who has always been in the right place at the right time, Brilliant has engaged with some of the most prominent thought leaders, spiritual masters, heroes, and icons in the world, including Neem Karoli Baba (Maharajji), Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, Mikhail Gorbachev, Wavy Gravy, the Grateful Dead, the Dalai Lama, and Barack Obama.
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Sometimes Brilliant--Brilliant
- By Dr. Sharon G. Solloway on 10-24-16
By: Larry Brilliant
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Land of a Thousand Hills
- My Life in Rwanda
- By: Rosamond Halsey Carr, Ann Halsey Howard - contributor
- Narrated by: C. M. Hébert
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When Rosamond Halsey Carr first arrived in Africa, she didn't realize that she would spend the rest of her life there. As a young fashion illustrator living in New York City in the 1940s, she seemed the least likely candidate for such a life of adventure. But marriage to a hunter-explorer took her to what was then the Belgian Congo, and divorce left her determined to stay on in neighboring Rwanda as the manager of a flower plantation.
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Wow... just, wow... (not a good wow)
- By Jankow on 01-04-21
By: Rosamond Halsey Carr, and others
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Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden
- Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War
- By: Zhuqing Li
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Scions of a once-great southern Chinese family that produced the tutor of the last emperor, Jun and Hong were each other’s best friends until, in their twenties, they were separated at the end of the Chinese Civil War. One became a model Communist, the other a model capitalist. On Taiwan, Jun married a Nationalist general, established a trading company, and emigrated to the United States. On the Communist mainland, Hong built her medical career under a cloud of suspicion about her family and survived two waves of “re-education” before she was acclaimed for her achievements.
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Wonderful Story of a Family’s Survival Through Political Change…
- By Marie G. on 04-12-23
By: Zhuqing Li
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Fire Road
- The Napalm Girl's Journey Through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace
- By: Kim Phuc Phan Thi, Ashley Wiersma
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Get out! Run! We must leave this place! They are going to destroy this whole place! Go, children, run first! Go now! These were the final shouts nine-year-old Kim Phuc heard before her world dissolved into flames - before napalm bombs fell from the sky, burning away her clothing and searing deep into her skin. It's a moment forever captured, an iconic image that has come to define the horror and violence of the Vietnam War. Kim was left for dead in a morgue; no one expected her to survive the attack. Napalm meant fire, and fire meant death.
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The subtitle should warn what the book is
- By Rex Michael Dillon on 01-27-19
By: Kim Phuc Phan Thi, and others
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Without You, There Is No Us
- My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite
- By: Suki Kim
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
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The King and I meets Mary Poppins
- By Michael on 02-22-15
By: Suki Kim
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Finding Samuel Lowe
- China, Jamaica, Harlem
- By: Paula Williams Madison
- Narrated by: Paula Williams Madison
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Thanks to her spiteful, jealous Jamaican mother, Nell Vera Lowe was cut off from her Chinese father, Samuel, when she was just a baby, after he announced that he was taking a Chinese bride. By the time Nell was old enough to travel to her father's shop in St. Anne's Bay, he'd taken his family back to China, never learning what became of his eldest daughter. Bereft, Nell left Jamaica for New York to start a new life.
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Fascinating
- By ayodele higgs on 01-27-16
What listeners say about Everyday Wonders: Stories of God's Providence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Erin E. Caldwell
- 05-01-19
Enjoyable, authentic storytelling
Since becoming an American Orthodox Christian in 2012, I have been especially intrigued and inspired by the saints who braved the harsh & beautiful Alaskan wilderness to bring their ancient faith to the United States. Their resilience and dedication to me is super-heroic.
Fr. Michael Oleksa is among the ranks of those travelers called to that distant part of the United States. His book, EVERYDAY WONDERS, is a collection of stories and lessons that not only give the reader intimate and detailed glimpses into the traditional cultures of Alaskan villages, but tell of how he came to be in Alaska from ancestral roots that began across the continents. The stories Fr. Oleksa tells give the reader the sure sense that human beings are all connected and that coincidence is always more than just coincidence.
Fr. Oleksa’s stories range from explaining traditional Alaskan fare & hunting practices, to escaping death because of a painting project, to describing the robust Ethiopian celebration of Theophany and how to transport some treasured gym shoes across the ocean. Fr. Oleksa also gives some inspiring accounts of some “everyday” saints like Matushka Olga Michael who lived a simple yet faithful life of service to others. Fr. Oleksa’s stories made me laugh out loud, or just be still and thoughtful, or even audibly exclaim “No way!”
I “read” this book by listening to the audiobook edition and often would listen during bouts of insomnia in the middle of the night. EVERYDAY WONDERS would often help me get back to sleep - not because it was uninteresting or dull - but because the stories are genuinely full of faith and hope and they were calming to my over-thinking, anxious nighttime mind. The stories are told simply and are easy to follow and I often felt as if I was sitting with Fr. Oleksa in my living room just having a chat about some of his “everyday” adventures. Sometimes the quality of the audio would change but, to me, this just added to the authenticity.
This book is a fun read (or listen!) for anyone who is intrigued by “happenstance” and enjoys good storytelling. It will help any reader remember that human beings are really just a global family and that what may seem like random coincidence is really an “everyday wonder.”
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- Kenneth B. Sizer II
- 03-20-19
Glorious events retold by a great story-teller
Delightful and wonderful. Each chapter is a more or less self-contained retelling of an amazing (miraculous?) adventure or series of events taken from Fr. Oleksa's amazing (miraculous?) life. Venues span the globe: Pennsylvania, Alaska, Bulgaria, Russia and more. The listener can't help feeling that he's sitting around a cozy fire, listening to a master story-teller holding everyone in the room transfixed. While listening to this book, my commute went by so fast I was almost wishing for a traffic jam.
