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Conversations with the Voiceless: Finding God's Love in Life's Hardest Questions

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This small book is not an autobiography. John Wessells reveals nothing about his childhood. And of his youth? One sentence mentions a football scholarship-funding dream destroyed by a knee injury. And we learn that he became a Christian in his mid-twenties.

Rather, in eight anecdotal chapters, the book takes us into the world of John Wessells's therapeutic ministry of music, prayer, and Scripture reading in long-term care facilities for patients with traumatic head injuries --- all severely disabled, some in deep comas. Can they hear him? If so, can they understand his message, of God's love and John's worshipful praise, as he strums a guitar and sings at their bedside? These well-crafted personal stories whisper --- or occasionally shout --- yes, yes. There's even a story of "a man who once could not speak but who now says he became a Christian while in a coma," as a result of John's witness.

I don't know when I've read such a helpful and hopeful nonfiction book that does not skirt the hard questions asked by people suffering tragic loss of dreams, such as the woman, introduced late in the book, whose face "had the familiar look of a parent whose child has suffered a coma. It's a mixture of bewilderment and desperation." John's very presence seems to engender hope, and ultimately he realizes that might be the point of his ministry: "If you just go and sit with these people, it's enough. God can work through that....

"You don't even need to be strong yourself. [God] works through your caring and listening." And singing.

Here is help and hope --- but not without a pointed challenge. "Why is it so much easier to care about causes than about people?" He relates a telling experience of Christians outside a facility picketing against a parent's legal decision to remove a girl's feeding tube. He later learned that "despite all the protesters who had once shown concern for her, no one had ever returned to show similar concern for the other forty or more brain-injured patients who remained there."

As I read, I wished for more calendar signposts. The account (near the end of the book) of the death, from cancer, of John's four-year-old son in 1994 was the only story grounded by a specific year-date.

The book's title, CONVERSATIONS WITH THE VOICELESS, refers to lessons John has learned from the suffering, sometimes even silent, people he's met, including his son, who seemed uncannily aware of heaven. John Samuel "looked forward to a better place --- even while living fully in the place he was in.

"I believe that's the hope for all of us who want to listen to the voiceless. Nothing may change in our circumstances, or in the circumstances of those we love. But it is still possible ... to live with eternity in our eyes and hearts. And that changes everything."

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

John's story of losing his son, John Sammuel, helped prepare me for not only accepting the loss of my own son, Christopher, (stillborn) but also experience God's love in the process. I have struggled a lot with dis-illusionment, especially with organized religion, and John's story helped me with reconciliation, allowing God's grace to heal me. John's story even helped me turn my "ordeal" dealing with my father's Alzheimers into a spiritual growth opportunity.

As someone recovering from a head injury, my interest was piqued in John Wessells book, "Conversations with the Voiceless." While my injury wasn't nearly as debilitating as those he describes in his book, after losing a year to a rather fog-like existance, I feel a deep sense of empathy toward those whose lives are redefined by their injuries. John Wessells book is an important one, not only for the head-injured, but especially for those who are not. The people we meet through this book challenge us to remember that our lives have purpose and meaning, not because of what we can do, but because of who we are. With all the quality of life debate currently being waged in light of Terri Schiavo's case, this book is a clarion call to the danger of defining life's value based on what other can do for us, and instead, learn to see the reward in seeing the beauty of life itself, in whatever form it takes.

My dad was up untill midnight reading this book and then he went to sleep just to wake up a 3:00am to continue it.
He read the whole book in one night!
Great Book in light of Terri Schiavo

I met John a few months ago at his recording studio as a meeting to discuss my Christmas CD recording which was done in Nov. of 2005. He gave me his book autogaphed by him. He's an amazing man with a big heart. His book gave me chills. It helped me to open my heart to Our Lord Jesus Christ even more.

This book has opened my eyes to this disabled group of people. Remarkable book and what a remarkable couple to take on this kind of ministry. I highly recommend reading Conversations with the Voiceless; it helped me see into God's heart.