While on staff at Focus, someone invited me to speak at a juvenile prison. When I first walked in, the kids were like, “What you want to talk about, Wonderbread?” I did my martial arts demonstration and accidently busted someone’s chin open with nunchucks. After that the kids were all wide-eyed and like, “This dude is crazy.” I shared my story fully for the first time. I knew these kids would get it; they understood abuse. Fifty-three out of 75 kids gave their lives to Christ. I was stunned. So many hurting kids, so much fruit. All they needed to hear was the gospel with hope attached to it.
God birthed in me a passion to reach those kids. I couldn’t believe that every church didn’t have a ministry just for locked-up juveniles. Very few do. If you look at the total, it’s pathetic.
All Things Possible Ministries was birthed out of Focus. Our goal is to reach America’s hurting and abused youth. What started in a downstairs bedroom in 2003 is now global.
People will admire you for your success, but they will relate to you because of your pain.
I fill in for pastors. I speak at high schools, prisons, marriage conferences, men’s retreats. I guess I am getting the reputation for being the funniest, deadliest inspirational speaker in the nation.
We hand out thousands of copies of my [autobiographical] book at school assemblies. We have more than 12 million views on our YouTube channel and 11,000 subscribers. A documentary film on my life story that’s meant to bring hope to people who have suffered abuse, injustice or trauma of any kind has now been translated into 15 languages. Churches screened it and still do today.
I share a message to never give up, that times are hard, that there’s pain after the party, but it’s delivered in such a way that it affects the heart and intellect, too. We’ve saved a lot of lives just by explaining the causes and effects of trauma, based on my own journey.
God made us to heal. He made us to heal.
–Interview by Jennifer Kabbany
