When viewed together, we see that Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday teach us that Sacrificial Living produces Transformed Lives. Meet some men who follow Christ’s example.
We call the Mission Alumni the Band of Brothers. I started the Band shortly after arriving here two years ago to address the need of our graduates to remain in community to encourage and support one another. Deed and Truth is the sole financial contributor.
Each month we have one or two events to provide either fellowship, personal development, or community service. This month we took the Band to a large Men’s Conference where the keynote speaker was Lakers Legend, Magic Johnson.
To prepare for Easter weekend we went this past Thursday evening to see the new movie, “Paul, Apostle of Christ”.
Normally we have been able to use the URM vans to transport the Band to these events but a new rule came down this week which raised the bar for the drivers and we lost our existing van drivers. We didn’t have any vehicles except my car to transport the 43 men who signed up!
With just two days to solve the problem I tried to pray instead of panic or cancel the event. Seth, my faithful coordinator, and I prayed for God to bring us the necessary drivers and vehicles.
I called a caring friend and significant supporter of Deed and Truth, the leader of our Iron Man Ministry, Mike Morris.
It took Mike all of 10 seconds to say he would drive and recruit some help. Knowing this was a weekday in rush hour traffic at 6pm in Los Angeles and he was 65 miles away we prayed more.
Here’s how God works… Mike showed up Thursday night with two other drivers and SUV vehicles and God had sent an old alumni who saw us loading the cars and he said he’d go with us and drive.
I was so grateful for the sacrifices of Mike, Dave Sealand, and Etienne Elie. Their sacrificial Living is helping us at Deed and Truth produce Transformed Lives!
He blew it off in jest saying… “That’s why we are called IronMen not SquishyMen”! You see Mike knows from his ongoing commitment to sacrifice in this ministry that the men at the mission aren’t the only ones being transformed… those who serve sacrificially are Transformed as well.
Here’s Mike’s response to my personal note of appreciation and his critique of the movie…
“Hey PD, I like the way they had the relationship portrayed between Paul and Luke they were really tight I liked that 🙂 Also gnarly the persecution that our Christian brothers and sisters went through back then man we got it SO easy makes the 405 fwry on a Thursday afternoon seem tame :). Thanks for these opportunities and for being the conduit for this ministry!”
Sacrificial Living = Transformed Lives
If you’d like a healthy dose of Transformed Lives join us on our Band of Brothers outings… you will enjoy the friendships you make and we could use some transportation solutions… hey that’s rich… in this scenario…
Transportation = Transformation
–Pastor Dan