UNSHACKLED! Audio Dramas

Ashish is born into a Hindu family in Bombay. He idolizes first cricket, then a rock star. He is selected for a near-professional cricket team that goes to England; but when he fails to make his college team, he despairs, drinks alcohol and tries hashish. Then he and a friend volunteer at a blind organization and Ashish goes to a camp for the blind in North Carolina. There he meets Emily and is in...

Nathan grows up with a twin brother, a fear of God and a family devoted to religion. Going to parochial school he hears stories of God’s anger but also hears Bible stories read aloud. His anxiety about death causes heart palpitations. Nathan talks to and experiences God at ten, but his faith is not nurtured; and religious rituals, peer pressure and his fears squash his love for God. He drinks in h...

Dar grows up in poverty. He helps his dad make beer and teaches his friends to do the same. His mother takes him to church once when he is five. He cooks dinner and irons for his younger sister because his parents work. He caddies at age eleven with Johnny, a boy who is faithful in church. Dar has a gift of humor and enters a contest that he wins over thousands; but he turns down a contract to go...

Dar and a friend go to California to evangelize but are ill-prepared. Dar meets a missionary who impacts his life but who is later martyred in Brazil. Back home he is disillusioned by an unfair believer and a charlatan, but his pastor’s sermon revitalizes him and he dedicates himself unconditionally to Christ. He goes to Bible college, becomes assistant pastor and marries Elaine. They pastor a chu...

Angie’s parents divorce when she is ten, and she grows up without her Italian father. Her mother works, so they go to church only on Christmas Eve. At an advanced academic school she learns English and then goes to England when she’s 17 as an exchange student, where she falls in love with philosophy and becomes an atheist. Back home, a Christian challenges a teacher about disrespecting Jesus, and...

Tom’s mother, married four times, won’t go to church because her father is a deacon, so Tom grows up without faith. When a co-worker invites him to church, his parents refuse but Tom goes. Eventually, he prays for salvation, but his love for the Lord leads the family to think he’s in a cult and they move to another state. For three years Tom falls away from God. He graduates, joins the Army and go...

Jerry lives in the shadow of his older brother and their mom’s dominance. Ridiculed at school, he sees himself as a victim. At 13 he follows his brother to the altar for salvation, but remains unchanged. Jerry helps his history teacher grade papers and Jerry changes grades for classmates. Confronted by the teacher, he lies. Seeing his deceitful heart, he is genuinely saved at 17. After graduation...

Jerry goes to Bible college in Chicago where he meets Jan. They date for six months until he leaves for Swaziland. After five months he asks her by telegram to marry him, and she accepts and comes to Africa. They marry and he becomes headmaster at the Christian school that his mission founded. The king’s son attends and Jerry longs to meet the king. Eventually, the king’s son arranges an audience,...

Pat’s real parents give her to friends who adopt her; but her adoptive dad dies when she is eight. Her drunken adoptive mom lets men abuse Pat. She abandons Pat, who goes to a children’s home where she hears the gospel and hopes God will bring back her mom. When He doesn’t, she despairs and quits believing. A self-pitying, angry girl, she leaves the home at 17, tries college, tries suicide and sev...

Working as a barmaid, Pat meets Richard and they marry. Both drink, and Pat becomes a mean drunk because of the rage within her. Defying him one night, she is hit by a van and nearly killed. Being hospitalized leads her to think about eternity, but she goes back to drinking. Blackouts and depression lead her to seek psychiatric help and shock therapy. Her daughter has become a Christian and talks...

Bobby, the youngest child, adores his mother and fears his drunken father, who is kind when sober. When he’s sixteen, Bobby confronts his dad who backs down. Bobby’s musical talent is developed by a voice trainer and he’s accepted in Chicago’s Lyric Opera. His mother takes him to church and he avoids drugs, but he is morally loose, fathering various children. At 28 he signs a record contract, gett...

After his mother’s death, Bobby and his father are estranged over the family house. Bobby builds a sound studio, produces records and does well until a girlfriend lures him into cocaine use. Rapidly, he loses everything to his addiction. He borrows, steals and hates himself; but calls a radio preacher who prays for him. When he steals a friend’s VCR, he goes into drug rehab. There a Christian grou...

