Book excerpt: Embarking on overseas missions can be both an exhilarating and daunting experience. From the day you take your first concrete step into answering the call, your life will never be the same. And it will never belong to you again. The tears, fears, financial struggles, relationship strains, rejection, discouragement, depression, anxiety, and an ever-growing sense of your own insufficiency to accomplish the task for which you have been sent are sure to be greater than you could anticipate or imagine. In Retaking Eden, author Pastor D offers real-world advice for those contemplating mission work. Through a series of fictional letters written to Macy and Mark, Pastor D addresses a wide range of issues, concerns, and problems missionaries may and can face abroad. Based on his personal experiences, he shares instruction as well as the real-life joys and sorrows of missionary life. Providing keen insight into the life of a missionary, Retaking Eden chronicles the amazing adventures and lessons God provided during Pastor D’s journey.