Learning to Begin Again

After spending 22 years in prison and coming from a background connected to the Aryan Nation, Ed entered a very different season of his life as a new Christian.

Donald began meeting with him personally for Bible study and discipleship. After one particularly difficult day, Ed wrote Donald to say that he had opened his Bible and landed on James 4. The passage gave him a practical way to think about anger, temptation, humility, and trusting God when his thoughts were pulling him elsewhere.

During another Bible study, Donald and Ed were discussing the Samaritan woman at the well and what it means to feel rejected or written off. A young woman nearby overheard the conversation, approached them in tears, and told them she had been struggling deeply and was ready to give up. They stopped the study, prayed with her, and spoke words of affirmation over her.