How Rina Tham Turned Fear Into an Adventure by Anna Daugherty
Lucky Number 9: Journey of a Rubber Tapper’s Daughter is the compelling story of Rina Tham’s impoverished childhood in the jungle of Malaysia. Rina has lived out her life according to the philosophy that if you live with your heart open, fear becomes an adventure. Rina’s story of ultimate triumph over poverty, debilitating health issues, and many other dramatic life events has resulted in a deep desire to give back to the world. Her book is one way in which she’s doing just that. “Even though we were poor, those six years at Chinese school took that feeling of wanting away,” Rina writes. “I was too busy, for starters, to think about my secondhand shoes. And the school has this grand church bell announcing a new day. It should have been at the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral, this magnificent bell, not at my little school.” “In many ways, I had less than most--living on the rubber plantation, saving pennies for food, fighting for floor space by the window, never seeing Father, tapping