True Stories of People in Recovery books don't just materialize in the distance. They are constructed of folding chairs, church coffee, and the humble labor of individuals who continually return. To grasp the steady tone of this collection, meet its editor and curator, Shirley R. Luckadoo.

Her own chapter, "The Broken Road Back Home," begins in Cliffside, a rural North Carolina mill town. Childhood insecurity school her in the art of masking and performing. She married young, attempted to create a "perfect life," and learned how quickly compromise creeps in on the guise of respectability. The turn of her confessional narrative is not campy; it's candid about wandering faith, codependency she couldn't yet articulate, and the long sweep of coming back to first love.

What drew her back? In part, honesty about what wasn't going right what she would come to refer to as living a "carnal Christian." In part, the realization that God specializes in reversals: beauty out of ashes, praise out of despair. Isaiah 61 is not an ornament in her story; it's a job description. The calling that surfaces is plain and heavy-duty speak the truth and hold space for others to do the same.

That's how she became smitten with Celebrate Recovery. As ministry leader at Trading Ford Baptist Church in Salisbury, NC, for the past seventeen years, she has seen "hundreds" come bristling with self-protection and then mellow, week by week, as they get to know one another and work the Steps. Her preface to the book is like a pastor's benediction over a crowded hall: may you behold what the Lord has done, and may you trust Him.

The editorial decisions in the book stem from that stance. Each of the stories was originally presented publicly at a CR meeting. Admission required authors who could verify at least two years sober and a contemporary life of service. Names and facts were edited where needed, but the events themselves are intact because credibility is recovery's currency.

Think about how the questions at the end of the book expand her ministry. Following intense chapters Erin's abduction and escape, Kevin's protracted return from destruction, Kyle's transformation from prison to ministry the page doesn't come shut but opens into "Questions for Small-Group Discussion or Personal Reflection." That is significant. Healing is never merely catharsis; it's discipleship how will we function come tomorrow morning?

Even the jacket speaks for itself. The triumphant bound selected through a community vote proved to be Meredith, a graduate of Capstone Recovery Center whose life nine months of in-house recovery, a transition to Hope House, a job at Capstone had already started resembling the picture. The book displays her liberty on the cover.

Luckadoo's "about" pages don't boast credentials; they direct to faithfulness. In seasons of inactivity precipitated by illness and injury, writing was obedience instead of a project, and the blessings multiplied family restored, ministry shared, and renewed determination to "keep on keeping on" under the promises of Romans 8. The story behind the stories is the same grace the book announces.

If you’re new to recovery ministry, start here: read the introduction out loud in your next leaders’ meeting.

Pray Psalm 40: “He lifted me out of the pit… set my feet on solid ground.” Then map a six-week plan: choose chapters that match your community’s needs and let the built-in questions guide your nights. The leap on the cover isn’t metaphor; it’s a person. And that's the greatest editorial choice of all real people, real change, under your nose.