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Acknowledgments This volume has been a collaborative work in every sense; all authors have contributed equally. Many other people have contributed as well. We would like to thank the organizations and the many people who allowed us to enter their lives in our efforts to learn about their experiences. We owe them a debt of gratitude for their time and honest sharing. We are grateful to the head persons of these organizations for opening their doors to enable this study to occur. Thanks also to our research assistants on this project, especially Sasha Woo, Jessica Lundgren, and Dan Dehanas , who did wonderful work. The project would have been difficult to complete without their expert help. Special thanks to Carley and Danae Christerson, who “helped Dad study churches” by visiting the children’s programs in our cases, and to Carin Christerson for her editorial comments . We wish to express our thanks to our editor, Jennifer Hammer. She was wonderful to work with, and helped guide us through the process of writing this book. We appreciate her efforts to secure an early contract on the promise of this manuscript, which enormously benefited the process of writing and gave us a clear goal. Finally, we would like to thank the Louisville Institute, whose generous funding made this book possible. During the final writing of this book, we learned that Brad Christerson ’s mother was very ill with cancer. This difficult news reminded us all in a powerful way of the importance of family. To all of our families, we love and appreciate you. You are precious. ix ...

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