Michael Rutledge Story

I'm from Brooklyn, New York and I grew up in a household where my mother was there, my father wasn't there, around about two years old. I got really sick because I was eating raw chicken and I had to go to the hospital. And when I came back from the hospital, I guess DFACS was involved. Not too long after that they took me for my mother. It's like my earliest traumatic experience that I can remember. I still remember it to this day. Fast forward past all that, group home to group home, school to school. I just had a lot of moving and being numb to other people, being numb to friends. You know, what's the point of having friends if I'm going to move in the next six months to a year? About five different high schools and if I'm not mistaken about four different middle schools. It was interesting. I do remember having good and bad. I've been blessed to go to Disney World and Universal Studios through the school and stuff. But other than that, that was my childhood growing up. So I didn't smoke weed until about 21. But I remember smoking one time. I was about 18 years old, no 17 years old. It was the last high school basketball game of the season. They had rolled up some joints and I hit one out there and I think I dropped about 30, 40 points. Other than that, I didn't grow up really drinking or doing drugs, but as I started working in the club scene, that's when I got introduced more to the Zaza and all those things, you know. You can't wake up without smoking a blunt. I remember in clubs, seeing liquor all the time and being around it, I really didn't get pulled into it, but smoking weed definitely was a major almost every day of the week deal. And I almost definitely know now that it had a little hold on me. It may have not been as dramatic as other people, but it definitely had a hold on me.

It was a to-do thing. It was like a checklist that had to be checked off every day. So I knew I needed help, and I got charged with aggravated assault while on probation, well on parole, and then probation. My situation was kind of, I wouldn't say unique, but unique to the sense I couldn't parole out to a house, a home, an apartment, a baby mama, things of that nature. I had to wait until a boarding house was available. When a boarding house was available, they told me, they said, well Michael's not going to be in Atlanta or Marietta or Cobb or anywhere you know. It's going to be in Macon, Georgia. And I was like, what? I never even heard of Macon for real. So then I went there, some people tried to rob me, I got into it with the wrong people. When you seem like you have it all, or you may put on that mask that you got everything going on, people are going to feel some type of way towards you, you know, issues happen. The devil attack those that got purpose. It was meant for me to come to a better way, but at the same time I had to go through that. So I got locked up for aggravated assault, stabs, two people. One of them, the charges went away and got dismissed, and then the other person, I'm still in limbo about the situation. That's pretty much how I got here. Got to court, court told me it was shocking. It's kind of odd, but the DA's advocate is who signed me up for this program. They signed me up for three different programs. One was a teen challenge, and the other one was like a refuge for men type housing. I thought I was being smart by picking the 18-month program because of how serious my charges were, and I thought it was unique how, looking back now, knowing the things I know, why would a DA, a person who's trying to convict you, sign you up for a program to help save your life? That's pretty much how I heard about A Better Way, and then later on in dorms, you know,

having that paperwork, the rules and regulations and stuff, I did some asking around, and some people said pretty amazing things about A Better Way Ministries. Alright, my first day at A Better Way Ministries, I remember it like it was yesterday. I hop out of Dibb County Jail van, Sprinter van. You know, anklets on, a paper suit. Two officers, you know, walking to the front, got my little paperwork, they took the anklets off, they were like, hey Big Mike, you know, this looks like a nice place. And I looked around, seen the basketball court immediately, you know, three, four big houses in a row, a pool, clearly a pool, I never knew it was a saltwater pool, but a pool, just a beautiful campus. The energy, even pulling up, looking out the window in the van, pulling up and seeing the statue, you know, Jesus washing his feet, it was just a beautiful thing, and I felt, I will say now that I remember feeling the spirit hit me, I may not have been super in tune to it, but I felt it. The structure at A Better Way is unique, it's hard if you fight against it, but it's beneficial. There's rules and principles behind it, especially later on, you learn those things, they start to unveil themselves to you. That night, so I believe I got here Thursday or Friday, being able to come outside, a little free time here and there, but that next day, waking up at 4.45, quiet, you could hear crickets, you almost could hear the wind going across the ground. Those rules and regulations, the reverence, not talking before 8 o'clock, those things, you know, they were different, they were difficult at first, but you know, if you're a grown man, it ain't hard for you to be quiet, and really realize and grasp the situation of what you're trying to do. So if you want to talk to God, or really get closer to God, and just the fact of how Jesus did this, you know, once I learned that too, that kind of like embedded that into me, okay, it's time for reverence, let me get up, be quiet, pray, speak to the Father, read my Bible, devotional, you know, and dig in. The Brotherhood at A Better Way Ministries, so I grew up in a gangbanging kind of environment,

