Sergeant York

Growing up in the Tennessee hills, Alvin York was equally renowned as a marksman and as a hard-drinking brawler. A dramatic New Year’s conversion convinced him that killing was against God’s will, and yet this shy, big-boned mountaineer singlehandedly dispatched two dozen Germans and captured 132 in the closing days of World War I. He earned the Medal of Honor and a ticker tape parade but refused to cash in on his fame, insisting “Uncle Sam’s uniform ain’t for sale.”

We learn about life through the lives of others. Their experiences, their trials, their adventures become our schools, our chapels, our playgrounds.Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through prose as accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces.Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is D.L. Moody, Sergeant York, SaintNicholas, John Bunyan, or William F. Buckley, we are now living in the world that they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light of their lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquely illuminate our shared experience.