“This Center and ministry have become what it is today not because of us, but rather, because of Jesus.” Brenda Lovelady Spahn is the real deal. God spoke to her, she listened, she obeyed. I have been blessed to visit The Lovelady Center five times. I walk in the front door and there is no doubt Jesus is there. Miss Brenda and the Loveladies never left my heart after reading it. My heart made room for Miss Brenda and the Lovelady Movement. I will never forget it. Read it. You will meet Jesus with every word. And you will never be the same.
Janet Scherer
Women’s Ministry Director
First Baptist Church, Kennett, Missouri
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In her first book, Miss Brenda and the Loveladies, written with Irene Zutell, Brenda Spahn tells the inspirational and heartwarming story of the beginning of an incredible journey of faith, which began with seven women released from prison into Miss Brenda's "Wholeway House,” her own home. That journey culminated in the most successful program for rehabilitating formerly incarcerated women in the United States. From a group of seven women, The Lovelady Center is now a major facility housing over four hundred women and some eighty children. Literally tens of thousands of women have been through the program, which serves not only those formerly incarcerated, but women dealing with drug addiction, spousal abuse, and homelessness. Now, in her second book, Brenda Spahn brings to life the stories of the women themselves, many times in their own words. Their stories can be funny, tragic, terrifying and inspiring. Although The Lovelady Center has as high of a success rate as any rehabilitative facility in the country, not every story has a happy ending. With unflinching honesty and unwavering faith, Miss Brenda recounts both the successes and the heart breaks, told always with love and compassion for each of the women whose lives she has touched, and faith in the Almighty who has guided the way. This is a story that will warm the heart and inspire the better angels of all who read it.
Dan Gordon
Head Writer of Highway to Heaven, and author of the book, Postcards from Heaven
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I have never met another person in my life anything like Brenda Spahn. She’s tough, courageous, funny, tenacious, kind and loving. She’s each of these things to a tremendous degree. But above and beyond any of these qualities, Brenda Spahn is a woman of powerful faith who listens for the word of God to direct her in her life, and then follows it. No matter what.
It took this special blend of characteristics to make anything at all like the events of which you’re about to read in this book take place. The existence and success of the Lovelady Center hardly seem possible and the events that takes place within the pages of this book sometimes seem like they can’t possibly be true. But they are. I have been to the Lovelady Center and I have witnessed with my own eyes a few of the miracles that take place there. But, for the people you’ll read about here in this book, and within the walls of the Lovelady Center, miracles happen many times over, every day, year after year.
For anyone out there in the world that has lost their way, this book is proof that there is hope. For anyone out there in the world who is doubtful of or frightened to follow the path upon which God is leading them, this book is proof of the amazing events that can take place if you have the courage to take that first step.
Brenda herself says that if she knew the enormity of the task she was about to take on when she started the Lovelady Center, she never would have had the courage to go through with it. But she took the first step, and then just kept taking the next one. So did her wonderful family, who have been with her in the effort every step of the way and so did the many former clients of the Lovelady Center who have gone on to make its mission their lives’ work. Most importantly of all, so did the tens of thousands of women whose lives have been saved and whose futures have become bright to a degree most of them never thought possible thanks to Brenda Spahn and the Lovelady Center.
The story you’re about to read in these pages has its share of struggle, sadness and tears, but far more than that it is the story of overcoming these things with the power of love, joy, friendship and family, and the tenacity we can find within us when surrounded by them. Most of all, it is a true story of faith and the boundless miracles that an adherence to that faith has the power to bring into the world.
Doug McKay
Movie Producer
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The phenomenal true story of Miss Brenda and The Loveladies, and the Movement that followed, is living proof that our God is the God of never-ending love, miracles, and second chances. I know this first hand because I witnessed the anointing power of God working in and through my precious friend, Lovelady Center Founder Brenda Spahn. A "Whole-Way House" that has transformed and continues to transform the lives of thousands of women. Women who were born without a chance in life, tossed away by society, incarcerated multiple times or who'd suffered through addiction and abuse. Women in need of a real and everlasting opportunity for a purpose-filled life full of love, joy and peace. This second book, written by Miss Brenda and Jeanne Sparks, tells the stories of these transformed lives in gripping detail that is, at times, gut-wrenching to read - but which overflows with hope and heart. Time, as we know, is so incredibly precious in our lives. I can say though with absolute certainty, if you take the time to read this book, Christ will move your heart and open your eyes and ears in ways beyond what you could ever imagine.
Cindy Bond
Producer, I Can Only Imagine, and Redeeming Love
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In Miss Brenda and the Loveladies, we read the sometimes joyful, sometimes heartbreaking, but always miraculous story of seven women released From the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama, to move into Brenda’s home for the hope of finding a new way of living. What drew out of that humble beginning was a faith journey that God used to create one of the largest and most successful prison reentry and drug rehabilitation programs in the country today. As Brenda said, ‘In the beginning, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I just knew I had to do something.’ And what Brenda learned from those first seven women about the revolving door of the prison system, about life in the streets, and about the never-ending struggles of addiction became the foundation of the program that to date has helped over 15,000 women and 4,000 children. In the pages of this book, you will read the stories of many of these women. Stories that do not always have a fairytale ending, but stories that will touch your heart, and hopefully inspire you to look to where God may be leading you to step into your faith journey, the story that may lead you much farther and much deeper into God’s vision for our world than you could ever imagine.
John A. McNeil
Board Chairman
The Lovelady Center
