The path to the lord hasn't been a straight and narrow one for me. I spent 27 years fighting a losing battle with drugs and alcohol. Through god's grace on September 24th 2023 I put down the bottle for good. It took longer to find my way back to the church, I had been listening to biblical verse podcasts and immersing myself in the book but still wasn't going to church. In April of 2026 my daughter invited me to her baptism at her church. I went to support my daughter, something happened that day when I heard Josh Baldwin's Made for More performed by the worship team. This particular portion
"'Cause I wasn't made to be tending a grave
I was called by name
Born and raised back to life again
I was made for more"
This shook me awake, I realized I had been given a second chance to walk the right path. I've been blessed to have some close friends, and even my daughter join me on this sobriety journey and it really made me think I was made for more. I regularly started attending church there and other church's around. I realized I was in a group of "good" people, people who hadn't fought battles similar to mine. People who hadn't lived a colorful life before getting right with the church. I still hadn't found my crowd.
Strangely enough it was a story from Luke 19:5-7 that I had heard at that church of Zacchaeus and how Jesus became the guest of a man who is a sinner. The Beatitudes further delves into this in Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Understanding our spiritual bankruptcy as warriors against addiction and total dependence on God and his grace.
This just caused me to look deeper for my people, the ones who needed help, the ones fighting the same demons I had been. In July of 2026 I attended a Ben Fuller concert. At this concert between bands a representative from 8 Days of Hope came and spoke. Their four pronged approach to charity struck home with me. The stories were heart wrenching, being the pragmatic that I am and pessimist about anything good sounding I immediately looked them up on Charity Navigator to make sure they were on the up and up. The four star rating with a 92% satisfied principles for giving and I immediately signed up for monthly recurring donation. I also joined their volunteer list, they'd just assisted in my area post natural disaster and I know they'll head back for another pillar of their organization which is rebuilding and I'm excited to help. This didn't seem like quite enough for me though, I really wasn't sure yet what to do to increase what I could do for this organization, but oh the answer was coming VERY quickly.
Ben's music is worship and we weren't in a traditional church setting, so for some songs few people were up. He's got a song that speaks directly to my journey called Turn, the lyrics speak directly to the warrior battling addiction and I was up worshipping with my head bow and hands raised high. I had this overwhelming feeling come over me towards the end of the song that I needed to look up, I need to see everyone else up with me during that song. I looked around this 10-15% standing around really getting after the worship were crowd I was looking for ones who'd probably lead an off-road life to Christianity. I didn't have the words after the show to express how I felt. I mostly just cried and my fiancé held me. We talked through this as we drove in the dark through the cornfields of Indiana home. I told her I had found my crowd, the broken and attempting to heal, those are the people I'm supposed to be with. To her credit she said you're like an off-road Christian, you're taking the hard road to get where you're going.
That was it, the beginning of this. Turn my talent for internet wizardry into a side gig to create a clothing line to raise money for 8 Days of Hope. A 50% of all profits will be donated to 8 Days for Hope, check out the charity it's a great one and they're doing a ton of good work in your community. The shirts are made for us Off-Road Christians, though we've walked a broken trail, we've always had a faithful shepherd.