She should have been focused on playing with dolls, spending time with friends and relishing hugs from her caring family around her.

Yet five-year-old Sharyn experienced instead the sadness, anxiety and silent suffering that comes from being a young victim of sexual abuse and incest at the hands of an uncle. What's more, she also endured harsh beatings from her callous mother and had to regularly fight off the carnal advances of her mother's boyfriend.

The painful scars left by the abuse would turn anyone from the loving grace of Jesus, but author Sharyn Anderson-Campbell chose...