Raising a Soul Surfer

A shark attack is no match for God's plan and providence. When 13-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack, the media spotlight turned her quiet life upside down. Many wondered how this rising star would find the inner strength to press on and realize her pro surfing ambitions. Would she be able to adapt her surfing style to compete? Now, Bethany’s mother, Cheri, pulls back the curtain on her family’s life to show how the seeds of Bethany’s eventual triumph were planted decades before her birth, when Cheri and her future husband, Tom, were surf-loving kids searching for life’s meaning in the next big wave. Raising a Soul Surfer follows their unpredictable journey across a continent to find each other and Jesus, and traces the hand of God at work in their lives as they married and started a family. Long before Bethany lost her arm and nearly her life, God was preparing the hearts and minds of her whole family to trust Him when it mattered most. The story of the Hamilton family, told as only a mother could, is a vivid illustration of how a sovereign God can turn what we see as a tragedy into a hope-filled witness of His power, grace and blessing.