Dana Brooke

Dana and I with our kids from the inner city

I was in 8th grade when I met Dana. She was almost three years younger than me, but you'd never know it. We were fast friends and thick as thieves. We went through so much together over the years. I always told people that Dana was my soulmate. No one ever understood me the way Dana did, and we had the kind of friendship that one only finds once in a lifetime.

Over the years we drifted apart, as she moved to Chicago to pursue a career in acting and I moved to Arkansas and got married. There was the presence of an antagonist in there somewhere coupled with me being at a bad place in my life, and Dana drifted completely out of my life. I was distraught over it for years. I know that makes me sound pathetic, but it was one of the hugest losses I've encountered in my life. Dana got into some awful things back in Chicago, and it felt like there was nothing I could do to save her. I cried night after night after night for God to keep her safe and to bring her back to me, but He never did. As she faded further and further away, I grieved her like she was dead. I fought with God over why He would not rescue her, and why He would not rescue me from the guilt and pain of not having her in my life and of feeling somewhat responsible for the hurt and horror she was going through in her own. I wrote her all the time, but could never bring myself to send the letters. I never knew where she was anyways.

Two weeks ago I randomly saw her on someone's facebook page. I wrote her, and before I could agonize over my wording or freak out about whether or not to send it, I pressed 'send'. I cried the whole day, not knowing if contacting her was going to make her upset or make me vulnerable to being hurt again.

Three days later, Dana is sitting on my couch. A couple days before I wrote her, God spoke to her and told her to come back home. He provided a way out of her current situation, and completely rescued her heart and her mind. It turns out that I had written her the day before she left to come home. We spent the next 2 days together in tears and in prayer of thanksgiving for God delivering her and restoring what has been broken.

She has been through sooo much, and she has a really tough road ahead of her. But what once was lost has now been found and I am once again dumbfounded by God's timing and His goodness, even when we think He has forgotten us. There's so much I could say. There is so much evil that has been overcome, and so much hurt that God has begun to heal. What Satan meant for evil, God turned to beauty.

With my Dana back, I am able to laugh again, and it feels really, really good. Please pray for Dana as she starts her life over, and begins a journey of healing and recovery. God has been sooooooo faithful and will continue to be, no doubt. I will praise Him until the day I die.