“I was raised in Ellis, Kansas. My dad and uncle were farmers and I grew up helping them on the farm until playing sports got me out of it. I loved playing college football at Garden City Community College and my short time at Kansas State, but we were terrible. An injury ended my career and I dropped out of school. I moved around the country making money and having a good time.

I worked for the Nielson company installing computers in homes to record what people watched on television. I saw a shoot-out around one of the houses, and it was time to move on. I got a job opening new Hooters restaurants. That’s how I got to Mobile.

I grew up thinking church was for weak people and a place to whine about your troubles. That changed after I got my girlfriend pregnant and we got married. Our daughter went to daycare at West Mobile Baptist. I went to church for the first time on April 7, 1996. It was Easter Sunday. I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but the next thing I knew, I was walking up for the altar call and telling the pastor I needed to change my life and find my purpose. I got on my knees and asked Jesus into my life.

I lived hard for the world, so I lived hard for Jesus. I was the most obnoxious Christian that you’ve ever met. I would tell that chair it was going to hell. My wife decided she didn’t want to be married anymore and took our three young girls to Huntsville. It didn’t go well and I haven’t seen them in years. I was angry at God for letting this happen, but I have prayed for them every day.

I met Tara, my second wife, when I was struggling to forgive. She asked me to attend a men’s conference. I went, but I sat on the top with my arms crossed. Whatever God was offering, I didn’t want it.

The speaker was Rick Burgess, of radio’s “The Rick and Bubba Show.” I perked up when he told the story of his young son drowning in the swimming pool of their Birmingham home. After months of anger, Burgess said he finally chose to glorify God for the life of his son instead of blaming God for taking him away. That moment, I became obedient to God. That is when the spirit of serving began, but I didn’t know where it would lead me.

I was always entrepreneurially minded. I had a landscaping company and a barbecue restaurant. I made enough money to get by, but not enough to get rich. I put scriptures on the wall at Matt’s Rib Shack and would feed people for free. God was preparing me to step out later.

In 2010, Tara and I attended a Bible study called ‘If You Want to Walk on Water, you Have to Get Out of the Boat.’ I had a vision of a cafe where anyone could get a hot meal and pay whatever they could afford. God put the word “ransom” from Matthew 20:28 in Tara’s heart: The name became Ransom Ministries and we started Ransom Cafés in seven churches in Mobile and Baldwin counties. That grew into the Clean Machine to provide hot showers and wash clothes. We realized we were stuck in the relief stage of survival and not helping people out of their situation. The next step was rehabilitation where lives are changed.

Over the last few years, we started Ransom ReProgram, Ransom Recycling, Ransom Staffing, and the Ransom Thrift Store to teach job and life skills and move people from addiction, trauma, homelessness, and incarceration into a career. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, but that’s part of growth. As long as you learn from them, you’re good.

Most of the folks we work with have been homeless, incarcerated, and addicted to drugs or alcohol. But I have new heroes every time I hear their stories. There are no masks with them, they are as real as it gets. After hearing what some of them went through, I don’t think I could have made it. We started the Ransom Experience podcast to share those stories.

God is using all of this to change people’s lives, including mine and the volunteers. Real-life miracles happen every day. We just miss them. Every one of us was raised from the dead.

But this year I got burned out. Just because you are doing good doesn’t mean that you are doing what you are supposed to. I was operating outside my gifts and waiting for each day to be over. My gift is to be a visionary, I am not good at the daily work of carrying out the vision and keeping it going. We brought in the right people and I am back to working on the big picture. We are expanding to give more job opportunities. I’m hoping we will add seven more positions by the first quarter of next year. That would put us at twenty positions that we could keep busy all the time

When God gives you the vision, he may not show you the whole thing. You don’t have to have it all figured out to do what God called you to do. Everyone is called to love others. Start there. God will take care of the rest.”

Matt