This is the Truth Network. The hit man is in the house. He was the quarterback's worst nightmare as he was crushing in on the opponent, running through those offensive linemen.
Now he's the devil's worst nightmare because he loves Jesus and he's taking Christ everywhere. He is the hitman, Miguel Vieira. That word hitman is really close to your heart because that's what they called you, man. You targeted those QBs, didn't you, brother? That's right.
You know, led the conference and tackles for two years in a row. Had a little bit of a WWE style of tackling. Pick them up and slam them down, but then help them up, you know.
So it was a good time. University of Kentucky, some big football, but you found out that maybe football wasn't the best God, huh? University of Kentucky for three years under Coach Curry, who was drafted by Vince Lombardi. If you could believe that, if we're going to go all the way back to the beginning of football. Coach Curry got fired his third year, and I went from being a third string middle linebacker to third string defensive end, and I transferred to the University of Rhode Island.
I became an all-American. Oh, wow.
So, Miguel, I just, man, I see your videos, I hear your stuff on SoundCloud. I mean, you're out there. You're cooking food for Hundreds of kids sharing Jesus with them, putting on camps, putting on clinics. It's just remarkable the stuff you're doing, but your heart, your passion, is discipleship. Talk about your ministry.
Kind of who you are and what you're up to, for our listeners to know, this is an inspiration to so many people.
So, our ministry, Family Ministries America, we basically connect churches, businesses and volunteers to pockets of lostness in their communities, and we help them find out what the on-ramp is. And we work with all different ages and stages.
So we might go and feed the homeless, we might go to a children's home, we might go do a park outreach, but we have all the equipment we want to make the We want to make the access easy to those areas for the people that are volunteering. I love it. We're in a coffee shop hanging out. Man, it's a lot safer when this big guy walks in. I tell you, I just love what you're up to.
your your passion that drives your ministry to talk about that a little bit and how you got into this will you I'd just say that the passion comes from the love of Christ compels us.
So I'm just never gotten over Him dying on the cross for me. And for me, that wasn't revealed until I was a sophomore at University of Kentucky through Campus Crusade for Christ. Even though I grew up in a church, I had a religion but not a relationship.
So I surrendered to Jesus in college, and after that, it's been all about him. Wow. And I get these texts from you, man, that you say, Hey, come help us. You're cooking up a whole lot of food. What is it about you and cooking food up?
And what is it about food that's a common denominator? Food and sports that brings these people together. There's a book called Meals with Jesus by Tim Chester, and he talks a lot about how Jesus. Spend a lot of time eating meals with people and connecting over food.
So that's something that's very important to us. It's also a way to just get to know somebody and serve them in some capacity before you share with them. What's important right now? What would you say to folks that are in the faith, but they just kind of feel like maybe they're on the bench or they're just they don't have gifts that God can use or they don't know what that gift is? Just what's your little.
What's a little stimulus you give everyone listening about getting into the game? I mean, you're just an ordinary guy. You play college football, but you're no thrills, or you're just out there trying to make it happen. People get become very fearful over the word evangelism, and they think it's uh they automatically think of confrontational. And uh there's a person by the name of Lee Strobel, pretty pretty uh popular.
That came out with the six styles of evangelism.
So I always like to encourage people to let them know that it's just not confrontational, but it's also intellectual. It's relational, it's invitational, it's serving, it's testimonial.
So instead of trying to be something that you're not, what if you just fell in the category that God created you to be and excelled in that? Miguel, talk about the next generation. connect a lot of parents like to talk to you. Grandparents. Miguel, what are our kids thinking?
What are they going through? All this doom scrolling, all the, you know, trying to find satisfaction in things that don't matter. The pressure that we put on the kids and parents, all about getting that degree and getting that job. But talk about what they're going through, why this generation needs. the older folks like us to step up and reach them.
It's the most educated generation of all time because of what they have access to, but they're also the most. Distracted and the most anxious generation of all time because of the constant bombardment of news.
So I think it's a generation that values, I know, values authenticity, and they can tell whether you're actually interested in helping them, sharing with them. And they're looking for foundational truth because they're having a hard time finding it. And we know that if people are searching for contentment and satisfaction horizontally in people, places, and things, there will always be something lacking versus a vertical relationship with God. We have a mutual mentor, discipler, David Parsons, who's been mentoring me for longer than you. But you and him meet on a regular basis.
Why is that so important? And why should everyone listening to my voice right now be in an active discipleship, having a Paul over him and a Timothy under him? Yes, I love it. Active discipleship.
Somebody that's. Most likely older than you, that's been down the road where there's been potholes and curves and has experienced different life transitions and can tell you it's going to be okay. That really knows the Bible well and has applied it in their life.
Somebody like a David Parsons, a Paul. But here's the thing: don't just have somebody pour into you and not pour into somebody else to have a Timothy in your life that you can pour into. But let's add a couple people. Let's add a Barnabas. Let's add somebody that could hold us accountable.
Let's add somebody that this person that could kind of stir the fire within our soul. And then add a lost friend that could become a Timothy.
So really four people we should have in our lives: a Paul, a Timothy, a Barnabas, and a lost friend. I love it. So those are the people, and you're surrounded by a lot of those folks. You're on the college campus. You're putting on events and tournaments.
What's a typical day in the life of family ministries? Man, typical day life of family ministries America could be, you know, having lunch with the pastor. Discipling a college teen, going on campus somewhere and putting on an event, going to the children's home, feeding the homeless, just a variety of different things. And then you get up and you share Jesus every time. What do you tell these people?
Share your story. Just don't share the Bible, but share how we impacted your life. We're going to be going on five years, June 1st, since becoming a full-time local missionary, and we're celebrating over 32,000 gospel-centered interactions over the past five years. Praise the Lord. How can folks pray for you, and how can they get involved, learn more about what you're doing?
Like, what's the best way to place to direct them that way? As far as prayers, just that God's will would be done. You know, we just want to serve where He's already working and not go where He's not working. To find out about the ministry, you could just go to FamilyMinistriesAmerica.com. You could go to a tab where it has a Google sheet and all of our serving opportunities, as well as all of our social media handles where we have online devotionals on SoundCloud, as well as reels that we're posting on a variety of different social media platforms.
And you'll come and speak too. What's that like? What are some of those opportunities provided? And what do you do when you come invite you to come to their school or to an assembly or something like that? Yeah, I mean, high school, college.
business Um I've written three books over the past 20 years.
So, Student Athlete Book, Jail Ministry Book. I just released my second edition of Ministry Mind in the Workplace.
So there's just a variety of different things that we could talk about. And just find out what you would like a person to talk about and kind of meet in the middle. Miguel, your favorite Bible verse? and your challenge to all of us as we get out of here. I mean, my favorite Bible verse used to be Philippians 4:13, which is, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
But it has transitioned to Matthew 28:19 to 20, which is just. Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey the things that I have commanded you. And this is the kicker, man. And it says, And lo, I will be with you always, even to the ends of the age. And if we were just to back up just a verse from there, Jesus says, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
I think we normalize that. Because that same authority that's been given to him, his spirit lives inside of us. And the same spirit that raised him from the dead can accomplish just amazing things in our lives. Truth to the line. Yeah.
