Why didn’t life work out as I planned? My plan was great! I would grow up with a loving family. I would have many friends to make pinky promises with. I would get top grades through school and be popular to boot. I would study for a degree I was passionate about, and I would meet . . . “The One” (sigh) . . . we would get married and have children who looked and behaved like baby angels. Oh, and I’d live happily ever after, of course. Was that too much to ask? I didn’t plan for my parents to divorce. I didn’t plan to change schools because of bullying. I didn’t plan for university to fill me with doubts about whether I was good enough. I didn’t plan to be single at 28. I didn’t plan to run away to the other side of the world. But look where I’ve ended up. Life is never the smooth and straightforward journey we expect. Along the way, things slow us down and turn us around. Speed Bumps and Roundabouts is a story of those things: Hope. Vulnerability. Apathy. Gratitude. Beauty. Boundaries. Waiting . . . The journey is worth it, the scenery can be captivating, but we’ll never know unless we keep going . . . over the speed bumps and around the roundabouts.
Endorsements for Speed Bumps and Roundabouts:
“An honest and encouraging read of negotiating through the contours of life.”
—IDO DRENT
Actor, New Zealand
“I have just finished reading Pip McCracken’s book, Speed Bumps and Roundabouts. Having been in Pastoral ministry for over four decades I have gathered a library of thousands of books and have probably read thousands more on top of those. So many of them contain great, inspiring, even heroic stories. Often I have found myself admiring an author’s experiences and victories and yet strangely the admiration never translated into an attempt to imitate. Their victorious stories just seemed to be beyond me somehow. “Nice to be them, sad to be me,” I have thought countless times. Pip’s book had an altogether different effect on me. Her honesty and vulnerability in dealing with the ‘Speed Bumps and Roundabouts’ in her life encouraged me to address my own. There were inspirational portions, possibly even heroic portions, but mostly the book left me feeling that this I could imitate, this is within my reach. Vulnerable, authentic people seem to have that effect on us. I think that if you read about Pip’s journey through her ‘Speed Bumps and Roundabouts,’ you will be encouraged in facing yours.”
—DON BARRY
Senior Leader, Gateway Church, Hamilton, NZ
“What strikes me about Pip’s writing is the bravery woven throughout it – her willingness to be vulnerable before us, the reader, is striking & beautiful. And so I’ve no doubt her story will inspire bravery & hope in those who journey with her as they read.”
—JUDE HILL
Journalist, Northern Ireland
“There is something infectious about questions, they just draw you in and from the get-go Pip’s questions make you want to keep reading. I am sure some of her questions will resonate with yours but regardless it’s a story I want to read and trust that God might speak to me as I do. “
—HELEN WARNOCK
General Director Scripture Union Northern Ireland
About
Pip McCracken: Writer. Physio. Overanalyser. Northern Irish. Procrastinator. Lover of food, all food. Traveller. Jesus fan. Mistake maker. Hoper. Pip is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and has been living and working as a physiotherapist in Hamilton, New Zealand for the last five years, trying to write with every spare second she has.