My Journey of Elevation with Jack Wellman - a Man Who Does

'Are you sure you don't have me mixed up with someone else?' Jack was full of disbelief. Now how can I mix up this stupendous human with anyone else! Our association here is of little time but that wasn't a constraint. He has been so fantastic in everything he does. His articles and his books just mirror what he is, what he believes in. He is evolving each day and he has been a flash of light to many including me. He plays guitar, write songs, and teaches in Sunday school, he is working on this fourth book and he is someone, who most certainly, walks that talks. The book proceeds support church & missions work. Before I say more, let's hear it from the man himself.

So, here's Jack Wellman for you all.

Who are you?

I am a father and grandfather and a longtime Sunday school teacher and am intricately involved with my God, my family, my church and my community, for I love them all.

What is life to you?

It is an opportunity only given once to an individual to make the most of what natural abilities or gifts they have been endowed by God to propagate and expand beyond our own comfort zone, to stretch just beyond what we image are our limits.

How have you evolved?

I came from a broken home, from poverty, in a poverty-racked neighborhood, never having mother but a few times through several husbands, living with my aunt with 11 others in a 2 bedroom house, and everything about me was broken too. I tried to escape through alcohol, drugs, crime, and eventually landed in prison, where ironically, I became set free while incarcerated. I had only a Bible, but it was enough to show that Someone loved me enough to die for me, so I began to live for the One that died for me. I eventually got married, had children and then grandchildren. I became the first one in my family to graduate from college. I was able to break the cycle of poverty and broken families of generations, to establish a new cycle, of functional, benevolent members of my children and now grandchildren.

What's love to you?

Love is a verb. Its what you do. It not talk or just show, but rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes, the laundry, visiting the church's shut-ins, and giving money to Feed The Children ministry and to homeless people. It is not conditioned upon behavior. My children and grandchildren will do things I don't like, but my love is not conditional or does not depend upon their behavior or acts. I love them, regardless of any and all things. Love, as the Apostle Paul says, "believes all things", which I think means, we ought to always give people the benefit of the doubt, lest we are wrong and don't believe in their sincerity. That would be terrible of me because I've been wrong many, many times.

What is friendship?

It is standing up for someone you cherish when someone gossips or speaks ill will of them, while they are not there. You defend them when they are not there to defend themselves. Deflect the gossip about them and turn it around to stop it dead in its tracks, like by humor. "Well, you ought to walk a mile in their shoes before you criticize...then, they're a mile away and you got their shoes!" LOL. And to be a friend, you give of yourself when it is easy and when it is highly inconvenient.

What is religion to you?

I feel that people have a right to worship in their own religion or choose to have no religion and to have their own views of God or not to believe in Him. I personally feel that Jesus said that He is the light, the truth and the way, and that since I believe in the Bible, to me it is clear that Jesus is the One and only way into Heaven (Acts 16:30-31). Even so, I never condemn or judge others for their beliefs. That is not mine to judge. God said that He sent Jesus into the world, "Not to condemn the world, but that thru Him the world might be saved" (John 3:17). So why should I condemn others? That is not my business nor my job. I judge only myself and my own actions and certainly not others.

When I went to help the homeless Saturday night, I didn't ask him about his religion or his belief and then decide to help him if he only believed like I did. Jesus helped everyone, regardless of their beliefs. He didn't ask about there religion first, He helped them regardless. The man I helped tonight I helped not because he was or was not a Christian. He just needed help and that is all.

Since I believe the Bible, Jesus is the only way and other religions that exclude Him are not how to achieve eternal life, but that is non of my business forcing others to believe as I do or to judge or condemn others for their own beliefs. We are free moral agents. It is up to us to decide, not for us or me to decide for others. I will not nor have I ever condemned other religions or other beliefs. God is the judge. I will not put myself in His place, for I am only human and not a judge nor a god, but simply a man.

Do you believe in destiny?

I believe we can make or break our own destiny, but God is sovereign, and even when things are going terribly wrong, there is good that can always come from it. Like I was destined to end up in jail they way I was living when I was young, but the terrible consequences brought good in that I was able to come to the end of myself and decide to make a new life and direction for myself. The only way from the bottom is up and up I looked for my Helper. The Bible showed me my destiny and now I decided to fulfill it. We are not helpless pawns in the game of life, but we control the movement of pieces and like checkers, we can move forward or backward, but I chose to move forward to say, "Crown me!".

Share your ideologies

To give of oneself is my ideal. Love is the greatest of all things given to us. Love is the greatest impact mechanism in the world. Thrones and political offices will come and go, but love is here to stay and doesn't die when a person does. These ways of love live on through our children and grandchildren and continually flow outward, linear-like. To truly live is to truly love.

Your favorite quotes

I used to be a trainer for the Federal Government and train teachers for Head Start and I had 3 degrees and many of these teachers were not even finished with their educations. However I placed myself at their level. I was no better than they, just ahead of them in class. I thought, "They don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care". When they realized I cared more about them as a person than just a teacher, I could really reach them much more effectively. But I believe that actually taught me more than I ever taught them. Like, "Who taught whom?". As in Sunday school, I am not a teacher of my 3rd and 4th grade (combined) class, I am a facilitator. They teach themselves. I just provide the info.

Your fears

That I might die prematurely because of all of my health issues. That I will leave my beloved family unprepared and not be able to support them if I become unable, physically, to provide for them. Also, my greatest fears is that I will not take risks, or be to afraid to take chances to extend beyond my comfort zone, so that I might grow and tackle new challenges and then look back on my life at the end and say, "boy, I wished I had tried this or that, what if...."

