The Book

Raised in the Northwoods of Minnesota by alcoholic parents, Melissa Huray seemed like a fairly normal lower middle-class girl. But no one knew that two demons always lurked nearby – fear and panic. After school food binges masked her abandonment wound for a while, but soon the need for something stronger became impossible to resist. Melissa hit the bottle at fifteen and plunged into a disastrous pattern of blackout binge drinking, drunk driving, and near-death experiences. Though she was introduced to Jesus Christ at a young age, discipleship did not follow her conversion and she easily abandoned Christian principles for the lure of counterfeit gods. Empty speechless idols found in beer cans, red Solo cups and the fleeting affection of men led her down a road of blackouts, breakups, pain and shame. The band-aids of the world worked for a while, but another crippling relapse forever waited around the corner. The road to freedom and restoration was confusing and muddy for Melissa, and the secular world pointed her everywhere but to God. But as she meandered through treatment programs, endless support group meetings, therapy and antidepressants, the hand of God never left her. As addiction’s grasp intensified, the Jesus she once knew began chasing her down. The beer-fueled road to nowhere led her back to the beginning – and a permanent solution in the simplicity of repentance and the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.