Greetings, readers. Today I congratulate fellow writer Stephen J. Spencer, Ed.D. on his recent book, The Great Goodbye. (Newman Springs Publishing. January 2024.) Our paths crossed long ago when we were both followers of the bible-based cult, The Way International™. However, Stephen’s book relays part of his life before he got caught up in The Way. It’s about his falling in love with a Vietnamese girl while he served as a soldier during the Vietnam War.
Keep reading to learn more about this profound story, access links to get a copy, and links to fantastic podcasts about it.
Note: Several years ago Stephen wrote a review of Undertow. It’s included at the end of this post.
The Great Goodbye
Amazon gives the following description of the book:
Based on a true story, a young American soldier fighting in the Vietnam War meets a beautiful Vietnamese woman on his base. Their relationship develops into a full romance leading to an engagement, but the turmoil of the times and their parental opposition leads to heavy resistance. Fellow soldiers and officers attempt to talk him out of the marriage, but the two are determined to marry, despite the ongoing war.
Destiny has its hand against it, as the US Army sends the soldier home to finish his service stateside, leaving his Vietnamese fiancee in-country with his promise to her, “I’ll come back for you.” When he settles into his new assignment in the United States, his letters to her go unanswered. As months go by, he is concerned for her safety in the war and launches an on-base search for her as he contacts embassies, consulates, and a US senator, as well as a chaplain still in Vietnam.
When this search through established channels fails to locate her, she is considered officially missing somewhere in Vietnam. Remembering his promise, he begins preparation to return to Vietnam and find her to deliver on his promise to marry her. His search takes him as far south as the Mekong Delta, as far west as the Cambodian border, before crossing enemy lines in the Central Highlands, where he finally finds her.
His only problem now is, he has to fight to get her back. She has been promised to another man in an arranged marriage. Worse than this, he has discovered her father as part of the Viet Cong. His resistance to let her go leads to a confrontation between himself and the enemy.
Where to get The Great Goodbye
Amazon.com: The Great Goodbye: 9798890618429: Spencer, Stephen J: Books
The Great Goodbye by Stephen J Spencer, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
Podcasts about The Great Goodbye
Stephen Spencer writes: “I finally released my story to a podcast producer named Adam Prince, who decided it would make a good podcast. The podcast was called “The War Bride” and starred Lucas Till (MacGyver, Son of the South) as me, David Starzyk (Law and Order, Blue Bloods) as my father, and Ly VoDoan (Mission Report, True War Stories) as my Vietnamese fiancee. It is available on most podcast outlets including Spotify.
Adam Prince, the podcast’s producer, writer, and director, urged me to write a book on the experience, and with my wife’s urging, I did. It was published in January 2024 by Newman Springs Publishing. I named it “The Great Goodbye“.
The War Bride is at: The War Bride (voyagemedia.fm)
Behind The Scenes with Lucas Till – The War Bride (voyagemedia.fm)
Review of Undertow by Stephen J. Spencer, Ed.D.
Undertow takes you on an incredible journey of self-discovery, of loss and recovery, and despair into hope. The sub-culture of the Way International was unknown to most of its followers but revealed nicely in a chronological tale of intrigue and mystery, then the unraveling of events that tell the story.
The inner theology of the leadership was practiced yet hidden from view of most of us that lived through the years of its hold on Bible-believing people drawn into the organization by other doctrinal challenges. In the core of all the action was the Research department of the Way, many that challenged much of the status quo of the organization’s beliefs as time passed. It was sad to say that many in that department either left voluntarily, which was very hard to do, or were fired, becoming academic martyrs in an age when academic debate should have been cherished.
In my own experience, I can confirm the culture of the Way as written in this book to be true. There had once been a time when it had not been a cult, but a thriving Christian organization. This is what drew many of the earliest followers. Though followers were not physically held by chains, they were put into a position of financial dependency, or psychologically held hostage by fear of God’s abandonment, fear of losing long-standing friends, or guilt over their standing with the leadership, peers, and God Himself. The chains were established in the minds of followers, and we had no idea. If this had been played on a stage, the drama of escape would act out as catharsis in a Greek tragedy.
I knew many of those that left, and in several cases, it took years to get the emotional release they needed to escape the bitterness they felt in the betrayal placed upon them.
Charlene’s book displays all this and explains all I needed to learn about what was happening in the early to latter days of the ministry. This book can assist troubled ex-followers in recovery from their cult existence and experience, leading them back to the freedom they lost so many years ago. —Stephen J. Spencer, Ed.D.
Thanks for reading!
Your writer on the wing,
Charlene
Peggy+Lantz
Spencer’s book looks like a must-read.