A Faith Destroyed
One Woman's Journey to Reclaim Her Faith and Her Life
by
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What would make a normal ordinary loving wife give up a basically happy life, a great career, a husband of eight years, a loving family and everything she held dear to travel across country and live homeless with a virtual stranger? What would make an ordinary woman—considered least likely to ever do something like that by her peers—suddenly leave without a trace? Was it the daily grind, or the stress of her career? Was it the basic routine and lack of intimacy that settled into her life and threatened to sap the very life out of her marriage?
Was it the heartache of infertility, the stress of doctors, fertility tests, and the hopeless realization of maybe never having the chance at becoming a ‘mommy?’ Was her newfound quest and zeal to ‘really find God’ to blame? Just what would make a bright woman—in one day—leave behind everything she knew and held dear, take a trip with a man she hardly knew, in order to conform to a mindset she did not yet embrace? Was the cause related to the infamous midlife crisis? Maybe it was the mysterious man with a message of divine calling and prophetic freshness that had just enough mystical illusion and intrigue to prove enticing.
Maybe it was all of the above, a simmering cauldron filled with every negative emotion boiling to the surface in rapid succession. However it all got started late that summer in the year 2000, one thing was certain. The questions seemed to mount much faster than any plausible answers.
When I left that fateful day, I had little more than the clothes on my back. I left abruptly, without a trace. And for the family and friends I left behind, the long months ahead proved to be devastatingly painful.
The book you now hold in your hands tells the true story of heartache, escape, deception, and a turn of events that led to an incredible miracle. My intention for writing this book is to explore why I left, and to finally tell my story. This was a journey of epic personal transformation that radically altered the course of my life as I knew it. I would never be the same again.
CHAPTER ONE
The Jewish Drifter
It was an ordinary August day in
I stepped out into the waiting lobby and was greeted by a familiar face. It was my pastor from our local church. Pastor Roy was a kind man with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He and his family had just recently moved to our area a few months prior to take over the pastorate that had been vacated by our previous pastor a year earlier. He was a welcome shepherd to our struggling little flock of souls. He sat reading his Bible, waiting for a member of our church to finish dialysis.
“Hey LeAnne, do you have a minute?” he asked.
“Sure,” was my reply. I sat down in the chair adjacent to his while he quickly began speaking.
“We have had a pretty incredible thing happen at church. We have had a visitor visit us, a Jewish gentleman, new in town, who seems to have a pretty incredible story. He says he just recently gave his heart to Jesus and believes Jesus is the promised Messiah. He’s a traveler, but says he wants to become a part of our church for a little while, to get to know us and be discipled by us in his new faith.”
At this, he had my full attention. Then he continued, “He knows a lot about the Old Testament, and says he’s a rabbi.”
Thoughts ran through my mind a mile a minute. “Get a load of this,” I thought. “A real rabbi at our church? One who beli
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About the Book
LeAnne Hathaway will never forget the day she met the Stranger. It was a day that would change her life forever.
Shortly before the chance encounter, LeAnne had a busy life and a successful career. She was known for her love of music and she had many friends. She played piano as part of the worship team at her local church. She was happy, idealistic, and loved by all who knew her. So when she suddenly disappeared without a trace with a virtual stranger—a self-proclaimed prophet of God—the shockwaves it sent were deeply felt by the people who knew her best, and the many others both in her community and across the country who held vigils and continually prayed for her safe return.
For three long months, LeAnne journeyed with the stranger, having no contact with her husband or family. Believing she had heard the voice of God urge her to embark on a new life, she began to shed her own beliefs and replace them with the teachings of a man who claimed to be the Son of God. But somewhere, deep in her soul was a longing for the life she once knew, and a desperate yearning to reconcile with the family and friends she had left behind. When at last she had to choose between continuing to chase after God or face that she had been deceived, her darkest moment gave way to an incredible healing miracle and long-awaited journey home.
About the Author
LeAnne Hathaway survived an incredible ordeal. Her story is one of emotional devastation in the face of deep spiritual searching. It is a story of human frailty and the strength of human compassion and love. And it is a story of renewed hope in finally realizing that the God she had so desperately searched for, was with her all along.
In some ways, coming to terms with what happened has been more painful than the actual events that led to her sudden disappearance. She had given her all, trying to serve the God she thought she knew. Now, there was nothing left. With her faith destroyed, LeAnne courageously confronted the very foundation of her previous religious teachings and came away with a completely different outlook on what it truly means to be spiritual.
LeAnne has no previous publications to her credit. She plans to write a sequel to this book, entitled A FAITH REBUILT in which she intends to take her readers with her on the journey she took in rebuilding her life and faith at a time when she had no faith left. She intends to ask compelling heartfelt questions that for most could never be addressed, unless of course they had their own faith destroyed.