We volunteer and advocate for suicide prevention, for awareness, for recovery and healing because in 2007 this became part of our story, when Erin attempted suicide at seventeen. Our journey was not exactly smooth, but we found out two crucial things in the process: suicide is not rare and is on the rise; and the church has not been prepared to cope with this epidemic. Silence and inaction only lend more power to this terrible killer. Valley of the Shadow, was written to break the silence about a subject that has too long been taboo in religious communities, to start the conversations that lead to healing.