Conrad once believed his life was defined by failure. “There was a time I felt like I had failed at everything,” he said. After years of carrying deep regret, he struggled to see any good in himself or his life. But over time, and through time in God’s Word and...
It was close to the time I expected my wife Hendrina to be home from visiting her mother when my phone started ringing and her name popped up on the screen. When I answered, she was distraught and crying. A car had run a stop sign at high speed and nearly hit her....
Moses grew up in deep poverty in Kenya. When his parents separated, his father—an alcoholic—kept the children, and Moses, just a child himself, became responsible for his younger siblings. With little support and no steady income, he dropped out of school in sixth...
In the early ’70s, I used to visit the county jail. There were about a hundred men incarcerated. Times were different then, and the warden let me roam freely. One Christmas, our youth group went to local shoe stores and collected empty boxes. We wrapped them in...
Alfonso still remembers the moment that changed everything. “I was having a hard time wrestling with my guilt and shame when I saw someone had left one of the ‘invite someone to join’ cards on an empty bookshelf that inmates use to place material they are willing to...
“We’ve made room for you.” These words were shown to my wife Hendrina and me through the actions and words of many people as we prepared for my incarceration, walked through that journey, and faced the time to come home. I didn’t deserve their grace and hospitality...
