Chapter 5
Sunday morning church was mandatory in the Gabriel household. I didn’t really mind, though. Believing in something greater than myself gave me peace. It sounded crazy to a lot of people, but knowing the Big Guy was looking out for me helped with the pressure of school—another crazy idea to a lot of people.
When I was a kid, we went to Sunday school. My parents wanted me well-versed in Old Testament stories and New Testament parables, but as Jake and I got older, they decided preaching would suffice. Going to church kept me strong, and though I would have liked to think most of the other churchgoers agreed judging by the full pews, I suspected a lot of them went because it was expected, not because they were faithful followers. As I looked around the sanctuary from our back-row
