The Mission, the vision

Building a boat in the desert

The vision for Sheep 2 Shepherds came to me In the Fall of 2024. I had been following Christ since the Spring of 2001, I was in a wilderness in my life and God brought me to the woods and showed me what to build. Discipleship was an important part of my Spiritual growth, as it should be for all of us. After years of trying to work within established "churches" to offer (and receive) intentional discipleship and community service opportunities, I realized that God's church went well beyond the walls of a building and that is where I needed to build my mission. 

The very first door that opened for me was at Inspire Sports Camp where I was given the chance to use my Spiritual giftings to help guide other hungry young Christians in a better way to live righteously in a world that excels at promoting anything but righteousness. I never felt God use me so much in my life, this is what I was called to do.

The next doors that opened lead me to other missions around me, already established at finding broken men and leading them to hope. Good Shepherds Mission in Paterson, NJ and Market Street Mission in Morristown NJ both blessed me with the opportunity to preach on a regular basis at their chapels services. Good shepherds also offered me teaching opportunities, and before I knew it I was preaching 3 sermons a month and teaching bible studies 3 times a week.

Along with growing myself (immensely) and learning while teaching, I began to connect with the men in these shelters, places of green pasture for them to dwell in while finding their way again, and realized each of them were the sheep that would one day need leading in the real world. Sheep to shepherds was to be a bridge for them, when they left these safe shelters, to learn, grow and serve until they found their calling to serve the Father.

As winter turned to Spring, the road to Service would begin to open for me. How could I lead people to serve unless I myself was serving and learning of the real needs in the real world around us. Not hundreds or thousands of miles away in different countries, right here in our own cities and counties.

God opened doors to an organization called Table-to-table which focuses solely on recovering food from markets, farms and grocery stores, and distributing them to places and people who need food. A massive world of "Need and abundance" came clearly into my line of site and I realized God was showing me the service opportunities that would fuel the ministry, to feed His sheep.

I plugged into the organization and began to serve. I was lead to a place in Engelwood NJ, about an hour from me, where every Tuesday Table-2-table drops off around 12,000 pounds of food in bulk and volunteers organize and bag nearly 500 grocery bags which are then picked up by families from all over the area who need food.

Table-2-table also offered independent volunteer opportunities in the way of using your own vehicle to pick up food from the stores and bring them directly to shelters, pantries and other places of need. Having 2 vans for work, I signed up and started a Sunday routine after church of picking up from a Wegmans and A Farmers market and bringing the food to a food pantry and a retirement community. 2 pick ups, two drop offs. I was blown away at how much food I got, over #1000 pounds on my first run, I was hooked. In the months since, the route has now grown to a total of 7 pick ups of around #2500 pounds of food that are distributed to 4 - food pantries,s 2 - men's shelters and as many as 15 local families in need, every single week. God brought several very dear warriors into the mix and we are now scheduling crews and recruiting more workers seeking to set up a distribution point in my local area that can serve more outreaching areas.

Another part of the original "vision" for the ministry involved offering seminars that directly focused on teaching people ways to serve God and grow into your calling. Many places teach about what you are supposed to do, but not many show you how to do it. I "saw" the seminar very early on but had no idea how to even go about orchestrating something like that, of course I did not have to, God was already doing it.

By my 3rd term of service at Inspire Sports Camp, I had built a network of men who saw my giftings and were hungry to learn more. A very important door opened up in July that solidified the reality that it was time to step into that part of the mission. I realized my 8+ months of teaching and preaching at the missions prepared me for what needed to be taught. My 4 months of service rescuing food and feeding people showed me opportunities for places people can serve, and now a relationship that was grown over 2 summers of service together with a young man who was a counselor at ISC would open the final door to allow the Seminar vision to become a reality, only 10 months after stepping into the calling.

My brother I Christ, Joe T., was recently prompted to be the administrator in a church in Newark and he had a heart to use his building to serve God. He had the building and the authority to use it, I had a grounding in what needed to be taught and how to do it, two big unknowns were suddenly revealed to me and the reality of a 3 part discipleship seminar series was now only a few short months from becoming a reality.

Between the amazing warriors God brought me both through community service and at ISC, I now stand at the verge of having my first "leadership" meeting for the 1st ever sheep to shepherds discipleship seminar, with a core of (10) other warriors who want to serve and be a part of making this vision come to life.

When God is ready to use you , He will use you and bring you everything you need to make His will be done through you. SO let me briefly summarize this miracle I am sharing with you now:

On November 23rd, 2023 I was in a bad place. I felt alone, undefined and unclear where I was going (again), I turned to God, and I gave myself fully to Him, I begged Him to use me now, and He did. A walk in the wilderness that day showed me a vision that I had no clue how to accomplish. I trusted fully in Him and stepped into the unknown and watched as my life and those around me began to change. As of today, August 24th 2024, I'm about to organize the very seminar I was shown, after having spent 9 months, teaching, preaching and feeding literally thousands of people and am surround by amazing men and women who are seeing what I am doing and being inspired to want to do the same, and they are and God is doing the same thing with them.

This is no made up story, this is no fantasy, this is one man fully trusting in God, and applying everything he has been taught and has been teaching for most of his adult life, and seeing the results in spectacular fashion. All I want to do is share this with the world and help them to understand how easy it really is , to step into the unknown, trust a God you cannot see or touch, and watch what really happens when you truly do live like Jesus, and not just hear about how Jesus lived.

Will you follow me on this journey, will you step into what you do not yet know , and trust that you will be lead to where you need to be?