About the author
As a journalist, Chris Stepien has spent his career asking tough questions and telling intriguing stories.
He worked as a television producer-director and writer for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). From 1979 to 1987, while at WXYZ-TV, Detroit, he won six Emmy® Awards, as well as many other honors for documentaries, sports and celebrity specials, and children's programming. Stepien left broadcasting to co-found Adventure, Inc., a successful Detroit-based video/film production company. He created award-winning communications for Fortune
500 companies like General Motors and Ford Motor Company for nearly nine years. Since 1996, Stepien has crafted marketing and advertising for global clients, as writer-creative director and owner of Stepien Creative Services, Inc.
A lifelong metro Detroiter and Catholic, Stepien attended parochial schools and was an altar boy. He and his wife, Ellen, have two adult sons, Alex and Mike. Chris and Ellen are Vincentians, active members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP). Stepien, a former SVdP conference president, is currently lay spiritual advisor to a group of Vincentians in Dearborn, Michigan. eir core mission is to respond to the needs of poor families in the surrounding
community, visit them in their homes, and provide financial assistance, guidance, friendship, and hope.
Bible studies, spiritual exercises, and praying the rosary inspired the author to write this novel about preteen Jesus. Stepien relied on his love of God and his passion for visual storytelling to help shape this account of the boy Messiah and His Passover pilgrimage. The author's experiences serving the needy and children of alcoholics
were very influential as well.