When Illegal Immigration Hits The Church

Posted by winjaw on Aug 12, 2010 in Sams on Sams blog | 0 comments

I’ve been on a rather whirlwind tour the last 10 days or so down in Georgia promoting my new book, Everyone Needs A Sam. I’d call it a success. I’ve learned a lot, the Little Black Dress and the Sons of Thunder got play time with friends. A good trip.

Yet I also learned, and saw, one of the most powerful expressions of pure love at an Atlanta church where I spoke about my book and our need for mentors. Seeing what this church was going through almost made me feel in the way. I felt like an interruption, yet despite what this church was facing, they still welcomed me with open arms.

My little book and I felt pretty insignificant. The one saving grace for me was my book is about mentors, and how true mentors stand by you when everyone else has deserted. I saw the most awesome display of that ever at this small church.

You see, one of their members was arrested during a traffic stop. During the investigation, the police found out the member in question was an illegal immigrant.

Excerpt From The Forward

Posted by winjaw on May 26, 2010 in Excerpts/Media | 0 comments

Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be running excerpts from the book, “Everyone Needs A Sam.”

The Little Black Dress and I always seemed to attend big churches, from 3,000 members and up. The smallest we ever attended regularly had about 500 members.

One Sunday, while living in Georgia, we visited a small church – Jones Chapel. On a good day, maybe 75 people showed up. We loved the people, we loved the pastor, and we never left until the pastor – John Freeland – left to take another church.

I asked John, who is now the senior pastor at Skyland United Methodist Church in Atlanta, to write the Forward to Sam, and he graciously agreed.

Following is an excerpt from his Forward: