Desperados: The Insane True Story of Undercover Missionaires, Counterfeit Rock Stars & the Music Hoax of the Century, (Paperback)

When the Almgren undercover missionary family returned to the US after getting kicked out of China following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, they'd been instructed by the Communists never to speak of what they'd seen or heard. Above all, they were told never to come back.

There was just one problem: the mother, Susie Almgren, believed God had given her a divine mission to organize the first-ever Christian concert in Communist China, where Christian activity of any kind is highly illegal and strictly forbidden, and only one Western band (Wham! in 1985) had ever been allowed in to play.

Upon returning to the US, Mom set out on a decade-long journey to contact and convince a world-renowned Christian band to visit China for no pay, and with no guarantees of a safe or even certain return, and to somehow convince the Chinese government to not only allow all of this to take place, but to sponsor and promote the entire thing themselves.

Through a series of synchronicity, dumb luck, chance encounters, "divine intervention," serendipity, coincidence, and a heaping helping of sheer audacity, a deal was reached and a series of dates were booked for October 1999 with the biggest Christian band in the world: the award-winning Australian pop/rock band, the Newsboys.

But because of Mom's duplicity in the arrangements, China didn't know they'd booked a Christian band, and the Newsboys didn't know that China didn't know they were a Christian act - a potentially deadly disaster waiting to happen. Then, 12 days before the concert dates-after 10 arduous years in the making -the Newsboys backed out.

Not one to a let a little thing like "not having a band" get in the way of throwing a concert of global proportions for God, Mom hastily improvised: she found a local church drummer, bass player, and lead singer where she was living in Pittsburgh; enlisted her son (in Florida) as the keyboardist, and told him to go find "a great guitarist with a passport." Their mission (should they choose to accept): with the 5 band mates living in different states and unable to rehearse together, somehow become a unified band in under two weeks, prepared to go to China under threat of arrest and/or possible death, and masquerading as the real Newsboys with all of China none the wiser.

With potentially international consequences, what unfolded was one of the most improbable, harrowing, exhilarating, usually hilarious, and ultimately triumphant tales of courage, resourcefulness, teamwork, adventure, perseverance, creativity, the power of intention and positive thinking, faith, and a steadfast refusal to let obstacles or fear stand in the way of "the mission" becoming the Newsboys to the entire country of China, and pulling off the Greatest Musical Hoax of the 20th century.