Leisha Joseph
Leisha Joseph enjoyed a happy childhood as the treasured only daughter of an upper-middle-class family with three brothers and doting parents. When she was eight years old, all this changed abruptly with the death of her father. The strain on her mother manifested itself in wild behavior: After trying to burn the house down and chasing Leisha with a butcher knife, she was taken to the state mental hospital. Following the death of her beloved grandparents, Leisha was left to the care of her mother, who was frequently in and out of mental hospitals, and brought home a string of boyfriends, some of whom preferred children and made their way to Leisha’s bed. Although Leisha found God as a teenager, that comfort did not last long. She became disillusioned with Christianity and experimented with drugs until an overdose had her on her knees, promising to serve God all her life if he saved her. She was sober in an instant, and has kept her promise.Just as Leisha had managed to turn her life around and was a finalist in the Miss Teen USA pageant, she suffered a violent rape at the hands of a serial sex offender. Yet God intervened once more, giving her the words that would save her life and would eventually cause her attacker to confess. Even when he escaped and came after her as he threatened to do, Leisha refused to let fear dominate her life. Although the events of her life are sensational, the deeper story lies in her relationship with God, and what she can teach others who live with fear and the pain resulting from violence and trauma.
