Lifestyle

From High School Jesus to Stolen Jesus: The Struggles of Jami Amerine in Finding True Jesus

Published

5 years ago

December 2, 2020

Fifth grade Jesus; high school Jesus; Mormon Jesus, If-Then Jesus; Americanized Jesus; Justin Jesus. These are names that have been used to refer to Jesus in the book, “Stolen Jesus: An Unconventional Search for the Real Savior.” Authored by Jami Amerine, this book is about a girl coming across different versions of Jesus as she grows up. The story that many readers have referred to as super relatable brings into the spotlight her personal experiences. Through her first book, Jami aims to help all those struggling to find the real savior – True Jesus.

The author of the blog, “Sacred Ground, Sticky Floors,” Jami Amerine, was born into a Mormon family that later joined an Assemblies of God congregation. While her mother was a Mormon, her father was non-religious. The diversity in the beliefs of her family members forced her to search for reality on her own. It was her journey of finding the true Jesus that established so many different versions for her, making it a challenge to have faith. It eventually led Jami to break up with him. The struggle of finding true faith is, indeed, tiring and can astray one from their path, and this is what happened with Avenal, California-born Jami.

“It is the aggressive search for true Jesus that leads one astray…,” Jami further added, “Instead of figuring Jesus out, it is best to believe in his goodness all things will fall into place.” It was after the years-long search that finally led her to the right path. From believing in a variety of different versions of Jesus to breaking up with him, Jami found true faith, and she wishes to spread that message across the masses. There needs to be a guide for all those who, like Jami, are on their journey to discover Jesus. Her book is serving as that guide, something she would have appreciated at a time she was invested in her own struggle.

Finding Her True Calling

Jami Amerine, an author, speaker, and blogger, did not even know that she was to serve as a guide for the people. She did not even know she was a writer until the world began to acknowledge her for it. She was still on her journey to identify the true Jesus when she was unknowingly pushed into a task to help people find the right path. ‘Life works in mysterious ways’ is not just an empty, meaningless phrase, but something that has been deduced from real-life experiences. A person always meets their true calling and purpose in life if they really look for it. Jami, due to her family background, was desperate to seek the truth. Not only did she find the truth, but also jumped on the bandwagon to assist all those standing at a point where she once stood, desperate for a guiding light.

Growing up, she moved a lot due to her father’s career. Her family even joined an Assemblies of God congregation when Jami was seven and was also baptized in the Disciples of Christ denomination. When she was in high school, her family moved to Abilene. In 1996, she graduated from Wylie High School and entered the Abilene Christian University (ACU). During this phase, she was staying at a large ranch near Merkel. This was when she met Justin, who also grew up in Merkel. Her marriage with Justin led her to the Highland Church of Christ. After getting married to him, she, along with her husband, moved to Houston in 2017.

Starting from fifth-grade Jesus, Jami Amerine came across various versions, which made her question her faith. Most of her life was spent “trying to reconcile” all these versions that she had come across during different phases of her life. Also, she “strove to please a Jesus who was far from real … a pattern that continued into her adult life.”

After she acquired a prominent position as the blogger at “Sacred Ground, Sticky Floors,” she landed an opportunity to become a published author. She signed with Oregon-based Christian publishing house, Harvest House. Jami was offered a two-book contract. This was when she began writing the book, “Stolen Jesus: An Unconventional Search for the Real Savior.” The book that began as an attempt to share her struggles turned into a life-changing experience for her. For the first three chapters, she had broken up with Jesus, but after she came across the story of Grace, things began to unfold. Her book found a direction, and it was during this phase, she understood that the right faith was to believe that Jesus is good, and there is no ‘if-then’ situation. He loves his people without any conditions and is there to protect them from the evils of the world.

The book gained a global appreciation, and it established Jami as a thoughtful and far-sighted Christian writer. Her first book was published in October 2017, and it was when she realized her true calling. Jami was meant to serve as a guide to all those who are stuck in a similar form of struggle. The fact that Jami herself was struggling with ‘what to believe and what not to believe’ makes her literal piece relatable and worth reading.

Jami Amerine, mother of six, four biological kids and two adopted, is also a firm advocate of ‘foster care, adoption, and foster care reform.’ While helping the world understand the concept of Jesus through her life experiences, she also works to make things better for the children struggling in this world. Currently living in North Houston with her family, Jami has authored “Sacred Ground, Sticky Floors: How Less-Than-Perfect Parents Can Raise Kids Who are (Kind of),” “Well, Girl: An Inside Out Journey to Wellness,” and Coming November 2021 “Rest, Girl: A Journey from Exhausted and Stressed to Richly Blessed.” For her, this life has been a learning experience which she aims to share with her more than a million followers. She is an expert on women humor, marriage, learning disabilities, homeschooling, chronic illness, and other issues families face, along with Christianity.

