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Book Review: May I Walk You Home?
By Ken Horn | February 4, 2008
My friend Mark Thallander, himself an amazing example of triumph over tragedy (featured in last year’s Surviving Tragedy issue; read it here), sent me information on a friend of his, a former Vanguard University professor, who has also turned tragedy on its head and is helping needy people.
This info from www.melodyrossi.com:
Melody Rossi’s public career was launched in 1984 when she became a regular soloist at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. For the next 10 years, Melody sang with opera companies and symphonies across the United States. Her singing career was reaching its pinnacle; then tragedy struck.
A surgical error in 1994 nearly took Melody’s life, and left her bedridden for almost a year. This incident not only robbed her of her health and halted her career, but left her unable to fulfill her dream of having children. As Melody and her husband grappled with the pain of infertility, God was working behind the scenes preparing them to become parents to hundreds of inner city children.
In an attempt to reinvent her life, Melody became a substitute teacher in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. She was repeatedly sent to the high crime neighborhoods where she discovered the harsh realities of inner city life. Initially horrified, Melody soon developed a love for her students and a desire to make a difference. She took a permanent teaching contract, and began a new career. After several years of teaching, Melody began an after school program to give extra help to her students. This eventually became Cloud and Fire Ministries, a Christian nonprofit that provides holistic transformational ministry to low-income urban youth. Today she is the Executive Director of this ministry through which she and her husband have nurtured countless young people.
For an excerpt of her book, May I Walk You Home?, click here.
Ken Horn
