Miss Brenda and the Loveladies, Brenda Spahn
Miss Brenda and the Loveladies, Brenda Spahn
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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Miss Brenda and the Loveladies
A Heartwarming True Story of Grace, God, and Gumption

Author: Brenda Spahn, Irene Zutell

Narrator: Pam Ward, Bahni Turpin, Johanna Parker, Adenrele Ojo

Unabridged: 7 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/01/2014


Synopsis

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 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 Brenda Spahn

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 five children. 

About Irene Zutell

Irene Zutell is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Pieces of Happily Ever After and coauthor with Vanessa Williams of You Have No Idea.

About Pam Ward

Pam Ward has had many incarnations, having performed in dinner theater, summer stock, and Off-Broadway, as well as in commercials, radio, and film. But she found her true calling reading books for the blind and physically handicapped for the Library of Congress Talking Books program, for which she received the prestigious Alexander Scourby Award from the American Foundation for the Blind. She now records from her studio amidst the beauty of the Southern Oregon mountains.

About Bahni Turpin

Bahni Turpin is a native of Pontiac, Michigan, now residing in Los Angeles. An acclaimed theater actress and ensemble member of Cornerstone Theater Company, Bahni has narrated over seventy audiobooks. In addition to her onstage and narration work, Bahni has worked extensively in TV and film. For a list of her film and TV credits, see IMDB.com.

About Johanna Parker

Johanna Parker, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has earned an esteemed Audie Award and three Audie nominations. She has received high praise for her work in all genres, including her portrayal of Sookie Stackhouse in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries series (the source material for HBO's True Blood), of which AudioFile has said, "Parker personifies Harris's perky Southern heroine, Sookie Stackhouse. Her splendid pacing allows listeners time to absorb the action and emotion. Listeners will be enthralled."

About Adenrele Ojo

Adenrele Ojo is a native Philadelphian who was born in Brooklyn, New York, and currently resides in Los Angeles. First trained as a dancer as a little girl, she went on to study as a part of Philadanco’s Training Program; later she received her Bachelor of the Arts in theater from Hunter College in New York and honed her skills at the William Esper Studio, studying Meisner under the auspices of Maggie Flanigan.    Nominated for an L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Martha Pentecost in the Fountain Theater’s 2006 production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Adenrele Ojo, theatre brat (her dad, John E. Allen, Jr. was Founder & Artistic Director of Freedom Theatre, the oldest African American theater in Pennsylvania) is no stranger to the stage. In 2010 she performed in the Fountain Theatre’s production of The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza, directed by Shirley Jo Finney, which won the 2010 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award & the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for Best Ensemble. Other plays include August Wilson’s Jitney and Freedom Theatre’s own Black Nativity (2007), where she played Mary.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Amanda H on January 02, 2014

When Brenda Spahn narrowly escapes going to prison herself, she feels God calling her to start ministering to those in prison. But, as she works with those women in prison, she discovers a real need for a whole way house for the woman when they get out, since a lot of them just wind up back in priso......more

Goodreads review by Thereasa on December 16, 2013

In Atlanta, it's really easy to shield yourself and your children from poverty. Everything we need is often within a few blocks of our lovely, manicured middle class (and up) neighborhoods. Our churches are filled with people who may have terrible trauma in their pasts and current problems that woul......more

Goodreads review by Becky on January 17, 2014

This is a true story about a very successful career woman, Brenda Spahn, who suddenly starts working with women prisoners. She doesn't have any experience. She only knows she feels impressed by God to do this, and to do it from a Christian perspective. At first, Brenda doesn't know what she has gott......more

Goodreads review by Joy on December 15, 2013

My Review This book reads like a novel, but it is really a true story. Wealthy, successful Brenda Spahn was spared spending time in prison because of a tough brush with the law. When Brenda was praying about going to prison herself, she made a promise to God. Being set free, she acts on her promise t......more

Goodreads review by Laura on January 05, 2014

In an honest and heartwarming narrative, Brenda Spahn tells of her journey from a wealthy entrepreneur to the founder and executive director of the Lovelady Center. In MISS BRENDA and the LOVELADIES she traces her steps from almost going to prison to loving and helping the first seven women of her "......more