It’s not where you’ve been, but where you’re going. This book, Walk to Beautiful: The Power of Love and a Homeless Kid Who Found the Way, delivers that message and the inspiration that there is always hope for anyone no matter how hopeless the situation may be.
Take country music star Jimmy Wayne for example, who co-wrote this book with Ken Abraham. He wrote and recorded songs which made it to top of hit lists. He toured the country and performed in several venues alongside other superstars. He got himself a comfortable townhouse and drink his coffee with creamer every morning. Who would ever believe that he was once a homeless kid, neglected by his very own mother, and used to sleep on the streets because nobody wanted to take him in.In a story that provided much details and heart-piercing accounts of his troubled and tumultuous childhood growing up in shady neighborhoods and dealing with druggies and drunkards, Jimmy Wayne wrote a book that awakens the humanity in you and tugs your heartstrings and urges your tear ducts to give way and let those salty water stream down your face.
How on earth can a mother stand to see her child being beaten up by her lover? Or allow her children to witness obscenities? Or leave her 14-year-old son alone in a bus terminal?
You can’t help but be angry reading these accounts. How hard was this for a young boy to fathom? You look at Jimmy Wayne’s videos on Youtube and you think: “Seriously? This man experienced all these?”
By the time I reached page 53, I lost count of how many times Jimmy, his mother, and sister Patricia transferred residences. I also lost count as to how many times his mother remarried and always ended up with her neglecting and abandoning Jimmy.
And yet, the boy managed to survive with his faith in God and the determination to make something of himself. But this wouldn’t have been possible without the Good Samaritans who took him under their wings. While Jimmy encountered a lot of evils in his life, there were a handful of angels who entered his life – and that handful of good people was enough to turn his life around. You read this book and you meet a couple named Bea and Russell who were not only generous but compassionate. They were responsible in Jimmy’s positive development. They were also great examples of Christians who live their faith. They didn’t just say they love Jesus, they show it by being of service to others.
This book is also Jimmy’s account of how he started Project Meet Me Halfway by completing a 1,700-mile walk from Nashville, Tennessee to Phoenix, Arizona to raise awareness of the plight of the 30,000 foster children aging out of the system each year, an issue he knows very well being in and out of the foster care system in his childhood and homeless by age 16.
Jimmy completed his walk after seven months and has since raised funds for Project Meet Me Halfway, now a 501 c 3 charitable organization dedicated to bring awareness to the issues of at-risk kids and building transitional homes for them. The very first transitional residence will be called “Bea’s Home for Youth”, named after Bea Costner, the woman along with husband Russell who took Jimmy into her home and her heart.
Walk to Beautiful is a New York Times bestselling book and rightfully so for the message it brings. I can’t imagine a person who won’t be touched and inspired after reading Jimmy’s story.
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