Gary Chapman earned a Methodist license to preach when he was sixteen years old, going on to graduate from Illinois Wesleyan University and earning a doctorate of ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. After being ordained in the United Church of Christ, Chapman spent the next thirty-five years serving three Midwestern congregations. For twenty-one years, he also taught numerous courses on philosophy, religion, and contemporary issues at Southeastern Community College in Iowa. Chapman is married with two children and three grandchildren. He is the author of two other books in a series on A Family’s Heritage-Out of My Hands: The Stories of Harold Hunsaker Chapman, and The River Flows Both Ways: Following the Mekong Out of Vietnam and Cambodia.