From Chaos to Christ a Story of Redemption and Renewal - Mark Hebebrand

From a life of fearless street thievery and wild partying to a transformative journey of faith and compassion, this podcast follows the incredible story of Associate Pastor Mark Hebebrand's redemption through finding Jesus and dedicating his life to spreading love and hope to communities worldwide. 

Transcript

Israel Caminero: 0:34

Welcome to Living Testimony: Stories of Faith and Redemption. I'm your host, Israel Caminero, and I hope everyone that's listening is doing well. With me today, I have a friend. His name is Mark Hebebrand. And I met Mark at a wedding. He was actually DJing there, and I've known him for quite a few years now. And I figured I'd invite him to share his testimony.

Mark Hebebrand: 0:57

Mark, would you like to introduce yourself to everyone? Thank you, Israel, for having me here. My name is Mark Hebebrand. I've been saved for 32 years. Going on, being married for 32, the girl that brought me to the Lord became my wife. I have two kids. One is 25. Her name is Kayla. She's a counselor. And my youngest, Lydia, she just uh recently received a letter for law school. So personally, I'm just blessed. God has done some amazing things in my life. Amen.

Israel Caminero: 1:29

God is good. So before we get started, I'm gonna say a quick prayer. Father God, I just thank you for this platform. I just thank you for this opportunity to invite Mark here to just share his testimony. For it may touch someone that's listening, someone that we don't know, someone that needs to hear the story of how his life was and how you shaped it, Lord. Thank you for every opportunity that you give us because tomorrow's not promised. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Mark Hebebrand: 1:59

Amen.

Israel Caminero: 2:00

So, Mark, I know you have an interesting story, and that's why I invited you here, so you can share with everyone how God's worked in your life. And and God has done wonders. I mean, you're a pastor now at House of Praise, but it didn't all start out that way. So, could you share stories from back before you were saved? How God came into your life throughout all this?

Mark Hebebrand: 2:25

Sure, sure. Well, I um I was in a place where my world was a world of no fear and no care. And I think it progressively got like this through, you know, partying and and friends and just trying to get a reputation in in Cleveland, grew up on the west side. And um, so when I was about 16 or no, I was 17. 17, I was hanging out with these two guys, and we started picking up people uh because my friend had a fake badge. We drove around in this '72 uh Ford Torino. It was like red, it's kind of like a Starsky and Hutch type uh car. And we would pick people up and we would rob them. And long story short, I got a case. My one friend went to jail, my other friend uh went to detention home and I got on probation. And I knew my life was progressively getting worse. Uh, fast forward two years later, I'm 19. It's um winter break. All of my friends are sitting at a table, we're smoking weed, and we all ask each other, are you going back to school? Are you going back to school? And all of us, there were seven of us, and all seven of us dropped out uh halfway through. I was halfway through the 12th grade. And so here my life is progressively getting worse. I'm I'm I'm scheming, I'm robbing, I'm doing drugs, I'm living with a couple roommates. Um, now I'm I'm working at a club in the flats. A couple of my buddies worked there with me. Progressively just getting worse, partying. Uh, we went from weed to drinking to cocaine, occasionally acid, occasionally we would freak the joints with different things. And so my life is kind of spiraling out of control. But this world was I had no fear and I had no care. I didn't fear the police, I didn't fear people, and I really didn't care what happened. And a lot of that attitude was in my friends.

Israel Caminero: 4:28

Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. As growing up, you know, a lot of us are like that with the no fear mentality. You know, I always say if I if I would have known then what I know now, it would be totally different. You were saying that you were 19 when this happened. Now, before that, did you grow up in a Christian house or anything like that?

Mark Hebebrand: 4:53

No, no. I I mean I I grew up, I was a I was a holiday Catholic. It was basically um carnivals to meet girls and maybe Easter and Christmas. But other than that, no, I didn't grow up in in a religious, like dedicated Christian home, kind of like just a form of godliness.

Israel Caminero: 5:13

So you were basically, I should say, raised by the streets back then.

