From Organizing Prayer Around Life to Organizing Life Around Prayer | Kwane's Story
Kwane is 46 and from the west side of Chicago, Illinois. Before Adult & Teen Challenge, he lived a criminal lifestyle that included time in prison, experimentation with party drugs and alcohol, and what he describes candidly as a commitment to stubbornness and disobedience.
After a few decades of that reckless way of living, a parent and a pastor in Kwane's life pointed him toward Western Michigan Adult & Teen Challenge (WMATC), supporting his genuine desire to change.
Transformation and Deliverance
Kwane describes his time at WMATC as marked by real transformation and deliverance. He's witnessed what he calls the miracle-working power of Christ Jesus, not only in his own life but in the lives of the men around him. It was at WMATC that he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, committing himself to a Christ-centered, Bible-based life going forward.
Depending on Prayer Like Oxygen
Kwane's relationship with Jesus has grown significantly since arriving at WMATC, and the clearest marker of that change, in his own words, is how he relates to prayer. He no longer fits prayer around his life; he now organizes his life around prayer. He describes it as foundational, a matter of necessity to get through each moment of this journey, depending on God's supernatural grace, power, and wisdom to bring him through to graduation. All credit for that, he says, belongs to God.
Learning the Value of Structure
Living in community at WMATC taught Kwane to value relationships and people in a new way, along with discipline, structure, order, and the necessity of rules and authority. He describes these as vital components of biblical manhood, and he's deeply thankful for the experience of learning them.
What Comes Next
After graduation, Kwane plans to stay on as an intern, a role that offers continued discipleship, further mentoring, ongoing growth in Christ and Scripture, and the chance to serve others coming through the program behind him.
His message to anyone watching who's ready for change: come to WMATC. Through the grace and power of Jesus Christ, the transformation your heart is longing for is possible. If God did it for Kwane, he can do it for anyone.
Why Kwane's Story Matters
For donors, Kwane's story shows how the program reaches men with significant criminal histories, offering a genuine path toward transformation rather than a repeat of old cycles.
For prospective students and families, especially those who've watched a loved one return to stubbornness and disobedience again and again, Kwane's story shows that even decades of that pattern can give way to real, lasting change.
For the WMATC community, his shift from fitting prayer into his schedule to building his entire life around it is a vivid picture of what full surrender can look like in practice.
If someone you love has spent years cycling through a criminal lifestyle, there is still a path toward real change.
Help make stories like Kwane's possible.
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