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Over blue and red Freez-E-Pops on the floor of his new apartment, Shane tells me about robbing people.

"I would ambush 'em over by the park. Me and some buddies broke open the lights and turned them to face the street so the whole back half of the park was pitch black. Get 'em in a sleeper hold"--he crooks his elbow around an imaginary neck to demonstrate--"Wait till they go limp, then roll 'em over and slam! hit 'em in the face." Shane would take the cash from rich men's wallets (credit cards were too much of a hassle) and return to the kids, as he calls them. "Let's go get something to eat, guys," he would say. When they asked him where he got all the money, he would tell them not to worry about it.

Shane speaks with unabashed honesty about his past. He has none of the suspicion that I expected, that I myself would probably have if some random girl from across the country showed up wanting to interview and write about all the painful, ugly circumstances of my life. He and his wife Dondria have opened up their brand-new two-bedroom apartment to me for the rest of my time here. They introduced me to their friends at Sox Place, let me play with their two kids - Nate and Emily. Yesterday Shane bought me a Vitamin Water after we walked for an hour in the hot downtown sun and I realized I left my wallet at the motel. Dondria is so loving and sweet to me that I find it hard to believe her when she says that she used to be "a very mean girl."

"Oh yeah," Sox confirms. "She used to be nasty mean. Wouldn't talk to me for the first two years, but she would take my socks. Then she got pregnant with Emily and got all sweet."

Later that night, Dondria tells it a different way: "I didn't trust Doyle at first. I mean, what does this guy want? What's his angle? Then he got the building and people started going there and I hated it. Then Josh died." Josh, or Mosh Josh, or Skitzo, stabbed himself twice in the chest in front of Dondria and his girlfriend one night. "He didn't quite get his heart," she says. "He probably would have lived if he hadn't gone running out the apartment." After Josh's death, Dondria and Shane became regulars at Sox Place and Dondria slowly began to open up to Doyle. When Doyle's wife Karen found out she was pregnant with Emily, she threw a huge baby shower for her and showed up with a mini-van literally filled to the roof with gifts from people all over the country. Dondria and Shane have both said to me on separate occasions that Doyle is the closest thing to a father that they've ever had and that Doyle's family has done more for them than anyone in their lives.

Two weeks ago, after nine years of encountering the love of Christ at Sox Place, Shane and Dondria gave their lives to Jesus. Shane calls it "coming to the light." A week ago Sox baptized them in the Platt River, just a little ways down from where Shane used to shoot heroin. Last night, after a long battle of putting the kids to bed, I watched them both open their Bibles and read silently together the Word that has become life to them.

This is the Church in action.

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"They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:42-47