Get to Know Brandon Joy

Ministry Description

A full-time cross-cultural internship with Word of Life Evangelism Ministries in OAE (open-air evangelism), will include traveling to New York City from Pottersville on average about 20 plus times a year. These will be for 5-7 days at a time and will also involve joining with local churches to share the Gospel. We stay at a local church in Queens, New York City, called Woodside Community Baptist Church. I will be discipling and helping train the students alongside Sam Frey, at both the Florida and New York campuses this year. We will take them on day trips, to local areas and disciple them on the ins and outs of open-air evangelism. This is a ministry assignment for the students, and we can show them how to apply what is learned in the classroom in real-time, while on the streets. In December, we have a few weekend trips to NYC where students can again get the experience of sharing their faith in the open air.

In January of 2025, Sam Frey and I will head to the Philippines for a mission trip to help train local churches, and students there, on how to effectively share their faith in the open air as well. We then have a four-day mission trip scheduled in April, for all the freshmen class (around 300), to New York City to share the Gospel full-time for the weekend. I will be interning alongside Sam Frey who has been in the ministry for over 40 years. Sam Frey and I also have trips to Philidelphia, 4-6 times a year, joining with long-time ministry partner Tony Rizzo to do Youth-Safety Zones for the disenfranchised youth in the inner city of Philly. I will also be very involved in, one-on-one disciple-making and group discipleship while home in Upstate, New York, anytime I am not in the mission field. I will be doing all of this full-time, while getting my bachelor's degree full-time in biblical studies, with a concentration on youth ministries, online at Davis College.

Learn more about the ministry in the United States.

About Brandon

I was not raised in a Christian home, and you could say it was very dysfunctional. My dad provided for us but at the same time, we were on and off of welfare, because my dad and mom broke up a lot. So, I know what it is to be poor in the eyes of the world. This caused me to act out at school and I was always in trouble. I liked the attention and made sure everyone knew who I was. I had so many insecurities about my home life that I made up for it by being the class clown. I thought that if I were popular, it would take my eyes off being without a lot of money. I got involved in many crimes and always had a big crew around me to get stuff done. I was hard on my friends and made it seem like I was trying to toughen them up, this was my way of hiding the battle of power and control. This went on and off throughout my life and made me struggle to find purpose and identity. I started to get much stronger than all my friends and would get into fights to see if I could find anyone who could step up to me. It began an addictive personality (adrenaline junkie) and so did the use of all kinds of drugs. I started to sell drugs, skip school, and hang out with many different women. I held a job for most of my adult life but went from job to job. I would get bored with rising to the top position, and I found myself always needing more. I filled my life with material things, but it was never enough. So, I went from woman to woman until I met who I thought was my soulmate. We began to use meth, and it was the death of me, literally four times I was brought back to life in the hospital. We were supposed to have a child together and it ended up not being my child, and that about broke my heart into a thousand pieces. I gave up on life and went hard into the street life with reckless abandonment. I ended up getting involved with the cartel and many other gangs and became a well-known drug dealer that the cops had on every watch list. This went on for nearly seven years and came to a big-time halt when God started coming after me with His divine providence and unconditional love.

And so, a very much longer story cut short. After running from God for years I had a "Damascus Road" experience that was something out of a lifetime movie. I was stabbed by a guy one night and he ran off with my backpack but also left behind his. The most humiliating part was when I raised my hands to try and block him from stabbing me, I had an accident in my pants. I had congestive heart failure and was half dead on drugs and couldn't even defend myself anymore. It was the craziest turn of events that has put me in the very chair I am in now. I then grabbed his backpack walking away broken and feeling so lost. I got to a park and looked in his backpack and to my surprise, there was not only a pack of new underwear but also wipes. I was crying because I knew it had to have been God. I then found a Bible and a journal of the other guy writing to God and praying. This made me want more from my life and the thought of God was now heavy on my heart. This was exactly what I needed to WAKE UP! This was the most humbling moment and humiliating one at the same time.

The next part gets even better I got a phone call a couple of weeks later on Facebook Messenger; from Moody Aviation Bible College, and they said, "We have a backpack, and it has your things in it." I was tripping out and it took me a few more days to muster up enough moxie to go and get it. I thought it was a setup by the Feds or the DEA. But something told me I had to go out and get it. So, I went out and talked to the head guy and he gave me my backpack and I asked him what they did there. He said, "We send out missionaries to remote places to share the gospel of Jesus Christ." So, I said thank you took my backpack to the car, and began to go through it stunned by what was happening. I found that none of my things were missing, and there were also things added. As I went through it, I found some immune system emergency pills and a thought came into my mind. I need to get sober and healthy because "I am going to work for God." There was also a survival book on how to survive in the wilderness. Then I heard a voice clearly in my head and from my heart, "I want you to take my gospel to the 4-Corners of the earth." It was crazy and I certainly almost thought I was going crazy, because how could this washed-up drug addict, drug dealer, possibly do something like that?

Well, a few weeks later I then found myself at rock bottom in jail, with a shaved head and no eyebrows. I was as ugly as I had ever been and completely broken in my soul. On September 22, 2020, I fell hard to my knees in that jail cell and cried out to be saved and said, "I can't do this without you, I need your help." From the day, I got out of jail, I have been serving the Lord with all my heart and soul. I can't stop telling people about Jesus and what He has done for me. The Lord and I have taken the gospel together all over the world; including going to the Word of Life Bible College and finishing two years. I am now starting my bachelor's degree at Davis College in biblical studies with a concentration on youth ministries and interning with Word of Life Evangelism Ministries. I have been privileged to go to Turkey, Israel, Austria, and Romania including around 25 states in the USA sharing the gospel and seeing hundreds led to the Lord through street evangelism. Funny how the Lord works but it took all of this to kill the prideful, arrogant, selfish-hearted man and turn him into a loving, caring, and compassionate soul-winning soldier of the cross of Christ.

To be continued...

Matthew 24:14 KJV- "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."

Contact Information

revivalgreatawakening7777777@gmail.com

Address:
Brandon Joy
Word of Life United States
PO Box 600
Schroon Lake, NY 12870