Lifestyle

The Future of Youth Horror Gaming: Lonely Rabbit’s Midnight Strikes

Published

6 hours ago

April 1, 2026

Michelle Langton

Credit: Lonely Rabbit

Empty hallways echo with footsteps that aren’t yours. The carnival rides spin without passengers. Familiar spaces, the ones etched into childhood memory, twist into something menacing, something that watches. Lonely Rabbit’s Midnight Strikes arrives eight months before its completion, targeting a youth horror genre that is hungry for experiences that feel personal rather than purely fantastical. The indie studio searches for a publisher while building momentum for a game that weaponizes nostalgia, turning high schools and carnivals into theaters of psychological dread. As franchises age and audiences demand fresh scares, this PC title tests whether memory-based terror represents the next chapter in youth horror.

Maturing Past Jump Scares

Youth horror gaming shed its training wheels. Little Nightmares and Bendy and the Ink Machine proved that younger players crave atmospheric storytelling over cheap shocks, puzzle-solving over gore, and visual distinctiveness over recycled formulas. Bendy’s ink-soaked corridors attracted a massive audience, including children drawn to the characters despite the T-rating, because the experience felt emotionally authentic rather than condescending. Players now expect psychological tension woven through environmental details, stories told through decaying spaces, and cryptic objects scattered across levels.

The genre’s maturation reflects audiences who grew up solving Portal’s test chambers and exploring Limbo’s monochrome nightmares. Among the Sleep demonstrated the potency of perspective: experiencing horror through a toddler’s eyes made familiar domestic spaces feel uncanny and threatening. Fran Bow plunged players into hand-drawn asylum corridors where perception itself became unreliable, where puzzles demanded engagement with trauma and grief rather than simple pattern recognition. Modern youth horror respects its audience enough to disturb them thoughtfully, creating experiences that linger days after the screen goes dark.

Corrupted Childhood as New Territory

Midnight Strikes drags players through levels “reminiscent of their childhood memories”: the high school, the carnival, spaces universal enough to feel personal. Lonely Rabbit constructs what they describe as a “menacingly beautiful atmosphere filled with bizarre and terrifying creatures,” pairing monster survival with puzzle challenges that prioritize mood over mechanics. The game adopts a “cinematic and otherworldly feel” while grounding its terror in locations players actually inhabited, making fear feel intimate rather than abstract.

This memory-based direction distinguishes Midnight Strikes from fantasy settings that dominate youth horror. Deserted carnival rides and empty school corridors carry weight because players recognize them as such. Maybe the locker rows feel too narrow, maybe the Ferris wheel groans with a voice that shouldn’t exist, maybe the cafeteria smells wrong. The game challenges players to “survive their fear of the unknown” while navigating spaces that should feel known, creating cognitive dissonance that amplifies dread. Other developers exploring similar territory, such as Subliminal, which utilizes “nostalgic spaces” and “a rotting feeling that something is not quite right,” suggest that childhood corruption represents an emerging subgenre.

Lonely Rabbit’s approach weaponizes personal history. Every player attended school, visited carnivals, and formed memories in spaces designed for safety and joy. Corrupting those spaces turns nostalgia into a threat, asking audiences to confront distorted versions of their own experiences. The monsters inhabiting these environments become more than obstacles; they represent the fear that familiar places might betray us, that memory itself becomes unreliable when shadows move in the wrong direction.

Smaller Teams, Bigger Risks

Indie studios like Lonely Rabbit maneuver where larger publishers hesitate. Their two-month publisher search and pre-launch community building reflect changing pathways for games that defy established franchise formulas. Building a follower base before release creates market validation, proving that audiences want what you’re making before significant capital is committed. Transparency about development timelines and production milestones generates audience investment, turning potential players into advocates during the publisher search.

Midnight Strikes represents creative gambles major studios avoid when quarterly earnings loom. Smaller teams experiment with concepts, corrupted childhood spaces, memory-based horror, pand sychological tension prioritized over action mechanics, that might fracture focus groups but resonate with underserved audiences. Lonely Rabbit’s global distribution ambitions demonstrate indie confidence: build something distinctive enough, and geography becomes irrelevant when digital storefronts erase borders.

The next eight months determine whether Midnight Strikes defines a subgenre or remains an interesting experiment. If players respond to horror that mines personal history, if corrupted nostalgia proves more terrifying than fantasy monsters, other developers will follow this path. Lonely Rabbit’s gamble, that childhood spaces make better horror stages than alien planets or demon dimensions, could redefine what scares young players next. The studio’s publisher search tests whether the industry views memory-based terror as the future of youth horror or a niche curiosity. Either outcome writes the next page in a genre still learning what it can become.