Miss Brenda and the Loveladies! By Brenda Spahn and Irene Zutell
I absolutely loved this
book and that it was a true story made it much more interesting. I couldn’t put the book down. The main
character Brenda Spahn had been very successful in her work, monetarily…..but
she had a brush with the law, almost lost everything and just missed going to
prison. She made a deal with the Lord to
start doing work for him, to live for him, if he kept her out of prison. She didn’t go to prison as an inmate but she
started going to the Julia Tutweiler Prison For Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.to
speak to the inmates, she started a small church service there for them. She decided that wasn’t enough she wanted to
do more. She learned that most of the
women who were in the prison for much time at all, usually returned as they
couldn’t make it when they got out on their own. She arranged to take one of the homes she
owned that was vacant, to make it a “whole way” center for women. She wanted to teach them to live in the
outside world to navigate the alien, and she also wanted to bring the Lord to
them.
She got permission to
turn the home into a “whole way house” but the expected ex-cons that they sent
to her, were not the ones with the light sentence. She got the women who had rap sheets that
were very long and they were not going to be easy for her, and the road was
going to be long. She did things with these
women that people who ran “half way houses” never could. She was expected to
fail. She didn’t fail. She held classes in Christianity, also how to
make beds, how to clean, how to manage money, things that we all take for
granted but things these women never had the opportunity and so much more.
There were a lot of stories, true stories, of each of the lives of the seven women who originally were the first to come to Brenda’s home. The stories of each of these women were fascinating in that their lives included things most of us would never be able to even imagine. Brenda even got these women to laugh at some of the awful things that happened to these women, the past didn’t seem to have as much a hold on them when they could laugh at it.
There were a lot of stories, true stories, of each of the lives of the seven women who originally were the first to come to Brenda’s home. The stories of each of these women were fascinating in that their lives included things most of us would never be able to even imagine. Brenda even got these women to laugh at some of the awful things that happened to these women, the past didn’t seem to have as much a hold on them when they could laugh at it.
Brenda called them Loveladies
as that was her maiden name. She and
her first seven women and her first unlikely year is what is included in this
book. Brenda went from one small home to
a very large facility for which four states now send women for the
program. She has now been Miss Brenda
to over 450 women to date.
Of course this is a
faith based story and it’s inspirational in that Brenda turned her family and
life as she knew it upside down in order to serve her community and her
Lord. I found Brenda’s explanations to
the women on different parts of the bible, how to pray, a different way to
think of their Lord…..she let them know he was always with them. Her breaking down of the “Lord’s Prayer” to
them in teaching them how to pray was a very interesting way to think about
it. I had never heard it explained that
way.
I so recommend this
story to anyone. There is humor,
biography, Christianity non-denominational, and a great feel good and the end
of the book. It made me think that I
have not done enough for the community I live with. I’m not sure how much I could do, but perhaps
I should find some ways to serve…..as should everyone else. The community’s and the people who live in
them could only be better for it. It’s
too bad we all don’t go about things the way Miss Brenda did and continues to
do! "I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."
About This Book
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
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
About The Author
Brenda
Spahn is founder and executive director of the
Lovelady Center, the largest and most successful nonprofit transitional center
for women in the country. It serves 450 women and children every day, providing
substance abuse counseling, drug rehabilitation, meals, childcare, career
counseling, and job opportunities to women working to establish successful
lives outside of prison walls. Brenda is married and has four adult children as
well as one young child who lives at home.
The Authors Web Site is located at http:/www.loveladycenter.org/The_Lovelady_Center.html
