The cross and the switchblade

the long version

"Go to New York City and help those boys." When David Wilkerson heard those words in his heart late one night as he glanced at a picture in Life magazine, he was dumbfounded. The boys in question were members of a violent gang and on trial for murder. He was a country preacher settled comfortably in a little mountain church in Pennsylvania. What could God possibly expect him to accomplish--in New York City, of all places? But the thought would not let him go--and his life and the lives of countless despairing teens were changed forever on account of it. This is the story of the founding of Teen Challenge, an inner-city ministry that today maintains residential and crisis counseling centers around the globe. But even more, it is a story of how the most unlikely people can hear--and follow--God's call to do the impossible.--From publisher description.