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Informationen zum Autor Brenda Spahn and Irene Zutell Klappentext One woman's fight to provide hope for the hopeless… Seven ex-cons who changed her heart forever… For Brenda Spahn! entrepreneur and businesswoman! wealth was a lifestyle-until a brush with the law threatened to send her to prison. In those dark moments! Brenda made a promise to God. Spared incarceration! a renewed Brenda glimpsed into the lives of women serving time in one of the worst places in America-the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka! Alabama. What she saw prompted a God-inspired vision. With a heart to help and a will that couldn't be crushed! Brenda fought the system and overcame tremendous obstacles to take ex-cons into her own home and help them navigate the alien world of life on the outside. This is the story of Brenda's journey from rags to riches to redemption. It's the story of the first unlikely year of her "Whole Way House" and of the extraordinary lives of the first seven women who came to call her "Miss Brenda." It's a story that testifies to the power of faith and how God changes hearts every day. Introduction Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do—then do it with all your strength. —George Washington I was raised in a trailer. My parents struggled to feed and clothe me. Because I grew up without having much, I promised myself one day I’d be very rich. Decades later, I had built a successful business. I finally had what I could only dream of as a child—a big house, fancy cars, expensive jewelry, and all the material things I could ever want. At the height of success, I found myself under investigation for a crime I didn’t commit. I faced the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence. All those possessions I had accumulated and cherished I was likely to lose. I had always felt I was in control of my life and my destiny. Once I was at the mercy of the legal system, I realized I was in control of nothing. I lost my business, but I found another calling. I lost my riches, but I discovered riches of the spirit. I lost my faith in the system, but I discovered another faith—a faith in things that never depreciate or corrode or collapse. I found faith in God and the indomitable power of redemption—for myself and for a group of incarcerated women who’d been catastrophically abused by the system, by spouses, by parents, and by themselves. Instead of chasing the American Dream, rehabilitating these women became my career. I learned that within each of them—even the most terrifyingly brutal felons—dwelled an undeniable spark of the divine. Junkies, grifters, armed robbers, prostitutes, drunks, dealers, and murderers became my new social circle. They were former inmates of the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama—another monolithic bureaucracy that warehoused the forgotten until they disappeared, returned, or died. Its motto could have been “Abandon hope.” They became the Loveladies. In the beginning, no name would have been more improbable. In time, no name could have been more fitting. This is my story. This is their story. Meet the Loveladies. Chapter 1: Have I Lost My Mind? Fear is faith that it won’t work out. —Elbert Hubbard Oh my Lord, what have I done!” I gasped. I stared out the kitchen window as six violent criminals stomped up my driveway. Hunter, my four-year-old adopted son, stood on tiptoes trying to get a glimpse of what had me so terrified. “Your mama has messed up big-time,” I said. For the last month, I had pictured this moment time and time again—but it had looked very different. In my imagination, the women would skip up the driveway, giggling and talking excitedly. I’d open the door with a loud “Welcome!” and women would race toward me, enveloping me in big, grateful bear hugs. After they’d thanked m...
