Author Archives: AK

It doesn’t feel like a religion at this church, it feels like a family. Kind of like the prodigal son, kind of where we were lost and looking, not because we wanted to, but because we just couldn’t find that comfort that we have found here. For me, being able to greet people and seeingContinue reading

I was blindsided in a strange divorce and felt abandoned. I lost my kids, lost everything. No fault of my own, but just did. California law, the way it works. I was living in a motorhome behind a warehouse because I had to pay so much child support for my kids and their mom andContinue reading

When I was going through my divorce, I was lost and felt I didn’t belong anywhere. I was a single mom, not by choice. I did reach out to church and unfortunately, I wasn’t welcomed, but throughout that time there was no more serenity and no more comfort than going to church and just praisingContinue reading

One year ago I had a torn meniscus in my right knee. Could barely walk. I could barely get up to go to the bathroom.  I went to the doctor and he said, “When do you want to have this surgery?” I said, “I don’t. I just have a little pain.” It got worse. IContinue reading

Having test-driven prison ministry already, my wife and I spent a month in Haiti the January before seminary graduation. During that time, we lived on a missionary compound, seeking the Lord to discern whether this was our calling. It was an exceedingly challenging and powerful time. One night, I was really asking God for discernment.Continue reading

Back in 2009 I was trying to get sober. I’d been drinking for many years and letting that run my life. You know, the next high, the next drink. I would be at least drunk daily. I’d look for other things and sometimes find it, sometimes not. Whether it be like weed or ecstasy orContinue reading

A few years ago I got a phone call at 3:00 o’clock in the morning. My daughter-in-law says, “If you want to see your son alive, you better get down here.” They were in Omaha. We picked up their son, who was going to school. We got to the hospital at noon. He was an alcoholic.Continue reading

I grew up hating people. I got a lot of things from the street. Years of addiction and alcoholism. I stopped drinking in 2012 when my son got taken. The night I got my son taken away was when I took the last drink. I wish I had poured everything else out. Because I continuedContinue reading

I’ve been here 10 months now. I did have a plan. I had a job opportunity here but I decided when I got here that this seemed like an amazing place for opportunity, for growth. So I said, OK, I’m gonna build my own business here. I’m originally from Lancaster, PA, so the area thatContinue reading

I was born and raised in Aurora, Co. I’m adopted, birth father walked out. I grew up in a black community. I was in the minority. Growing up in a in a black man’s world, being a scrawny little white boy, I either had to make a name for myself or get picked on andContinue reading

I first encountered Christ when I was in 6th grade. It was the first time I prayed the prayer of salvation. I grew up always being told that I was loved, but I never really believed it. Our culture makes it really hard to believe it. So I prayed the prayer of salvation, but itContinue reading

I stayed with my grandma a lot as a kid, so I remember going to church with her and seeing the way she practiced her faith, like the liturgy. I’m now part of a denomination that doesn’t have a whole lot of liturgy. She was Reformed and now I’m a Wesleyan, so completely different. I’mContinue reading

I have a story. I’ve had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ myself. A lot of my story’s backdrop is seen in darkness. I was raised in a fatherless home, single parent home, poverty, brokenness, alcoholism, drug addiction, stealing, lying, sin, you name it, I was involved in it. It seemed like for fiveContinue reading

I knew God was real when He answered my prayers. 

You gotta have a definition of what dead is. When the heart stops and not breathing. That’s death. So, I was dead.  March 31st of 2019 I was helping at a ministry in Shreveport, LA, and we were walking around the property, and I told the guy I was with that I wasn’t feeling good.Continue reading

Alone. Empty. Forgotten. Not seen or heard. Not good for much besides physical labor, so I thought.  That was me in a nutshell before coming to the end of myself; pleading with God, meeting with Him, then accepting Him as Lord of my life.  I accepted Jesus as Lord of my life one evening my junior yearContinue reading

I would say “give and take” would be the best way to describe my relationship with God.  I grew up in a Christian home and realized that Jesus had shed His blood to have a relationship with me at a youth camp I attended.  The first “big thing” that He took and then gave wasContinue reading

I was raised in a mainstream denominational home and have always considered myself to be a Christian, believing in the Gospel. We went to church regularly, and recited all of the “right prayers” and all that came along with going to church. But I wasn’t being fed, and eventually turned from my upbringing and enteredContinue reading

Scripture tells us that we all are born in sin and people who are born in sin are headed for hell unless there’s some change in direction. God sent his son Jesus Christ to earth so that we might change our direction. That became personal for me when as a small boy I recognized neededContinue reading

I would say my greatest testimony comes from the sovereignty and the faithfulness of God. What I mean by that is no matter what has happened in life, whether it’s dealing with family issues, a husband going through cancer, secondary infertility, feeling worthless; I can look back and see how in all of those circumstancesContinue reading

I always felt like I was an alien living in a foreign land. I had a falling out with my father because of my willful disobedience. The summer after my senior year, I had no job and no plan. My father asked me to paint the garage. I painted a small portion and left toContinue reading