Night Journeys

Raylene Pearce is at the end of her thirties and at the end of her marriage. She is living in Papua New Guinea but she returns to Australia to bring up her two boys alone. 'Night Journeys' as a title can be read as a metaphor for the times when life seems like that - journeying at night - alone. But many journeys actually happen at night.
Raylene Pearce never expected to live an ordinary life. At the age of twelve she knew her future lay in living and working with people in developing countries. She became a nurse. After raising her children and going through the pain of divorce, she trained in writing for the media and lived for ten years in the Middle East as an International Personnel Director and later the English language Editor for a Christian media company and popular Arabic youth magazine.
If you like a true story, laced with mystery, travel, adventure, very funny at times, with heartache, sorrow and romance - you’ll like 'Night Journeys'. If you like a story about people living and overcoming in the hard places of the world from poverty and slavery, then this book is for you. 'Night Journeys' testifies to the amazing resilience of women Raylene meets during her years of working and traveling in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The ten years of living and working in the Middle East with a Christian Media Company becomes Raylene Pearce’s main focus. Women her main concern. She asks us to share in the lives of the people, not just as spectators, but as participators, engaging as we read with the struggling ones and their ability to rise up and conquer their worlds.   Though the book is non-fiction, it reads like an action thriller with many odd and sympathetic characters throughout. 
The author comments, "I was lost in a thick fog in northern India and trapped in a taxi madly racing through the City of the Dead in total darkness, and chased by rabid dogs at 2a.m.  I wept in a brothel in Thailand for 'the women of my city', and evicted by my landlord the day after 9/11." The mystery of this action is a part of the on-going story.

Night Journeys is an exhilarating and dangerous ride taken by a single woman. The stories in this memoir are beautifully written with humour, empathy and passion. 
Raylene Pearce's Christian faith, exuberant personality and care for others shines in every word. 
“Prepare to be informed, entertained and amazed.” 
Dr Rosanne Hawke, author of 'The Truth about Peacock Blue', 'Karenza', and many books inspired by her life in Pakistan and country South Australia.

“You will be swept into a world of sensitively drawn characters, heart-stopping dead of night taxi rides, heart rending kindnesses and pain. To share in the abundance of joy, faith and exuberance, which is Raylene Pearce’s extraordinary life - read on.”
Jill Baker, author of 'Beloved African', is working on a Trilogy informed by her intriguing life in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. 

On return from Egypt, at the age of 60, Raylene went to Flinders University. This book is a result of the course in Creative Writing completed in 2008. She married Greg Pearce in 2009. They are now retired from full time ministry but life is busy as writers, mentors, teachers and gardeners. They have five grandchildren between them and live in Coromandel Valley in the Adelaide hills.

This is Raylene's first book.