Dr. Goodman Basil Espy, III was born on January 8th, 1935---the same day, month and year as another boy from a sleepy southern town--Elvis Presley. Ironically, the two would share more than just birthdays, childhood poverty and poetry of name. Espy's dramatic story cuts deep--not with the scalpel but with humility, compassion and a work ethic derived from the school of hard-knocks. The Apostle transcends medicine and the military---a genuine love story between mother and son, father and daughter, God and man---an in-depth journey into life, death and resurrection. Whether performing life-saving surgery on the battlefields of Kosovo, pulling amputees from the earthquake rubble of Haiti, restoring the leg of an IED victim in Afghanistan or rescuing women and children from the ISIS' sex-slave traffic, Espy remains true to the golden thread of his core conviction: when you shoulder the burden of the weak and wounded---you are performing the work of God.
The son of an Army Captain, who served throughout FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, Espy moved 16 times before the age of eleven. Despite so many chaotic relocations, he focused on faith, family and education to compensate for his insecurities. The story provides gut-wrenching inspiration and challenges readers to seek their higher purpose attained through faith, courage and generosity. Each chapter builds on Espy's journey through life---tragic and divine, which transitions into how the experience changed him for having lived it---what he learned, and how it will enlighten the reader for having read it. A brutally honest tale of a man who overcame cruel poverty in rural Alabama, a strict military upbringing, the Palsy-related death of his beloved daughter and near-financial ruin to become one of the most admired humanitarians and OB-GYN doctors in America.