UNSHACKLED! Audio Dramas

<p>Tom grows up going to church with his family, but his older brother dominates him and he learns to fight. He also has a fascination with fire and firecrackers, setting a dumpster on fire when he’s 12. He has many risky encounters as a teenager … gets a job in a grocery store and steals to buy marijuana, which he denies when he’s confronted. He finally quits his job and becomes a security guard at night. He listens to “Unshackled!” and prays for salvation as the first part ends.</p>

<p>Karen’s father is an alcoholic who beats her mother. He abandons them when she’s four, and she spends her life longing for a reconciliation. He wants nothing to do with them even when he’s dying. Karen’s grandmother loves the Lord and takes her to church, but Karen becomes an alcoholic during a first, failed marriage. She weds Bud and they adopt children. Working at a crisis pregnancy center, Karen gets saved, but her addiction ends only when she surrenders to Christ six months later. By phone, she leads her father in a prayer of salvation. Still at the pregnancy center.</p>

<p>Growing up, Jerry comes between his stepdad and Mom when they fight. He becomes a brawler as a teenager, drinking, crashing his car while drunk. He plays the bass guitar in a small band, wants to be a rock star and writes songs. Looking for lyrics, he searches the Bible, then reads Revelation and is scared. He quits drinking, reads the Bible and goes to a coworker’s church, where he is saved. He becomes a soul-winner and goes to Bible college. On a trip home, his mother confesses that she tried to abort him. Now a pastor.</p>

<p>Drinking is prevalent in Mark’s family of nine children; talking isn’t. When Mark uses his dad’s van without permission, his older brother beat him up. Mark drinks too much and drives his snowmobile into a semi-truck, nearly dying; speech impaired. After recovering he goes back to drinking, his mother uses tough love and he goes to rehab in Chicago. There he prays and Christians mentor him until he is saved. He agonizes about turning in his brother to police for car theft, but his mom insisted, so he does. He becomes an aggressive soul winner, goes to Bible college and marries Julie. Now in ministry.</p>

<p>After his father dies, James’ mother goes to a nearby church. James goes, then quits, then returns and is saved. He begins witnessing to his family, and a brother is saved. But his brother switches churches, saying the nearby one is flawed. Ultimately, James agrees and goes to his brother’s church where he surrenders to ministry. Before his mother dies, she reveals her abortion attempt, and James struggles to deal with this new revelation. James discovers his birth certificate that says, “Infant Wilkins”. He and his brothers serve the Lord in proclaiming the liberating message of the gospel and also to present the eternal hope of God to other survivors of abortion.</p>

<p>James admits his crimes to the parole board and serves three years of a 16-year-sentence. He reconciles with his mother, works for a non-profit ministry and is promoted several times; but his church doesn’t welcome him, so he reaches out to them. He gets a B.A. degree and then proceeds to get an M.B.A degree and serves with the ministry that helped him in prison. Today he’s a chaplain, married and the Director of Correctional Services for the State of Texas.</p>

<p>While shoe-shining in Chicago at age 7, Robert stops at a tent revival and is saved. He takes his dad to PGM but his dad continues drinking. A brick-layer, he falls from a seven-story building and is killed, leaving Robert’s mother with 5 children. Robert works to help the family but continues taking Bible classes and commits to being a missionary to India. He’s drafted after World War II ends, serves in Korea where the first part ends when he is shot in the leg and captured.</p>

<p>Stephen goes to seminary and then is called to New Guinea where he has many adventures teaching physical education to natives and missionary kids in school. Returning home his church sends him to linguistic school where he struggles. His beloved grandmother dies and his brother is hospitalized, near death. After two years his brother dies and Stephen preaches at his funeral.</p>

<p>Byron attempts suicide several times. His doctor refuses to treat him because of the drinking problems, and his wife is at wit’s end, even having Byron put in jail for his own protection. The family tries to have him committed but the judge lets him try to change. He can’t. Finally, in an alcoholic center, a pastor explains the gospel and Byron is saved. He spends the rest of his life as a witness for Christ.</p>

