The Rev. Johannes Christian is writing a book about forgiveness — it's a topic that he's familiar with.
A year ago, a 16-year-old boy threw a cannonball-sized rock off a highway overpass, shattering the windshield of Christian's car as he drove past, blinding him and breaking nearly every bone in his face.
Jacob McNary pleaded guilty in February to throwing the rock, and now is serving a 12-year prison sentence for attempted murder and vandalism. Christian didn't oppose the sentence, and last week sued McNary and his parents for the terrible physical ordeal he has endured.
Yet at the same time, Christian has developed something of a relationship with McNary — and has assured the youth that it's possible to turn his life around.
McNary, he said, is like many of the 30 troubled foster children he has cared for in the past 30 years — a good person who made a bad decision.
"Tied up in all of this is my healing," Christian said. "I feel better and the people around me feel better."
The minister at Adoration and Peace Baptist Church in Columbus — who went parasailing in the West Indies for his 50th birthday — now moves gingerly, using a cane to walk. He has undergone at least a dozen surgeries, with countless more to go as doctors rebuild his face.
"I feel like Humpty Dumpty," Christian, now 51, said in a monotone that is a result of a trachea tube necessary for him to breathe.
He vaguely remembers the accident.
One of his foster children, Brian Renier, then 16, was in the car as the two drove home from a family baptism. Christian was knocked unconscious, and Renier, who was slightly injured, steered the car into the highway median and called for help.
During the past year, doctors have reconstructed Christian's forehead, reset his jaw two or three times, removed one of his eyes and are almost finished rebuilding his nose. Christian still smiles, and laughs heartily with a near-toothless grin, as friends and family members swap stories and joke with him.
A divorced, single father to five children — two biological, two adopted and one he has raised since her 12th birthday — Christian said the family struggled with what happened to him.
"I thought, 'If they don't see me forgive this kid, how can they?' It's what I always taught them," he said.
At McNary's sentencing, Christian told the youth "It's my belief that there's no such thing as a bad kid." McNary wept and apologized to Christian.
They have since started a correspondence. Christian said McNary has written him several apologies, including a letter and a card he received Monday.
In one, McNary expressed deep remorse, telling Christian he wants someone to drop a rock on him. In another, the teen said he wished the rock had killed Christian so the minister wouldn't have to live the way he does now. In the most recent letter, McNary told Christian of his efforts to learn about Christianity.
"He's really trying to turn his life around," Christian said. Christian said he has written back to McNary to encourage him to change, and plans to visit him in prison.
"I want him to understand that his life is valuable," he said. "He's just got a lot of growing. He's got to come to grips with loving himself. I believe that somewhere down the line he can help people."
Asked how he reconciles the lawsuit with his relationship with the youth, Christian said: "My forgiveness of Jacob is unquestionable, but that has no bearing on the million dollars of medical bills. ... This is not a paradox. This is for my own survival."
Christian grew up near Albany, N.Y., one of seven children of George and Shirley Christian. His mother preached and his father was a hospital lab technician at Veteran Administration Medical Center in Albany.
His mother's faith helped inspire him to become a minister, and Christian began preaching at 19, when he ran youth services at his church. He started Adoration and Peace about seven years ago, after living in New York, Kansas City, Mo., Peoria, Ill., and Louisville, Ky.
Friend Stanley Landrum of Columbus said he is amazed at how Christian has remained the same man he was before the accident.
"The only thing that's changed is the physical," he said.
Christian is working on a book titled "The Face of Forgiveness" about the accident and his life since then, and searching for a publisher. He also hopes to start speaking publicly about his experiences.
"Forgiveness, for me, it begins with my face," he said.