A Dream So Big

Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger

Steve Peifer, Gregg Lewis

• Publisher: Zondervan
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780310587156
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools, and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools.

Steve and his wife, Nancy, were enjoying a successful management career with one of America's high tech corporate giants during the dot-com boom of the 1990's when, in 1997, he and his wife Nancy discovered they were pregnant with their third child. Tragically, doctors said a chromosomal condition left their baby "incompatible with life." The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died.

Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy began a pilgrimage that thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy—drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. They didn't arrive in the service of any divine calling, but the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubled hearts. A short-term, 12-month mission assignment as dorm parents for a Kenyan boarding school turned this ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero, and his story will inspire you to pursue similar lives of service.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Prologue
• 1 “What in the World Am I Doing Here?”
• 2 Questions without Answers
• 3 Our Story Started with Stephen
• 4 An Emotional Toll
• 5 No Sweat, Real Heroes, and the Joy of Rain
• 6 The Sound of Hunger
• 7 Dreaming of a Baboon Christmas
• 8 Of Toys, Boys, Spears, and the WWF
• 9 Bunny Hops and Ostrich Runs
• 10 Nature’s Nightsongs and the Negative Tense
• 11 Flying Ants and SATs
• 12 Broccoli and Carnivore Parties, Hold the Donkey Meat
• 13 This Close to a Clean Getaway
• 14 Lamborghinis Don’t Matter
• 15 No One Plays Dumb Better Than I Do
• 16 So Obvious, So Right
• 17 It’s Just Not Right
• 18 The Wedding Crier
• 19 Daddies, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Love Country
• 20 Twins 2, Modern Dad 0
• 21 Beyond Easy Answers and Kidnapped Tests
• 22 “Is the Momma Sick?” Confessions of Sartorial Neglect
• 23 What Happens If You Hit a Warthog?
• 24 Headbanging Moments
• 25 Grouchy Elephants and Usable Ants
• 26 Middle of Nowhere No More
• 27 America Just Wears You Down
• 28 Furlough Failure—I’m Glad It Still Hurts
• 29 “Computers Make Me Think”
• 30 Never Stand on a Supermodel’s Dress
• 31 “I Never Gave Up Hope”
• 32 Dead or Alive? Answer in Five Minutes
• 33 I Don’t Like Living by Faith
• 34 No Fear in Kamuyu
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Praise
• Photo Gallery
• Copyright
• About the Publisher
• Share Your Thoughts