<p>Bruce and Doris run away to marry when she is only 16. His motorcycle crashes into a car, and he prays for her to live, promising God to change. He doesn’t. Then she nearly dies after having their first baby. Again he promises God to change. They move to a small town where a neighbor prays for them. They go to church, hear the gospel and later that night, both pray to receive Christ. Change begins as they choose the LORD over the world. They grow as they trust in the LORD. Then God calls them to Africa and Bruce resists. The first part ends as he chooses to obey.</p>

<p>Raised without God or the Bible or church, Lawrence quits school at 15 to work and become rich. He marries Wilma at 24. Violent and bitter, he loses his job, borrows money from his dad to start his own auto shop. He has amassed nearly $50,000 when an oil-sparked explosion sets him on fire at work, and he nearly dies. In a coma he has a vision of hell and cries out to God to save him. All his money is spent on doctor and hospital bills, but he has peace and goes into ministry distributing Bibles.</p>

<p>John meets Donna and they live together, moving often because of the contracts out on his life. Then his partner is shot and killed, and John is arrested. As a third-time offender, he faces a long sentence and tries to escape. He’s caught and put in solitary where he learns of his brother’s death from leukemia. In prison he reads the Bible and hears an evangelist. One night he prays and is saved. He asks Donna to get a pastor to help him get paroled. Instead, Donna gets saved. Miraculously, he is released long enough for them to marry. The first part ends as he goes back to prison.</p>

<p>Devastated after his wife’s suicide, Tom is visited by a man (George Eager) who leads him to Christ. George then persuades Tom to take his children to a Bible conference camp that summer. There Tom meets Cherie, a single mom with three daughters. He also meets John, an architect who loves the LORD. Tom and Cherie marry, and Tom’s partners ask him to leave, so he starts his own firm. Cherie opens a Christian bookstore that prospers, and Tom and John form a ministry, The Master Architect, that ministers to architects around the world.</p>

<p>Becky struggles with the assurance of salvation but finally trusts in God’s Word. Marshall becomes a preacher, and she gives herself wholeheartedly to the church. Then she’s hurt when others leave or gossip, betraying her trust. She goes into depression and struggles for two years, writing poetry to ease the pain. She learns to trust God. Their younger son walks away for ten years, then returns and is saved. The family is still in ministry.</p>

<p>Brady’s father dies when Brady’s a child, and his mother goes blind; so he grows up without supervision. He joins the navy but receives an Undesirable Discharge for drinking and pilfering cargo. Unable or unwilling to work, he turns to stealing and goes to jail for 11 months. Then he meets and marries Jettie Mae. Again he makes bad decisions and she leaves him. He finally cries out to God, quits drinking and goes to Chicago. Jettie Mae joins him. They hear “Unshackled!” and he gives his testimony at PGM.</p>

<p>Doug grows up in abusive home. His mother beats him with a 1x2; his sister slams a rifle butt into his face when he’s four. He becomes a loner, mistrusting everyone except faces that he sees on his bedroom wall. He has nightmares, fights at school where he learns to make tiger pits, practicing on his dad. He plans mass murders to get even for his pain. At 11 he goes to Christian summer camp where he is saved. He memorizes scripture, studies hard, goes to Bible school for a year. Then graduates from electronic school and spends three years on Guam as a technician for Trans World Radio. Still in Christian radio in Cleveland.</p>

<p>Gary spends ten months healing in a veteran’s hospital, tries drugs in his search for God. Then tries college but drops out after some students spit on him. He visits his cousin and her husband gives him a New Testament. He discovers Jesus and is saved. He is reconciled to his father, also saved, and then he goes to seminary. While there he’s called to Washington to receive the Medal of Honor. He meets and marries, Lolly, gets a Master’s in counseling and counsels middle school students.</p>

<p>Rodney is molested at age four but turns to God for comfort. At nine he walks away from God to friends that lie and swear. He drinks, does drugs and is in several accidents, breaking both legs. He squanders insurance money on drugs, gambling and a sport car that he wrecks. He marries, has a son but his drugs and neglect lead to divorce. He repents but doesn’t get his family back, so he gets into Meth use, deteriorates and tries rehab. When that doesn’t work he asks his mother for help and she takes him to a Christian rehab. But he walks away to go back to Meth. The first part ends with a fiery explosion.</p>