Breakaway Outreach founder Jimmy Larche releases new book (read the introduction below). A great resource for teens in crisis and those who minister to at-risk youth.

13-Foot Coffins: Because Giants Were Meant to be Slain

On September 10^th, 1987, I sat in a cold, roach-infested cell of a juvenile detention center reflecting over the sixteen years of my life, which at the time felt more like fifty years. I had been locked up for three days now, spending the bulk of them observing every doorway, barbed-wire fence, barred window, and crevice, looking for a possible means to escape. I had grown accustomed to running. As a matter of fact, running is what ultimately landed me in the juvie center in the first place.

Just one year earlier I had attempted suicide and spent four days in the ICU at a hospital in Baltimore. I didn’t necessarily want to die, I just didn’t see any real reason to be alive or any hope in being delivered from the inhuman abuses of my father. To understand how my life had come to such a dismal resolve you must know where it all began.

It has taken me over 25 years to publish the injustices that were a part of my childhood, yet the events are as clear to me today as if they had happened yesterday. Some of these events were so painful to address, insomuch that I would much rather intentionally leave them in the past where they are nestled far away from the joys I experience with my wonderful family today. But frankly, that would be too safe. And because God never intends to waste our pain or suffering, I choose to obey Him in sharing my story with the hope that it will bring about healing for victims of abuse everywhere, even if it makes me feel dangerously vulnerable.

Humanity is a messy place to learn how to become fully alive. Nevertheless, it is indeed a boot camp of faith; a spiritual gauntlet in which God calls every one of us to go through if we are to bear the resemblance of His Son, Jesus. And I’ve learned over the years that pain is not only an unfortunate part of this growth process; it is indeed a very necessary, vital, and essential part of our journey. My hope is that as you read this book you will come to experience the same grace I’ve experienced in discovering God’s redemptive purpose through pain and suffering, and to have the perfect peace that even when our pain doesn’t make sense, our heavenly Father’s love remains steadfast.

His love can be trusted even when a “Why” cannot be traced.

13-Foot Coffins is not necessarily my story, it’s His-story; one where I have been given the humble privilege of being an extra that points to the main character in this story: Jesus Christ. This account is a living chronicle of God’s redemptive work in a fallen world where generational curses run rampant, and specifically, His intimate dealings in rescuing a helpless child out of the cruelty of injustice and the despair of abuse, to setting him free from a victim mentality, to becoming a difference maker in giving hope to countless young people across the globe. I am no longer a victim; I am more than a conqueror through HIM who loved me out of darkness and into His glorious light (Romans 8:37). Healing, forgiveness, and freedom can be found for those who truly want to become fully alive.

Welcome to His story; one in which I serve as a humble stagehand in lifting up the unbound Healer, faithful Redeemer, and Prince of Peace: Jesus, the risen Christ! Join me in this rich journey of grace in slaying a victim-mentality and finding your God-inspired dance with destiny! The world is waiting! Get 13-Foot-Coffins on Amazon (download the first chapter for FREE!)