and lifestyle, and Brotherhood was important then. And I see that we weren't really living right, or acting right with it, but the Brotherhood here is totally different. I don't even think anything really comes close to it, caring for each other, you know, never really letting nobody slip or get into their head, you know, a lot of times we get into our head about things, or feel some type of way about another person, but the Brotherhood here taught me compassion, that's one of the things that I liked, it taught me how to, if I really love somebody, I really care, I'm really trying to walk this walk, I got to really dig in, I got to love each other, love my brothers, even when we don't see eye to eye, it don't need to be no problem, fine, it's just we don't see eye to eye, I still love you, I respect your opinion, I hope you respect mine. Another thing about the Brotherhood that I love, the fact that while you're going through the program and even when you finish, majority of the guys that you see and know, and meet, you tend to always wind up bumping back into them, iron sharpening iron, you tend to learn things from each other, and it's a beautiful thing to see that, to know that there's a group of men that serve God that will always be in contact with each other. So the Florida trip, the Florida trip was one of, well it is the best experience you're going to have at a Better Way ministry, and I really liked it, because one, you're getting re-baptized, but two, like the group that you come in with, your class, I call it like the Better Way generation, your generation that you come in with, so I had some real, we all were kind of knuckleheads, but real solid guys, and we tend to have a lot of fun together, we ate together, grew more not only just physically with each other, but spiritually, we knew more about each other, and we all, I believe we all were humbled by the fact of seeing Brother John up before any of us, even when we tried to get up before him, he got up, he was already praying, already reading his devotion, he was always on top of that, and through the ministry, I try my best to maintain that, to stay on top of getting up, getting in your devotion, really digging in, because it sets the tone for your day. Also, you know, he had his family there, so it was awesome to kick it with his family, and just see the real genuineness of, this is what you're aiming for, this is the example that it looks like in flesh. I believe me and a couple other guys, we decided we were gonna be

brave and swim out about two and a half miles out in the water, it was a fun experience, I Probably never been that far out of the water, trying to get in a kayak with a hole in it. It didn't work. It was a magical thing, very spiritual, very engaging that we had a brother that had passed while we were there. Just to sit back and realize that I had a homeboy, a best friend, a brother, that he didn't want to get baptized at first, and just the situation happening with a brother passing, and then Brother John really breaking it down to the lowest common denominator of why you're becoming a Christian. Why are you getting baptized? Why are you announcing? This is the reason why you're announcing it to the world, hey look, I'm living for Christ. I'm a new creation. I feel like that was another pivotal moment in the trip, and it was an eye-opener too. You don't just have 18 months, right now you need to do whatever you got to do, you got to do it now. Pick up your cross right now, you know, bury your old self right now and live for Him. So it was a major thing for me. Alright, a better way has done for me more than I could ever do for myself, and when I say that I mean on my own strength, I'm 6'6", 300 plus pounds, my own strength wasn't ever enough. My own intelligence wasn't ever enough. My deluded, manipulated thought process wasn't enough to help me get on my feet, you know, get one with Jesus, get one accord with God and His principles, learning to be compassionate with others, especially in the leadership program. It's crazy because a lot of guys either don't want to do it, or feel like it's just, oh you want me to be a cop, but then when you really realize that you're, you have the chance to help the next man, you have a chance to help a newer guy, or a guy who's struggling with something that you've already beaten, so I can help him and give him this tool. Everybody don't have, you know, a drill, an automatic drill in their bag, in their tool

bag, and you just might have it, you just might have what that person needs that day. So just setting the tone, you know, we got to say it in a better way, the standard, and to be living in that standard, you know, walking right with Christ, repenting every day, daily, changing how you talk, a better way, help mold me, re-mold me with God, of course, but with God help re-mold and restructure me, re-stabilizing my mind, my thoughts, my principles, a lot of those have changed. It's a place where if I have a problem with somebody, who ever knew I'd be praying for you rather than wanting to punch you in the face, or just stop talking to you and leave you alone, I'm going to just let you be, but now it's like, it's a beautiful thing, not becoming a millstone to your brother, you know, instead of breaking somebody down, picking them up, speaking life, don't speak death, you know, or you can't, no, there's no such thing as you can't, you know, God got you in His will, and then, you know, it's a lot of principles, we had a lot of good speakers come through, a lot of great Saturday chapels, beautiful thing to be at A Better Way Ministries.