Seasons of Salvation

Finally, a sleepy-eyed little boy opened the door and stared wide-eyed at the mountain of Christmas presents. Santa's sleigh crashed right here on my porch!

In this heartwarming, feel-good story based on an actual event, distrust, abandonment, and lack of hope give way to love and service in an early morning seminary class full of problem kids who help their teacher pay an overdue debt of gratitude.

Seasons of Salvation is about a young girl abandoned at birth. It's about a mother finding a daughter. It's about a group of ordinary students caught up in doing extraordinary things. And it's about everyone who wants to make a difference in the world.

When Jake Wolfgramm is asked to teach early morning seminary to a group of at-risk LDS youth, he's not sure if he can take the challenge. He has something in common with these kids - when he first came from Tonga to the United States, he got off on the wrong foot and was a wild child himself. Now settled down and doing well for himself in college, he wonders if he has what it takes to get through to the class. He decides to accept the challenge, and let the chips fall where they mayCheyenne Carson was abandoned as a baby and has no idea what it's like to belong to a real family. She was passed from foster home to foster home, where she was diagnosed as having an inability to love. This wasn't her fault, however-she never had anyone to love. Just shy of her eighteenth birthday, she is informed that someone wants to adopt her. She can hardly believe it-after all these years, now someone wants her? She is taken in for a trial period by Nichole Lloyd and her husband, and she can't believe her good fortune. They want to buy her clothes. They've given her a nice room in their house. They give her all she wants to eat. Something has to be wrong-all this can't be for her, can it?

When Cheyenne starts attending Jake's seminary class, she's not sure what to make of the other students. One thing was for sure-none of them would ever know about her past. But when Jake proposes a Sub for Santa project and the kids are less than enthused, Cheyenne decides to put herself on the line for a greater cause. She tells the class about herself and shares her feelings about love and gratitude. Suddenly the classroom is full to bursting with Christmas gifts for their assigned family, and as they go to deliver the bounty, they realize just how important it is to give of themselves.

"Seasons of Salvation" is based on a true story, and will soon be made into a film.

-Tristi Pinkston, families.com