Too Tough to Cry : A True Story of Suffering and Redemption / Paul Powers

At the age of seven, Paul (then known as LaVern) Powers lost the two most important things in his life: his mother and his puppy. What he didn't realize was that he had also lost something just as precious and irretrievable -- his childhood. Beaten by his father for crying over the death of his mother. LaVern vowed he would never cry again. For the next 13 years, despite an abusive and poverty-stricken family life which culminated in his murdering a woman for $500, the young man kept his promise, suppressing the fierce pain that welled from within.Too Tough to Cry is the remarkable story of how this bitter adolescent, a murderer and a petty thief, became Paul Powers, a successful children's evangelist, loving father and husband of Margaret Fishback Powers, creator of the famous Footprints poem and author of several bestselling Footprints books.

This is a deeply transforming book the account of a man who, in an epiphany, discovered Jesus and a new way of living. Paul Powers tells his story with candor and courage, from his pain-filled childhood to his teenage years spent in reform schools and bars, to his difficult search for a true calling, finally encountering love, forgiveness and fulfillment in an innovative children's ministry and an understanding and supportive wife and family.

A story that will deeply touch anyone who reads it, Too Tough to Cry is another powerful chapter in the Footprints story -- a phenomenon that continues to bring joy, hope and inspiration to people all over the globe.