At the Haven Coffee House in Lexington, Anna Keikulis Johnson told in detail her story in Europe during WWII.

As I sat across from Anna, I was trying to understand how she could be old enough to have been alive during a war that long ago.

I was counting on my fingers as she did not talk or look to be in her 80s.

Many of her life values came from her father, a minister. He told her we are chosen and gifted by God.

The book begins with her father Arvid’s early life and struggles in Latvia.

Their home was destroyed and the Russians took her father’s business. They lost all of their possessions.

The authorities would arrest anyone in conflict with them and their mission.

Her father said that the best place to be is close to God when things are not going well because He is creating something.

Her father said we live in a broken world with broken people but that God will un fold his plan.

Her father said that he could go through anything with God’s peace.

Her parents thought they would be missionaries to Russia as they both spoke Russian, but that was not to be as is told in the book.

Their family had 5 children. Anna’s younger sisters became sick in the concentration camp and were close to death. I was surprised at what made them well and how they obtained them.

Her Father found a loaf of bread in a tree stump every day. Later he was placed in charge of giving out supplies, which was a much sought after position.

They could not bathe as there was no soap or running water. And all of the family had dysentery.

Many things happened to get the right papers necessary to leave the camps.

Her father, Arvid, seemed to be constantly at the right place at the right time.

A minister was needed to come to Pennsylvania to assist the Slavic people coming from Europe after the war and the family moved to the US.

Their book was published with the assistance of a Christian writer in New Jersey and the help of a PhD student in Alabama. Amazon published the book.

Our Peace Guardian is packed with excitement and hard to put down but is not an easy read due to the constant abuse in the camps.

Their struggles were hard for me to accept but created moments of gratefulness for me. Many of the hardships are described in detail.

I would have turned to the end of the book had Anna not been standing there before me at The Haven.

Some takeaways for me that I will share with you:

• I felt blessed to have not faced the circumstances, trials and tragedies that Anna and her family were subjected to as children.

• I was amazed at her parents’ faith and strength in tremendous adversity.

• Potatoes, cod liver oil and soap will have a different meaning for me now.

I am glad that I read the book, even more so that my interest as a lover of history, was peaked by Anna’s difficult but compelling stories.