The Birth of Hope
As Radiant Life’s morning receptionist, Brenda Ferris often gets to assist people who have desperate needs and circumstances. And that’s fitting – because two years ago, before God intervened, she was one of them.Brenda's Story of Life Change Today
Nearly two years ago, over a macaroni salad at a small-group meeting, Brenda Ferris began to share her testimony with another guest. Her words stunned her listener – not because of what she spoke, but rather because of the appreciation that poured from her heart.
Beneath her blond hair and brilliant smile, Brenda had the joy of a woman who really recognized her salvation. Her raw sincerity permeated each word that she spoke, and for her listener – me – it sparked an expanded view of God.
Now, years later, Brenda works as the morning receptionist at Radiant Life. And she can still vividly remember the first day she ever set foot in the church building.
She’d woken up that day in a state of desperation. She was living in a broken-down car with her then-boyfriend, Joe, and she’d had her children taken away.
“I was so angry before,” she explained. “I knew I just had to find God, somehow!”
On Dec. 18, 2005, Brenda walked into Radiant Life Church and grabbed the first person she saw. She explained her situation and soon was at the altar with one of the elders, rededicating her life to Christ.
That day, Mark and Margie Albanese invited Brenda and Joe out to lunch. Lunch led to an invitation for Brenda and Joe to come live with the Albaneses. From that point on, it was as if hope was being restored by the day.
Soon, many people had teamed together to fund the couple’s wedding – something Brenda and Joe had longed for, but previously couldn’t afford. They were now surrounded by men and women who were willing to speak truth into their lives.
“The first few months were tough,” Joe says. “We had to learn how to walk right; we had walked wrong for so long!
“Some people kept daily contact with us to help us along.” As their marriage began to thrive, Brenda’s heart began to change. While taking a class through The Dwelling ministry, she came to the conclusion that her belief – or lack of belief – really did directly affect her life. During this season in her life, she began to weed out empty philosophies and wrong ideas of God and herself. She was brought to a greater understanding of who God really is – and who she is through Him.
On the surface, Brenda is now the woman with the blond hair, bright smile, and kind disposition, seated behind the RLC receptionist’s desk. On the inside, however, she is a woman who has known desperation and darkness and found God faithful. She is a woman who weeps for joy – for now she knows the light.
These days, when faced with trials, she places her trust in God.
“How can I doubt Him now after all He’s done?” she says.
Where once there was darkness and hopelessness in Brenda’s life, now there is a deep hope and expectation of good. Where once there was unbelief and anger, now there is an increased daily dependence on God. She is learning to love people. She is learning how to be the woman that God has called her to be.
The Whole Bus was a Rockin'
When Marcos Lozoya looks in his rear-view mirror, he doesn’t see his own anger, jail time, and regrets. Instead, he sees a bus full of transforming lives – and a big, red, four-wheeled testimony of God’s power to change everything.Marco's Story of Life Change Today
Quite unbeknownst to her, Pamela Santos’ life began to change on the floor of the Sacramento County Jail nine years ago. And she wasn’t even there.
On that day, a barrel-chested Latino man woke up and found himself face-to-face with three very scary things: a crack cocaine addiction, an assault-and-battery charge, and an anguishing, empty despair that absolutely consumed him.
“I just couldn’t believe that it had gotten to that point,” Marcos Lozoya remembers. “And right there, I just cried out to God. And I just asked Him to show me that He was real.”
Nine years later, the show continues. In a big, red school bus that rolls through South Sacramento neighborhoods like an oversized hot tamale candy gone berserk, the barrel-chested man from the jail floor has become an unsuspecting poster boy for freedom in Christ.
Every Sunday, his bus carries and cares for people like Pamela Santos. Last spring, Pamela and her five children walked several miles from their home to their first RLC Sunday service. Every Sunday since then, Marcos and the bus team has picked her up, and taken her home. And they’ve done a whole lot more than that.
“I just love the guy,” Pamela says. “He’s just so full of love, and he’s so real. He tells us about the love of God. He tells us about his own struggles. And he really cares about the people on this bus.
“He got a bunch of guys together last month to help me move – not just guys from his bus team, but other passengers, too. A couple months ago, when I was going through a real tough time with (child-custody issues), he had me sitting in that seat right behind him. And he’s, like, ‘You want to talk about it?”
Nine years ago, God began to change Marcos’ life by bringing him in contact with a shepherding pastor. Today, the power of that change couldn’t be more startling or profound: God changing the lives of people like Pamela Santos by bringing them into contact with Marcos.
“Hey, I know what God did in my life,” Marcos says. “And I tell them all the time that He wants to the same thing in theirs.”
A professional truck driver who typically works graveyard shifts, Marcos has had that desire to tell and distribute Jesus’ love for years now. At his former church fellowship, not too long after walking out of that jailhouse, he could be found stuffing his truck with as many people as possible in order to get them all to church.
When RLC began its Sunday bus service in 2006, Marcos was the primary catalyst making it move. These days he is on a constant vigil for more drivers, more caretakers, more on-board “conductors” – team members whose job is simply to love, encourage, help, and connect with the passengers in every way. And he and his team have given the big hot tamale a real name: the Barnabus.
“That bus is an encouragement for people to go to church,” Marcos says, “just like Barnabas was that kind of encouragement for the people in Paul’s time.”
Formally, Marcos works under Pastor Tom Kimball as an overseer within the RLC transportation ministries. Informally, he’s part driver, part administrator, part counselor, part pastor, and part protective big brother. He attends the 11 a.m. service every Sunday – and every Sunday is surrounded there by a huge segment of his regular riders. The bus, Marcos says, has “sort of become like a church plant of its own, I guess.”
When Marcos hugs you, you stay hugged. Team members and passengers alike agree that his goateed grin and practical love have helped to shape a unique culture on the bus. On Sept. 30, that culture began spilling out all over South Sacramento.
It all began on the regular Sunday trip home, when fellow team member Hugo Caballero stood up on the bus and began thanking God in a loud voice for Marcos. Others also began loudly thanking God for Marcos, and then thanking God for a variety of other blessings as well.
Next thing you knew, the wheels had come off – not on the bus, but on the passengers’ sense of gratitude. Shouts and praises began ricocheting all over inside the Barnabus, and then began pouring out the open windows as the bus rumbled through neighborhood after neighborhood. It was, to hear the passengers describe it, a holy lunacy.
“Whooooo, the whole bus was a’rockin’,” said Lilly Jackson, one of the regular passengers. “I like that. I like that a lot.” She wasn’t the only one. These days, as the gleaming Barnabus snakes its way from South Sacramento to Meadowview to Midtown, its riders shower passersby with greetings, waves, and “God Bless You!”s. The spirit on the bus is lively and animated. Pastors of small wooden churches, standing on their front steps following service, wave at the familiar vehicle. So do a group of pre-teens wearing gang colors.
Marcos has shared this wild ride with his wife of 19 years, Andrea, and a team of committed individuals who consistently bring a deep level of care to those on their buses. The conductors help carry boxes, bags and even children off and onto the bus. Another team makes weekly telephone calls to the riders, checking on their needs and looking for ways to respond.
“The day you didn’t pick them up, that might have been the day they were going to come to Christ,” Marcos says. “We want to be there on that day.”
RADIANT LIFE CHURCH - SACRAMENTO, CA
PASTOR TONY CUNNINGHAM
