"The Encounter" by Stephen Arterburn, A Booksneeze Review

**I received "The Encounter" by Stephen Arterburn free from Booksneeze under no obligation to write a positive review.

The Encounter is a refreshing book about forgiveness. The main character, Johnathan Rush, heads to his "hometown" to find the mother he never knew. In order to face "issues" as an adult, his counselor (and friend) sends him to find his birth mother and discover why she abandoned him as a child. Johnathan ends up meeting and developing relationships with unlikely people while on the hunt for his birth mother.

The description on the back cover calls it a "parable" about how to "learn to step out from the darkness of a painful past and into the healing light of a forgiven future." This book deals with issues such as unplanned pregnancy, adoption, forgiving yourself and forgiving others.

I enjoyed "The Encounter" and how Johnathan, the main character developed and matured throughout the book. I appreciate the way the book, just like a parable, tells a story to teach lessons. One of the main things that stuck out to me in the story was that Johnathan had basically hated his mother for abandoning him, but he didn't know anything about why. He'd lived for thirty odd years believing something about her that was untrue.

This is a short book, only 159 pages, and includes a study guide at the end.