Story & Lesson Highlights with John Afful

We recently had the chance to connect with John Afful and have shared our conversation below.

John, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What battle are you avoiding?
I try to avoid the battle of earning trust. Let me explain. A lot of people in the greater LA metropolitan area can be distrustful for many reasons and with good reason. Due to past bad experiences, and normalizing witnessed distrustful behavior that has been seen over and over again, that can affect a person’s ability to see the good in a person. It can affect a community’s ability to see the good in an organization. It can rob masses of people the opportunity to experience genuine kindness not out of spite, malice, or anything else more deceitful. But the people miss an opportunity for genuine kindness birthed out of love for their fellow brother or sister due to simple distrust. So, when someone ask, “what’s in this for you?” or “what do you get out of this?” I sometimes fumble because answering with “The joy of seeing a community changed for the better” may not be the most believable answer yet it is the most honest one.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Pastor John Afful of Power to Reign Ministries LA. We are a Christian Non-Profit that hosts family events with the intent of ministering to the entire family. One thing that makes us unique is we genuinely believe in “Win by being a friend”. Many of the people and families that we encounter are very isolated and alone. It doesn’t mean they are bad people in any way; however, it does show that people are going through life never meeting their neighbors. Unless there is some type of commonality that pulls people together, they will not connect. They want to connect. They want their children and families to actually have a conversation with someone in person, they just don’t know how. As a result, we have decided to be that commonality. PTRMI has decided to be the ones that bridge the gap between different career levels, different interests, different upbringings since at the end of the day we are still people regardless of all the differences that make us unique.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I would say growing up in East Detroit. It was very much like Los Angeles but the people there viewed life somewhat differently. Before I was even a teenager, I had witnessed many harsh realities of life as well as the adult’s reaction to them. I saw people cross lines that weren’t normally crossed working with people they didn’t normally work with for the shared goal of a protected and safe community. These adults didn’t even like each other but still worked with each other for the shared sake of their families. The reason why this shaped my thinking is because the harsh realities of an urban metropolitan area didn’t define these families, it motivated them. It didn’t make them become calloused to the daily atrocities that they had seen, on the contrary it instilled loyalty to their families and then utterly their communities. So, I would say that shaped how I see the world as an adult today.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
If I could say one kind thing to my younger self it would be that you are not doing as bad as you think you are. Growing up in a single parent home, I always felt at a disadvantage since I always compared myself to my peers. Now mostly all my peers didn’t have fathers living in the home either, but their mothers were dating men. So, they had adult male influence in their life in some sort of fashion. As for me I sought out male influence from TV, outings, big brother clubs, whatever I could find since I longed for male mentorship. Since I didn’t grow up necessarily seeing a man run a household, I was terrified to leave home when it was time for me to go to college. Thankfully necessity pushed me out of the nest, but it was a hard transition period for me that first year away from home.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
A project that we are committed to is the Family Faith Game Night initiative. It’s a time bi-weekly in which families get together to fellowship and enjoy each other’s company. It is so needed in this day and age when people have trouble meeting people and the youth are lonelier than they have ever been. We simply ask that everyone respect each other’s opinion and no one uses this as a time to solicit. With seemingly everyone having a side hustle we don’t want this to be a networking event. We want it to be a time of fellowship in which communities grow stronger and families laugh together.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Starting off it was definitely what I was told to do. When we first started 10 years ago, we were told to see what the community needs and address that head on. Since we were located in central LA we were surrounded by homeless encampments and people that needed help. As a result, we immediately started volunteering on Skid Row as well as with organizations that addressed addiction. Now we are doing what we were born to do. We are creating opportunities where families can come together and get to know each other without spending money, without being part of some program, and with little to no effort. These opportunities we provide help families find their villages, which may ultimately become their support group.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.powertoreign.com/
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• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@powertoreignministries4318