Mark Hebebrand: 5:19

Well, I had I had a great family. I mean, I had a mom and dad, um, I'm the baby of five. Um, I think busing started early 70s, and um, you know, going to the east side, having a um a mixed bag of friends. Uh a lot of the things in Cleveland, and a lot of people don't understand this, is like if you live in the city and you go to public schools, there's a lot of influence from the east side and the west side. A lot of kids that lived in the city went to private schools, so they didn't really get that influence from the east side and you know, some of the trouble that I got into. I remember looking back, I got suspended 17 times. I I failed twice. Uh numerous times I was gonna get expelled. But my dad, he would step up, he'd come to court with me. Uh so a lot of the trouble I got out of, but um, it wasn't because I was raised in the streets, it was because I had that street mentality and that no fear, no care attitude.

Israel Caminero: 6:20

So your dad would always go to bat for you no matter what. Yep. Do you still talk to your dad today?

Mark Hebebrand: 6:25

Yeah, my dad's gonna be 80 in March, and uh yeah, we st we still talk. Um both of my parents are living.

Israel Caminero: 6:32

That's good, and I I bet they like the change in your life when they see you, huh?

Mark Hebebrand: 6:36

Absolutely. I was at I was privileged to baptize my mom and dad, and they went to an encounter retreat uh probably about 15 years ago, so that was that was something beautiful.

Israel Caminero: 6:46

Oh, that sounds beautiful. Just when you said it just now, I got goosebumps baptizing your mom and dad. There's no greater glory than that, right?

Mark Hebebrand: 6:53

Yeah, yeah. No, it was it was an honor. It was an honor.

Israel Caminero: 6:56

Did they ever look at you as being a bad kid growing up because you were getting in trouble or anything like that?

Mark Hebebrand: 7:02

Well, at 19, um, I remember having a lot of conflict with my dad. You know, I was to the point where I didn't have um really respect him, really didn't come home on time, curfew, none of that. So at 19, basically, I got thrown out. I got thrown out. My dad got an 86 LaBaron Turbo um car, and I wanted to see if that really had a uh a turbo in it. So I took that car and I was driving it, and my sister told me my my dad was on the phone. Basically, he said, Hey, you gotta get out. You gotta get out. You you he said, out of all five kids, you're the worst, and you disrupt my family, and I just can't have you living here. So that was one of the the going across that bridge is really why I had more time to get into more chaos. Yeah, that was one of the times where I started even caring less about everything, and then you know, some some weird way I wanted to prove my dad wrong. So I never went back home.

Israel Caminero: 8:05

Right.

Mark Hebebrand: 8:06

So I stayed out of my house. So really, you know, a bad thing turned out to be a good thing because I grew up. I had to, you know, work more, I had to, you know, pay for things, I had to do my own laundry, and and that's another story. Living with three dudes and pushing your laundry, you know, to a laundromat and bringing it home in a shopping cart. That's humbling. That's humbling. But I needed that. I needed that because this was leading me to a place where my transformation happened.

Israel Caminero: 8:35

Amen. Amen. So you got kicked out because you took your dad's car and you were living with three guys. Yep. And what happened during that time as far as you continuing on the journey you were going through, you didn't change at that time, right?

Mark Hebebrand: 8:53

No, no, and if I can give a quick shout out, I want to give a shout out to Omar Baynes, Jaimito, and uh Adam Goodaugh. Originally I lived with Adam, and then I moved in with Jaime and um Omar, and then Adam came with us a couple years later. But no, I live with these guys. It was I was a house full of just partying every weekend. We all, you know, would go down to the club in the flats, the early uh 90s, late 80s, the flats was buzzing. The flats, you know, you can go down there and we'd you know, club hop and totally different than the yeah, totally different. And then we had a connection. There was a lady that we worked with at a club that had a connection to a club in Manhattan. So a group of us went to Manhattan uh to the palladium and just partied. And you know, when you're going to Manhattan on an eight-ball of cocaine, you know, that that was our lifestyle. Yeah. And uh so yeah, it was progressively getting worse. Uh we maintained jobs and and pitched in, but it was just a party life. Right.

Israel Caminero: 9:52

It was a no-care party life, take it day by day, right? Exactly. And you started DJing at some point in time there, didn't you?

