When Megan Gaddis, a beautiful and vibrant 26 year-old from Atlanta, Georgia was stricken with the rare and fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, her mother began publishing an online journal. The stream of writing that resulted went beyond Megan's failing health, to chronicle a family's thorny path from suffering and loss to transcendence and deeper faith. That chronicle forms the basis for When God Comes Near. The resulting tapestry provides insights both personal and universal into questions that have challenged people of faith for generations: Why does a loving God allow suffering? Why is one person afflicted and another not? Why am I chosen to suffer? In the telling of her family's story and her community's response, Marcia Gaddis weaves scripture, her daughter's diary, literature and her own poetic revelations about her faith and the world around her into a narrative of great scope. In May of 2011, When God Comes Near was awarded three top honors at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. Claiming First Place awards for Inspiration, Book of the Year and the Director's Choice, the book offers hope and healing to any reader on a pilgrimage through fear, faith and fulfillment.