After narrowly escaping incarceration, successful businesswoman and entrepreneur Brenda Spahn felt called into prison ministry. With no experience but with heaps of enthusiasm and a heart for female prisoners, Brenda started serving these women with unconditional love. She took seven ex-cons into her own home to help them establish successful lives on the outside. Miss Brenda and the Loveladies chronicles the humble beginnings of the Lovelady Center, now the largest and most successful non-profit transitional centre for women in the US. This is a remarkable story of hope, grace and God’s redeeming love.
Miss Brenda and the Loveladies is such an inspirational book. I was riveted and literally couldn’t put it down. As soon as I’d started reading I just had to know what happened next. Parts of the book made me cry and others made me laugh. The stories of the women and their experiences in prison were heartbreaking but I really liked that they were given a voice to share their stories in the book.
What Brenda Spahn lacked in knowledge and experience of rehabilitating women out of prison, she more than made up for with her enthusiasm and unconditional love. The women, who mostly never experienced good relationships with their own mothers, even came to view Miss Brenda as a surrogate mother. She loved and accepted the women for who they were regardless of what they’d done. And isn’t that what any of us want, to be unconditionally loved and accepted?
Brenda had to overcome many an obstacle but she never gave up. Her endurance and faith in her God-given vision are truly inspirational. There should be more people like her who step out in faith and love the unlovables.