Episode 20 hr 14 min
They were the perfect young family, until little Bella was diagnosed with cancer. As Trey and Kim Bowman painfully mourned the loss of a daughter, God led them to turn their heartbreak into an amazing healing ministry to help victims of childhood cancer and their parents.
Molested as a child, Tonja Myles’ life spiraled into self-loathing, depression, and crack addiction. Jesus redeemed her life into a mighty ministry to the least and the lost, and eventually to a position as a Presidential advisor.
They were the perfect young family, until little Bella was diagnosed with cancer. As Trey and Kim Bowman painfully mourned the loss of a daughter, God led them to turn their heartbreak into an amazing healing ministry to help victims of childhood cancer and their parents.
As a boy Ashanti Witherspoon was drawn into the Chicago gang life. He was a hardened criminal when wounded in a gunfight with police in Louisiana, arrested, and sentenced to life-without-parole at America’s bloodiest prison. When Ashanti accepted Jesus, God opened the prison gates for 20-years of effective prison ministry.
Troy and Tracy Duhon’s faith walk never wavered through the despair of the loss of two children at birth and the devastation of their business and home by Hurricane Katrina. They found the passion that inspired them, as God called them to philanthropy - from feeding the hungry in their native New Orleans to building orphanages across the globe, to inspiring millions worldwide with a blockbuster movie, God’s Not Dead.
Growing up in a dysfunctional family in Mississippi, Jennifer Maggio hid from her father the shame of child molestation. But when she became pregnant, Jennifer was put on the streets with only the clothes on her back. After a second baby, living in the projects, against all odds, Jennifer became a sales superstar earning six-figures. Then God called her to bring His message of hope to single moms from coast-to-coast.
Chef John Folse is internationally renowned for his culinary arts. He has cooked for Presidents and Popes. When his mother died when he was 7-years old, his father answered a knock on the door from the angel God sent to help raise eight children. Years later, in Moscow to cook for Reagan and Gorbachev, an ordinary Russian woman pleaded for him to bring her a Bible. The Chef awoke from his sleep with God telling him that the purpose of the trip was not to impress the powerful, but to bring a Bible to a woman longing for the Word.
A talk in a convenience store between a college student and an adolescent boy developed into friendship. Then God nudged Jacob Allen Nichols to minister to inner-city youth and to build the largest student philanthropy at Louisiana State University, where hundreds of college students volunteer weekly to tutor, mentor, and love kids from the tough streets north of campus.
The enemy’s attacks often focus on the weakest link in the chain - even in devout Christian households. The crisis created often leads to chaos in a family that can break even the strongest chain apart. Vicki Ellis was a victim and knew the mayhem first hand. On her way to becoming a doctor, God called her instead to use her personal experience to heal families. After years of carefully developing and opening a “boys ranch,” floodwaters forced her to start all over again.
Dr. Brian Sleeth was a young pastor with a heart for planting churches. In Detroit to start up a new church, the Great Economic Recession began in December 2007. The pastor lost everything and his family was suddenly thrust into homelessness. Shaken, he asked God if he’d misread his calling this badly. Humbled by his circumstances, God then brought the young pastor back to his roots, and from homelessness to a successful ministry to the homeless.
Chris Smith was like many African-American children where he grew up. Raised by a grandmother, who was a strong woman of faith, the world took him far from her sphere of influence. Music was in his blood. Performing in nightclubs replaced singing in church. Alcohol and drugs dominated and stunted his career. At his lowest point, he gave into Jesus and transformed his professional persona into “Christchild” dedicated to use his musical talent to keep others off the path he once took.
There was a point when the marriage of Ronald and Robbin Hardy - a minister and his wife seemed hopeless. Even as a pastor Ronald felt helpless, and as a pastor’s wife Robbin felt overwhelmed. The depth of their faith was the glue that held them together as they’d once vowed “til death do us part”, and God gave them a passion to help others redeem their marriages.
Mark Lubbock was a little boy helping his dad in the backyard when the tragedy struck. Severely injured and comatose for days, he was unaware that his father was dead. Years of trying to be “the man of the house”, without a male role-model, led to unrealistic self-imposed pressures, alcoholism, and failure as both a husband and in business. First came sobriety, and then at a Promise-Keepers rally, God led him to become a United Methodist minister, a man of God dedicated to ministering to other men.
Street violence is so prevalent in cities across the country that many are numb to the reports. But to a mother in the inner city, every shooting incident leads to real hurting for another woman who has lost a child. Early one morning a knock on the door by a police officer awoke Carolyn Williams York, who fell to her knees with the realization that this time “it was me”. Her answer was a ministry to help other mother’s and family members cope with their loss.
Life on Purpose TV was born from Beth Townsend’s realization that Christians can change the world through their personal stories of how God works, even today, in everyday lives. She told her story in the book “Life on Purpose” and set out to help others tell their stories and share them through streaming television to capture modern technology to fulfill the great Commission to spread the Gospel - one story at a time.
