When I visited my dad at the Rehab hospital in New Jersey, there was another patient sitting beside him in a wheelchair, just in front of the Nurses' station. I was drawn to him. Out of the blue, I said, "I bet you were an excellent football player when you were young." He looked up at me, and his face broke into the kindest smile, "Yes, I was--in college."

We conversed for some time as if we were old friends. That's when I discovered that Albert had lost both parents within a year of each other, and that had greatly impacted him. I also discovered that this man believed in God, so it was easy to share God's word with him, and the hope we, as Christians, have in eternal salvation.

By the end of our conversation, he reached for my hand. With trembling lips he said, "I have waited a long time to speak with someone like you. Thank you."

God works in mysterious ways. In Albert's case, God had sent me to minister to a man whose heart was breaking. It is with this desire to help others that Inside the Shell has been penned.