Joe Henderson is nineteen years old. While many Americans his age would be spending their time hanging out with friends, taking college classes, skateboarding, listening to music, or perhaps drinking, Joe spends his time praying, reading the Bible, attending the Deliverance Bible Institute, and developing his relationship with his Lord, Jesus Christ. He has been living at the Pentecostal Christian church, Deliverance Center, in Portland, Maine, since December of 2010, when he first moved to Maine from Oklahoma. Living there and therefore being immersed in this faith and this community, Joe is asked to trust his pastor, his church community, and God as he trudges down the difficult path of following Jesus as the Bible instructs literally.

This project explores Joe’s journey in his relatively new relationship with Jesus and his role in the church community. As a young man devoting his life to Jesus and putting all of his faith in God, Joe is giving up what these born-again Christians consider a life “in the natural” (something that is earthbound), and focusing more on what God asks of humans per the Bible than on what humans do as they disregard God’s word. This is a story about a nineteen-year-old young man in Portland, Maine, growing up against the American grain and living for the Lord.