My Hands Came Away Red

Cori gratefully escapes her complicated love life to take a mission trip to Indonesia.  Soon after their arrival, a deadly conflict explodes and the team of six teenagers is stranded in the jungle.

LISA MCKAY is a forensic psychologist and the Director of Training and Education Services for the Headington Institute, which provides psychological and spiritual support to humanitarian relief and development workers around the world. A registered psychologist in Australia, she holds a M.Psychol. in forensic psychology from the University of New South Wales, and a M.A. in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Lisa is author of the novel My Hands Came Away Red, which was a 2008 Christy finalist. She has also authored Continuing Education modules for mental health professionals on understanding, assessing and treating acute stress, and writes a monthly series of stress management tips for humanitarian workers, Peace by Piece. She has had articles and essays published in several magazines, including InterAction Monday Developments, the Notre Dame Magazine, and Among Worlds.

Lisa currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

Thinking largely of escaping a complicated love life and having fun on the beach, eighteen-year- old Cori signs up for a ten-week trip to help build a church on a remote island in Indonesia.

Six weeks into the trip, a conflict that has been simmering for years flames to deadly life on the nearby island of Ambon. Before they can leave, Cori and her teammates find themselves caught up in the destructive wave of violence washing over the Christian and Muslim villages in the area. Within days the church they helped build is a smoldering pile of ashes, its pastor and many of the villagers are dead, and the six teenagers are forced to flee into the hazardous refuge of the mountains with only the pastor’s son to guide them.

As the team hikes through the jungle, Cori’s search for spiritual answers and emotional stability proves just as difficult as the physical journey home.