The message of the Good News will be shouted from the rooftops by former transgender, lesbian, and gay individuals. People who have left the LGBTQ lifestyle and turned to Jesus took part in a freedom march in Los Angeles recently.
Praise were heard and testimonies shared at the Freedom March in Pershing Square. The hope is more people will come to Jesus and be completely transformed.
Jeffrey McCall is the founder of this movement and he says this march is not about suppressing anyone, but finding freedom in Christ.
“I really want to send the message to the LGBTQ community that there is hope…To say, ‘Hey, we were in the same lifestyle you were in and we came out of that and followed Christ and there’s a whole ‘nother life. A life that we didn’t even know was possible. A life with joy, and peace, and freedom,'” he told CBN News.
“We want to reach back out and let them know there is another way,” McCall added.
McCall was once diagnosed with gender dysphoria by a psychiatrist, and he used to live as a transgender woman. Then he says God’s love transformed his life.
“I just spoke out to God and I don’t even know where it really came from but my inner spirit and I said, ‘Will I ever live for you?’ I just wanted to know,” he explained.
“He spoke to me and all the thoughts in my mind went silent and I heard him say, ‘Yes, you will live for me.’ And when He said that I was just shocked and stunned that the God I had always heard about was actually speaking to me.”
McCall says that’s when everything changed.
Luis Javier Ruiz and Angel Colon have similar stories. They’re survivors of the massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando in 2016, where 49 people were killed.
Colon was shot six times and survived, and Ruiz says he was nearly trampled to death as people fled the club for safety.
“Just watching the news, as I was in the hospital bed in pain and seeing the names going by, God started working in my heart,” he said. “I could have been number 50, but now I’m alive and I have a chance to share my story with the world…that Jesus can change anyone.”
Ruiz and Colon are now part of the team planning the freedom march in L.A. and an upcoming march in Orlando in 2019.
“We are a group of overcomers that used to be LGBTQ and now we are sharing our story with the world,” Ruiz said.
It’s a story of redemption and hope and the leaders hope to connect fellow overcomers, reach out to the LGBTQ community in each city, and equip the local church.
“I believe a massive group is coming out of this community,” McCall said. “So the church has to be ready to love them, bring them in, help disciple them and grow them.”