There is much spiritual illumination to be found in this slender book by Ivah Heneise. It is a very personal story, representing years of letter writing to her family while working with her husband Harold as missionaries in Haiti. It is a combination of autobiography, mission history and strategy, and inspirational reading. All who personally knew Ivah and Harold Heneise realized that their lives consistently authenticated their words. The story begins in a nineteenth-century-type mission situation, even though it was 1947 when they reached Haiti. Ivah's letters trace some of their hopes and aspirations, some of the difficulties and delays, and the emerging forms of mission to meet critical needs. Theirs was a constructive response to situations which could be only partially corrected. But they cast shafts of light into the darkness. "By The Light of My Kerosene Lamp" reveals a balanced spiritual and Christian social action ministry, one dedicated to training and helping Haitians in a wide variety of ways.