Your goals

To be a successful father and grandfather and continue the cycle of a loving, functional (as opposed to dysfunctional) family that they might extend this cycle. I would hope my books will sell to provide security for my family when I am gone (nearing 60 with serious health issues), but more so, that they will give a glimpse of what their father and grandfather thought about life and what was most important in ethics, morality and love. Not to be a bestselling author, but to be a best-telling father.

Your weakness

I am too hard on myself. The command by Jesus to "love your neighbor as yourself" is the greatest command next to loving God with all our hearts, mind and soul. But loving ourselves is also part of that command, as he said, "as yourself". I should be easier on me. For me it is easier to love my neighbor, than myself.

Your favorite daydream

To go on tour and share my Apologetics, that is evidence for the existence of God, and how to be an effective witness to churches, to help light a fire under church members. Especially since only about 1 in 10 Christians share their faith with at least one other person and only 1 in 20 have done it more than once. I find that statistic heartbreaking. We've got the best news in the universe, why wouldn't we want to share it with the world...and go shout it on the mountaintops. Now, I can, I have at least witnessed to hundreds instead of a few.

Your worst moment

When I was sentenced before the judge to 2-5 years in a state penitentiary. It was the very bottom. But the good things about the very worst moments, the very bottom, is that there is only one way to go. And that is up!

Most glorious and special moment

My salvation and awakening to God's unconditional love. How could a perfect and good God love and want to redeem something as wretched as me!? Wow. Then, my marriage to my beloved, then my children's births, then their salvations and baptisms, then my grandchildren's births. Then my first published book. All in that order.

Your beliefs about God and spirituality

That I was headed straight to hell, and God reached down and thought, "Here is the way, I will send my only Son to die for this one who is lost, so that I can spend eternity and joyful fellowship with him. I love this one enough to allow my Son to be humiliated, tortured, spit on, beat, bludgeoned, and murdered, just so I can take this one to Myself. That is the measureless depth of God's love for all of us. It is any wonder I want to share this with everyone I meet?

The kind of people you are attracted to

The homeless, the humble, the downtrodden, the widows, the hopeless, the hungry. I've been there and done that. I know what its like and I desperately desire to help them.

What gets you angry?

The abuse of women and children, sexually, physically, mentally, or emotionally. What cowardice to beat or molest or hurt such as these! I pity the poor soul who faces the judgment of Christ who has done such a thing. It makes me angry enough to write about it on Associated Content.

Your understanding of happiness

Being content in all things, whether poverty, sickness, health, loneliness, because I can live with the end in mind. Revelation 20:12 shows that I can handle pretty much anything because I know that my life is secure in Him (John 10:28-29). He IS my happiness.

Ideal holiday

I think it is Christmas because our family gets a break from work and we get to spend a lot more time with our family and extended family. That holiday is something special in that a little tiny baby, born in basically, an animals stable, in a feeding trough, in about the most humble setting, ends up being the most magnificent event for the Redeemer of the unredeemable.

You are grateful for

My salvation, because I am not sure I would have thought I was worth sending my own son to die for some ingrate like me. But also for my beloved, faithful wife and my precious children and my friend, including you Mimpi, whom have expanded my community of friends at Associated Content. And for AC for making it possible for me to acquire such precious and now, life-long friendships. AC has been an incredible experience for me.

Your obsessions

My writing. I re-read and then re-write my own articles. I am my worst critic. I wring my hands over my articles to see if they are good enough. Do I come across as a know-it-all or as one who is just excited and compassionate about sharing life's experiences.

The people you look upto

Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, Billy Graham, and those who devote their entire life to helping others. I look up to Jesus above all of course, but I really like Barnabas in the New Testament. He is like the Three E-Migos, all in one. He always encourages, exhorts and edifies everyone he comes into contact with. I just love to be the encourager, greet the newcomer, walk up to the new person in school or church. I love those who seek out others to only see the positive in people and always have something good to say to others. There is too much negativity in the world already, I want to be uplifting and encouraging and to look for something to tell people, "Hey, you really are gifted at this...well done, or great job."

Hopes

To sell enough books that I help build a homeless shelter, to open a center to help people complete their GED , to break the cycle of poverty for others. I hope I can retire too and write full time for a magazine or website or finish my fictional book in the C. S. Lewis genre that I am writing, so that I can have more free time to evangelize the lost and to spend much more time with my children and grandchildren. I miss them so much and I haven't been able to afford to take off from work to see them for some time.

Most embarrassing moment

On my first day as a rookie sports announcer on a local radio station, I was doing the color commentary and I had a 32 ounce soft drink and when my local high school team scored a touchdown, I stood up and scream "Touchdown" while knocking over my soft drink and onto a woman spectator, whose husband I was sure was going to kill me in the parking lot after the game. Thankfully, we won, or he might of.....oh, well.

Things that people do not know about you

That I play the guitar and write my own songs. I use scripture for the words, so my lyrics songwriter is pretty famous and just write my own composition. I just love college basketball (go Kansas Jayhawks, Number #1 right now) and college football. My wife is a 4th grade teacher, and I teach 3/4th grade Sunday school, so she gets them Monday thru Friday and I get them on Sunday. How greats that!? I love these children as I would my own. I also love to grow flowers.

Thanks Jack for the interview and thanks all to have read it. Jack is working on his 4th book. You can read him below:

Do Babies Go To Heaven?: Why Does God Allow Suffering?

Teaching Children The Gospel: How To Raise Godly Children

Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?: Empirical Methodologies and the Bible