Shining against all odds: Turning tears into Healing streams.

"What does not break you, builds you," Josephine Nsubuga begins in Shining against All Odds. This optimistic perspective in the face of uncertainty eloquently sums up her amazing life's journey.

Nsubuga's happy childhood is destroyed by the tragic deaths of her beloved parents when she is fourteen. When her stepsister dies sixth months later, Nsubuga begins to fear that she is on "death row" and that she'll be next. Nsubuga wants to both care for her siblings and continue her education. It is only through God's power that she can do both.

Now a nurse, midwife, and nonprofit director, Nsubuga intersperses her inspirational journey with stories of women she has met through her work. In the region of southwestern Uganda, where Nsubuga grew up, rumor was that girl who got pregnant out of wedlock would be thrown off a cliff or marooned on an island in Lake Bunyonyi. Even in this environment, one in four girls would be pregnant before she was eighteen. Nsubuga's incredible compassion for their circumstances has inspired them to share their own stories of redemption.

This unique memoir gives voice not only to the devout and passionate Josephine Nsubuga but also to the women of Uganda.