Review: Eternal Fruit
Eternal Fruit
By Sam Cannata and Ginny Cannata (Xulon)
Many Baptists remember hearing missionaries Ginny and Sam Cannata speak or recall reading their autobiographical Truth on Trial or praying when they were arrested in Ethiopia and “Dr. Sam” lost sight in one eye. After political upheaval caused them to flee three different African countries, the two heard God’s whisper, “What did you leave there that was eternal?” Realizing they “were only scattering seeds,” they asked, “Lord, how do we plant seeds?” The Cannatas answer that question in Eternal Fruit.
In the book, the veteran missionaries, originally appointed in 1957, explain how they dedicated their last 24 years in Africa to discipleship—an approach now known as mentorship. The story begins in March 1980, as the Cannatas’ journey to the remote Murle village of Pibor, Sudan. Sam mostly narrates with Ginny adding her insights and writing the epilogue after Sam’s death in 2017.
The pages overflow with compelling stories of learning the language and customs, facing soldiers and gunfire, praying through fear and indecision, living with snakes and natural peril, exploring ways to make disciples, raising chickens, discovering the joy of Ginny’s literacy classes, gaining medical wisdom in Sam’s clinics and surgery, mentoring in large and small ways, and finally, saying sweetly sad good-byes after two short years.
Did the Cannatas’ work in Pibor ultimately bear eternal fruit? One of Ginny’s students became a great literacy teacher and itinerant evangelist. Others in her classes took literacy and Bible teaching to annual cattle camps. Idris, whom Sam taught and discipled, continues to preach, pastor and teach others in spite of persecution. The Cannatas helped with a Murle New Testament translation, and 20 years later, one of Ginny’s students is on the Murle Old Testament team. What an incredible story, but the best part is that it’s true. Eternal Fruit bears eternal fruit.
Kathy Robinson Hillman, former president
Texas WMU and Baptist General Convention of Texas
Waco