Poverty, Virginity & Love: Memoirs of Asia and Other Places

With an audacious dream of Africa and Heaven, Shirley Anderson enters the convent at the tender age of 17, and offers to serve in foreign countries with the vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience as a Maryknoll missionary. Dying for Jesus evolved into living for God on the road to eternal life. A life far more adventurous than she expected.Travel with Shirley as she experiences cultures in places dangerous, historically ancient, entertaining, and exciting throughout the world.When Shirley arrives in Asia for her first assignment in the 60s, Pusan is impoverished and disease ridden. Over six years, she is thrilled with the positive transformation of the city and economic progress of the country. After a stint in the US for her undergraduate degree, Shirley accepts a position with Children's Medical Relief International in war-torn Saigon, South Vietnam. Her comforting words to her parents were "Not everyone comes back in a body bag." When Vatican II results in the Maryknoll Sisters changing their mission, Shirley is faced with a life-altering decision. After intense praying, she receives an Indult of Secularization, and begins a life free of her vows.Free and virginal at thirty-six, Shirley has six hundred dollars, no car, and no family or friends nearby. Intense loneliness drives her to date with abandon, until she finds an amazing man with whom to share her adventurous life.Ride along as Shirley, now a laywoman, takes you on: a hot air balloon ride; a ride on a Kon-Tiki boat to a naked beach; visits to favorite European sites; a family tour of China with a ten-year old boy; and a family houseboat vacation. Relax in your favorite chair and allow your imagination to experience peoples with different customs, goals, and dreams.