Faith Through the Unthinkable: Shaun & Valerie Alexander on Loss, Love, and Raising 14 Children

Val, can you share a little bit about your radical salvation and what that looked like?

Oh, man, yeah.

So I was raised in a home where I had a praying mom, and she took us to church, and then I had a dad who wasn't saved.

And so I was around the things of God, but I hadn't really made God my personal Savior.

And so I remember being in college.

It was my sophomore year, I think it was, and I had just gotten to the end of sort of myself.

I had just been depressed and basketball.

I was a college basketball player and that wasn't working out the way I thought it was going to work out.

And so by the end of that year, I just remember being at my home and crying out to the Lord and just going, man, If you are who they say you are, I need you now.

I

need you now.

And that little prayer, little did I know, was going to radically change my life.

It was as though God stepped in that room that day.

And just, I mean, I went from being so depressed in such a dark place, having no hope at the time, within a matter of a couple days and weeks, I was hearing the voice of God.

He was telling me the things I needed to walk away from.

He was telling me, cut ties with this, leave that alone.

And I just started walking towards this God that I did not know is so personal

and

just comes down into your world and goes, I'm going to lead you and guide you.

And so I felt like he just started walking me out of darkness.

And when Sean and I met, he kind of laughed because I said, hey, it was a Friday.

We've been talking for a couple of weeks and I'm like, hey, it's Friday.

So I go out to the downtown Seattle and I pass out blankets to homeless people.

And

like,