Hi, my name is Juan.  I’ve got a story ….

Growing up in a Christian home where my father was a pastor and always on the move volunteering in different areas of the church and community, I saw firsthand the life-changing effect of servant leadership.  At 14, I made a decision to serve the Lord completely and asked Jesus to become my Lord and Savior.  But this was only the beginning of my journey where I thought I knew how the story would end, but God would have to reach out with His hand of mercy and grace through some unexpected times.

After learning how to play the piano and sing in choirs, I really thought music ministry would be my only focus in the church.  But while in Chicago on my own for the first time, I was asked to train youth and children.  It didn’t take too long to understand I had found my passion in teaching and figuring out how to make the Bible alive and relevant to inner city kids who some would say were “edgy” and on the fringe.

“Start where you are, use what you got, and do what you can” became my motto for service.  But in 1994, everything seemed to crash down as I was faced with the consequences of my own choices and now I was a single parent.

It’s never easy owning up to your mistakes and failures.  There’s embarrassment and shame for disappointing the people you love.  Worse of all, I felt as if I had failed God so badly that He would want nothing to do with me and would never use me for anything else again.  But God had other plans for me and I began a restoration journey that would allow me to experience even more forgiveness and grace than I deserved or even understood.

They say it’s a long way to the top, but it’s even longer when you’re at the bottom.  So after many years, my journey came full circle as I was asked to join the pastoral staff of the church that had worked so hard and invested so much into my life.  I had the honor of organizing community and church volunteers to feed over 5,000 people, give away over $15,000 of free clothes, furniture and other life necessities to inner-city families.  I sang in a choir in front of 20,000 people at the annual Chicago Gospel Fest and I traveled and made appearances on TV and radio with the purpose of having people perform 40,000 random acts of kindness in 40 days!

No one said it would be easy and I haven’t seen an end to the enemy’s attacks on my life and the life of my children.  But this one thing I know; God is and will always be my strength, my life and I can never fall farther than He is able to catch me.

If you feel detoured or far from His love, take my story and make it your own.  Happy endings do happen!

Something you may not know about me: In 2004, I was selected as a Walt Disney World Ambassador, where I had the opportunity to travel around the world and make TV and radio appearances for the Happiest Place on Earth.   Yes, it was the coolest job ever!!!!!