Trust First

Deel, founder of City of Refuge, a nonprofit that provides social services to Atlanta’s poor, shares powerful stories of transformation in his insightful debut. While he relates stories of how City of Refuge has helped drug addicts, violent criminals, and sex trafficking victims overcome their pasts, Deel’s main focus is how the work has transformed him. As a “white, Christian pastor from rural Virginia,” he was nicknamed “Ghetto Rev” when, after seeing a rise in homelessness, he set up a program to serve free meals in parking lots in inner Atlanta. When Deel first began his work, he assumed those suffering from addiction or mired in poverty had failed to make good choices. But as his work continued, he began to understand that America’s educational and social services systems had failed many of those he now helped. Eventually, Deel decided to move his wife and five daughters to central Atlanta, and he explains how City of Refuge began after he purchased the church in 1997, later expanding it into a 200,000-square-foot campus that offers housing, drug programs, education, and medical care. In compassionate, inspiring prose, Deel makes the powerful case that “trust is the key to change.” His remarkable story will inspire Christian readers to stop being “trust challenged” and provides a fine example for those interested in serving the needy in their community. (Aug.)