Marked for Life

“Even in my bleakest of days, I knew God has a particular fondness for showing up among lives in the ruins, for using us flawed and failed human beings for redemptive purposes. So I became a witness. I bore witness to the tragedy of lives stuck in the misery of a punitive system. I also bore witness to the spirit of hope that emerged from impossible circumstances.”—author Nancy Hastings Sehested

This beautifully told narrative of a church pastor who became a state chaplain in high-security prisons for men knits together the stories of inmates with those of her own. Chronicling events during her thirteen-year stint, Nancy Sehested describes how she bore witness to misery and miracles within an oftentimes inhuman system.

Nancy Hastings Sehested, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, is an ordained Baptist minister who has pastored churches in Atlanta, Memphis, and now in Asheville, NC. She served as a state prison chaplain for thirteen years in two high-security prisons for men in North Carolina.