Stephanie’s dad is killed in Vietnam. Babysitters molest her and she discovers pornography. When her mother remarries and has a new baby, Stephanie rebels at 13, runs away, lies and fakes a suicide attempt. Her parents put her in various treatments, adding to her feeling of rejection. At 15 she’s raped; at 16 she starts using drugs and tries prostitution. She’s arrested and an officer tries to war...

Earl’s mother takes him to church but his dad, a Navy deep sea diver, is mean and Earl fears him. His mother and several pastors have Earl pray for salvation but don’t mention Jesus Christ. He grows up fearing God but Jesus is a curse to him. He dates Shirlee but they break up when he goes into the Navy where he does well. Various people have him pray, asking God’s forgiveness for his sins without...

Tammy and her older sister are molested by their stepfather while their mother works. She accepts Christ as Savior at age six but the family quits going to church. Her sister accuses the stepdad, but their mother thinks she’s lying. She marries, tells her husband of the abuse, and they go to the prosecutor. Tammy is removed from her parents’ custody, but her mother threatens to disown her, so she...

Bombs destroy Kazuo’s home during the war but he to goes to high school where he learns English, becoming a translator after graduation. Asked to translate sermons for a missionary pastor, he is convicted and receives Christ. A chaplain sponsors him to Bible college where he meets Hisako and they marry after he graduates. He works for Pacific Broadcasting Association, producing radio programs, the...

Anne grows up with a repressive mother, a kind stepfather and a grandmother who reads the Bible and takes her to church. Anne wants to be a missionary but secular teachers destroy her faith and she goes to business college instead. Her mother quashes successive attempts to date and then sends Anne to a delinquent girl’s school. Embittered, Anne lives to have fun. During the Depression she learns t...

Ann and her husband begin ministry to neighborhood kids. Through His Word, God prompts Anne to visit those in prison, which—like Jonah, she resists. Finally, she obeys and discovers great joy and purpose after she is widowed. Her jail ministry lasts for three decades until old age puts her in a nursing home, where many celebrate her 100th birthday. Two months later she dies and the mantle passes t...

Carolyn is adopted at seven months, grows up with loving but non-Christian parents. Carolyn rebels as a teenager, smokes, drinks and gets pregnant. The family doctor tells her to get an abortion. She resists but is so sick that she has the abortion and nearly dies. She aborts a second baby out of fear even though she is engaged. The marriage lasts a year. Led astray by a new-age friend and church,...

Jerry grows up in a Jewish family. Trained in schools in France and the U.S., he loves adventure sports, especially downhill ski racing. He also tries kayaking on the Colorado River and scuba diving. He drops out of college to sell LSD, goes to jail for six months and then follows a new age cult. Disillusioned, he spends many years as an instructor at resorts around the world. But he is unable to...

As an only child, Mary grows up with a negative, protective mother, who sends her to church alone. Mary longs for acceptance. She marries Jim, joins his church and they go to Spain for two years, where Mary has a miscarriage and the marriage deteriorates as he spends time at bars. Back home, they got college degrees and have three sons. Mary suffers from chronic colitis and nearly dies in childbir...

Mary’s physical and emotional pain is so great she bangs her head against walls and attempts suicide. Her pastor often rescues her. Finally, she leaves home, taking a bus to Chicago where she goes to Pacific Garden Mission. She stays for three months, getting wise counseling and seeing a doctor for exploratory surgery. When she goes home, her doctor won’t perform corrective surgery. Still in pain,...

Peter grows up in Communist China, where his mother dedicates him to the Lord and takes him to church. He is saved during revival when he is 16. Although he is an outstanding physic student, he is denied a place in the best university, the beginning of his persecution. At college he witnesses to students and leads 17 to Christ. He persuades two pastors to leave the state church. During summer vaca...

Peter is detained a year, then allowed to return to college. The Communists trick people into airing grievances and Peter does. Again sent to labor camp for nearly four years, he is brainwashed and tries to deny God. They release him and he finishes college but is sent to labor camp for another year for listening to English radio to learn English. Still persecuted, he finally meets Chang and they...

Dallas is an Army brat whose mother prays for her family. Dallas worships his volatile, hard-drinking father who has fought in three wars and was shot four times. His dad retires and goes to college with Dallas who is using and selling drugs. They drink together in bars; but during a trip with friends, his drunken dad shoots Dallas at close range as they argue. Miraculously, the bullet doesn’t kil...