The only imperfection is the recording quality (e.g., abrupt volume and tone changes at recording session breaks), but this is a small price to pay to hear Fr. Oleksa tell his own story.
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- CLC
- 11-17-19
A Book Full of Good Reports
I prefer to avoid the news, don’t watch a lot of television, and hardly pay attention to headlines. Some might argue that it leaves me uninformed, though I have enough trustworthy people in my life who keep me abreast of things in the “need-to-know” category. As a person who has had a tendency toward anxiety, I prefer to look for what is “pure, honest, noble, just, pure, lovely and of good report,” (Phil. 4:8) and keep my thoughts on those things.
The title of this book piqued my interest, because it picks up on what some of us miss - that there are wonders, every day, if we have eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to understand. Father Michael Oleksa’s “Stories of God’s Providence” points mostly to autobiographical moments in his own life where, upon reflection, he (and now we, the readers or listeners) could see how God was working. I appreciated the reminder to use that lens, to pray and to trust that there is more going on in any given situation - how even an incidence of pickpocketing could lead to greater things.
A wise man once told me that, wherever I was, I should look for the golden nugget that was being offered at that time. This book is full of examples of golden nuggets. From Alaska to Romania, from seminary to retirement, there are glimpses of providence, not just for Father Michael, but for all of us.
This book is worth reading, for the reasons above, and also for the pieces of history and cultural education that it also provides. I found the information about the internment of Aleuts during WWII informative and surprising - there are parts of American History that haven’t been written into our history books. It’s always good to learn to see beyond what is presented directly, to learn more about others, and to increase in compassion.
I only gave 4 stars for performance of the audiobook because there are obvious differences in the quality of audio and the volume of speaking between chapters. The differences do not impact the story or what’s offered, but I couldn’t give it a 5 for performance because of that.
I hope that anyone who chooses to listen to this would also enjoy it! It was a book that I was comfortable allowing my children to listen along with, and one that we would listen to again.
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- James P. Sullivan
- 04-17-19
A delightful introduction to Orthodoxy in Alaska
Father Michael Oleksa is a retired Orthodox priest in Alaska, but he’s not actually from there - he’s from Allentown, Pennsylvania. How he came to Alaska, what he found there, and why he stayed are just a few of the many subjects he covers in his delightful collection of stories that he has compiled here in this one volume. Through these tales of Alaska, and other tales of his travels around Alaska, Europe, and Africa, Father Oleska weaves a remarkable chain of providence and miracles both great and small that have surrounded his life and ministry.
“Ever since I learned that there were Orthodox Christians who were also Alaskan Natives, I was determined to go there. Here my two greatest lifelong interests, Native Americans and Orthodoxy, were united in one place, and I didn’t even need a passport to get there! This was a phenomenon I sincerely wanted to experience and explore.” (Page 7)
Father Oleksa had longed to go to Alaska since he was quite young, and while in seminary at St. Vladimir’s, in New York, he finally was granted the opportunity when a small Aleut fishing village, in need of a priest (most Aleut are Orthodox) as it rebuilt after the disastrous Good Friday earthquake of 1964, and its diocese having no priests to spare, agreed to sponsor the young seminarian if he would come to Alaska during the summer months and teach. Thus began Michael’s first forays. In those summers up north, Michael tells the tales of how he immersed himself in their culture, learned their languages and traditions, and even met and married a young woman of the Yup’ik tribe (pronounced “YOO-pick”). Into those tales he weaves the history of the Russian traders and monks who brought Orthodoxy to the people as they too intermarried, fusing Christian Orthodoxy with the native traditions to create a new creole culture that has endured through to this day, and has contributed greatly to worldwide Orthodoxy.
As Father Oleksa establishes his roots in Alaska, he is also looking to reconnect with the far flung branches of his family still who still live in Europe, and how they endured two world wars and decades of communism. In time his travels to meet them also take him to their ancestral villages in Poland and Ukraine, and even to finding new friends in Romania, Bulgaria, and Finland. There are no coincidences in these meetings for him, as his life and work live out his faith and ministry. He sees the hand of God in all things, even in the actions of a Bulgarian pickpocket or a freelancing Romanian tour guide looking to brush up his English.
The volume is a short one that can be read in just a couple of hours, but it serves as an excellent and gentle introduction to the peoples of Alaska, introducing the reader to several Alaskan Orthodox saints and the miracles associated with them, and even why you might spot a helicopter in an icon of Saint Herman. There is also an audio version of the book, narrated by Father Oleksa who is a jovial and entertaining reader (and pronounces the various Aleut words correctly, I might add).
Note: Full Dislosure - I was given a copy of the audio book in consideration for posting this review. But I should add that I liked the book so much I also bought the print version.
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- RR
- 11-06-20
Love it!
I enjoyed this book so much! It enriches both the mind and the heart. I felt as if Fr Oleska was sitting in my living room telling stories by the fire. These stories demonstrate a life in Christ, a life where God’s work is palpable.
The book is also fascinating from a cultural perspective. Hearing stories about how the Alaskan people view time and food was fascinating and thought provoking. Fr. Oleska’s attitude toward learning new things was beautiful, an example of Christian love. He also shares the shining example of Mother Olga who is venerated by some as a saint (yet to be confirmed by the Orthodox Church.)
This book is entirely appropriate for the whole family. I think I could happily listen at least twice if not more, as it’s full of beautiful lessons as well as warm and cozy feelings. I hope you enjoy it too!
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