Strive to Follow God’s Plan, Even If It Is Hard : A Review of Breaking Cover

A Review of Breaking Cover by Michelle Rigby Assad

“Breaking Cover” by Michelle Rigby Assad begins as a fascinating memoir of one woman’s life as a CIA Intelligence Officer deployed in countries in the Middle East. But quickly this story becomes one of determination and listening to God’s direction for your life.

Michelle deployed alongside her husband a Christian who grew up in the Middle East and experienced the persecution of Christians there first hand. Together they learn to negotiate with and manage terrorist informants over a ten year period in Iraq, Saratoga, and another unnamed country.

Michelle learns to trust herself and God and to stand up for those who need assistance and fight against those who threaten to bring harm. Her tale, and the additional advice she provides to the reader combine into a wonderful lesson for all of us.

I think that this book is wonderful for any Christian woman, but especially for mothers and teenage daughters to read and discuss together.

From the Publisher:

A real-life, can’t-put-down spy memoir.
The CIA is looking for walking contradictions. Recruiters seek out potential agents who can keep a secret yet pull classified information out of others; who love their country but are willing to leave it behind for dangerous places; who live double lives, but can be trusted with some of the nation’s most highly sensitive tasks.

Michele Rigby Assad was one of those people.

As a CIA agent and a counterterrorism expert, Michele soon found that working undercover was an all-encompassing job. The threats were real; the assignments perilous. Michele spent over a decade in the agency—a woman leading some of the most highly skilled operatives on the planet, secretly serving in some of the most treacherous areas of the Middle East, and at risk as a target for ISIS. But deep inside, Michele wondered: Could she really do this job? Had she misunderstood what she thought was God’s calling on her life? Did she have what it would take to survive?

The answer came when Michele faced her ultimate mission, one with others’ lives on the line—and it turned out to have been the plan for her all along. In Breaking Cover, Michele has at last been cleared to drop cover and tell her story: one of life-or-death stakes; of defeating incredible odds; and most of all, of discovering a faith greater than all her fears.

Look interesting? The publisher has a sample you can download here.

About the Author:

Michele Rigby Assad

Michele Rigby Assad is a former undercover officer in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s Directorate of Operations. Trained as a counterterrorism specialist, Michele served her country for ten years, working in Iraq and other secret Middle Eastern locations.

Upon retirement from active service, Michele and her husband Joseph (also a former agent) joined a group of Americans who wished to aid persecuted Christians. Their efforts resulted in the evacuation of a group from northern Iraq that was featured on ABC’s 20/20 in December 2015.

Michele holds a master’s degree in Contemporary Arab Studies from Georgetown University. Today she serves as an international security consultant, splitting her time between the Middle East, Florida, and Washington, D.C.

Photograph by Axel Muench www.axelmuench.com