Dear Stasi and John Eldredge,

I just want to say thank you for your book Captivating!

I'm a 24 years old catholic woman from Germany (I'm sorry for all the mistakes I'm making writing in English...) and I have read the German version of this book some months ago. Reading the book I said to myself: "Did they write this book just for me? But how do they know me?!" I was so impressed of how you told me about the deep wound of my heart which I didn't know before! All that I read in the book was so true! You wrote exactly about my wound!

My father never had much time for his children, and he never ever told me that I was beautiful. I cried a lot reading the book, it was a good, healing crying. I suddenly understood things in my life that I had not understood before.

And God is so good!!! He gave me not only your book but while I was reading it, he also gave me the friendship to a 20 years older man who has become a second father for me. During some months we were working together in a christian pro-life organisation and so we met nearly every day. His fatherly presence helped me a lot to heal my wound.

There was a moment when he didn't have much time for me. That was difficult for me because it reminded to my heart that my father never had much time for me. So now I felt once more the pain that I had since my childhood and for the first time, I could really cry about this pain my father had given to me. For the first time, I could grasp this pain. This was a very important moment for me.

So during some time I felt that God was healing my heart. But then I noticed that the evolution stagnated. And I also noticed why: I was still holding my wound. I was praying about it, but I had not yet given it completely to God. So I decided to do this step with the help of a priest: There was a eucharistic prayer evening where some priests gave a special blessing to those who asked for. So I went to a priest and asked for the complete healing of my heart. He prayed over me and in this moment I really gave my wound to God. Since this evening, I feel so free!!!

There is still one important detail in my story: I always knew that God loved me, that he cared for me, but for me God the Father was always very far, somewhere over the clouds - because I didn't knew a tenderly loving Daddy. Then God gave me my "second Daddy" who used to take me in his arms when he said me hello, to tell me that I was beautiful, and to listen to me attentively when I told him what was going on in me (while my biological Dad never even tries to understand me).  Then one day while I was sitting at home, praying, I suddenly felt something I had never felt before: I felt God the Father loving me tenderly, it felt like he took me in his arms, me, his beloved daughter! Great feeling! :)

I am so happy for all that God has done for me and without your book, it would have been much more difficult for me to let him heal my wound! So I say again THANK YOU for this book!!!

Now I am reading Wild at Heart and I'm discovering what's going on in a man. Very interesting! :)

Greetings from Germany,

Maria