Mark Hebebrand: 10:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I I know in the beginning you said we met at a wedding. Um, yeah, I started DJing as a kid. Uh, my first concert that I was really impressed with the DJ was Eric B and Rock Chem. I seen them when I was 16. So after that, I was always drawn to the hip-hop groups that had a DJ. If it was Terminator X, um, if it was um Grandmaster Flash, um, old school stuff, if it was Ron DMC, if it was Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Anyone that had um um a DJ, and I'm naming some DJs, um, but yeah, and there was a local DJ um in Cleveland, his name was uh DJ Dust. And so there were people in the neighborhood that DJ'd. I knew a friend that DJ'd on the radio. So I was like, yeah, I want to get into this, and I started doing more house parties, and then I was trained by a guy um that was known in Cleveland on the radio. His name was uh uh Flash Gordon, his name was Jeff. And so I got some training, some beat mixing from him, and then I worked at this club, and then this lady at the club, she gave me a little bit more attention, she gave me a lot of records, and so I was really feeling like I was gonna do that for a career. Um, so from like 16 to 21, I DJ'd. Okay. Were you DJing?

Israel Caminero: 11:25

And were you also like were you selling drugs at all? Or you you you held a job at that time?

Mark Hebebrand: 11:31

Yeah, never sold drugs, not in my crew. You know, a lot of my friends they were in the drug game. I was really just basically in the music game. I just I try to rap. One of my friends rapped. Um, I tried to do that for a while, but I was really just interested in music and um just going to clubs and dancing. I I I don't know, it maybe this generation is a little different, but man, we would dance for hours. Yeah, we'd go to a club, we'd dance for two, three hours. And it started when I was a kid. You know, I was a break dancer and I braked in different crews and different uh friendships, different neighborhoods in Cleveland, but it carried on in my you know, 18, 19, 20. We we loved to dance. That's actually interesting.

Israel Caminero: 12:13

You know, I I don't know why I asked you that question, but I'm glad I did because you know, you're hanging out with these guys, and I know some of the guys that you hanged out with, and some of them were actually selling drugs, but you never did, you know, which is good. You know, you might have been doing them and partying and things like that, but you never got into that trade, which is a good thing.

Mark Hebebrand: 12:32

Yeah, yeah. No, the guys around me, you know, really I really never had to buy drugs. I mean, when you have friends that are lined up and and some of them, you know, had a lot of um influence. I never had to buy drugs. I was more of uh just you know, whatever they provided or whatever was put on the table. That's how we partied, kind of like uh shared. We used to call ourselves the committee. Yeah. So everything on the committee's table was the committee's. And um, but yeah, I was really, I think, I mean, looking back, I was more dedicated to music. Okay, and um, just trying to get the door open and uh hanging out and just meeting people.

Israel Caminero: 13:12

Okay, yeah, that's interesting, like I said. So you were a DJ, you were out on the streets and partying all the time. When did all this kind of like start changing for you? When was the first time that you might have like heard God talk to you or maybe encountered God, like not totally, but just a little bit?

Mark Hebebrand: 13:34

Well, that's that's a good question, Israel. Um, I remember doing a robbery, and I remember, and I don't want to get into all the details, but I remember trying to go home and sleep that night. And every time I would close my eyes, I would hear a scream. And I was in a panic. My heart was racing, you know, I was sweating. I was like, I gotta get off this bed. Um, I was in my house at the house I grew up with in, um, and it was pitch dark. But every time I closed my eyes, I'd hear this scream, like like in the spiritual realm. I was like, I hear this real long scream. So about the second time, I freaked me out, and I grabbed my my blanket and I ran downstairs. And my mom, she had this velvet Jesus above the couch. It was like a three by four, it was huge. And I remember looking up at that picture, and I said, you know, I'm gonna be safe and I'll I'll get some sleep. So when I closed my eyes, I heard that scream, but then it it fainted. It was like, and it was like the first time God was like, I know what you're doing, I know how deep you're going. I mean, we're we're talking about aggravated robbery, we're talking about hustling, we're talking about stealing constantly. We would steal stuff and sell it at the flea market to make money, to to get more drugs or to scheme. Um, this was a serious robbery that we I got away with. Um, you know, progressively just getting worse and worse and worse. And that was, I think, the first time God was telling me, I know what you're doing, I know where you live, I know who you're with, and and I and I consciously, I can't say it was like overnight, but in the back of my mind, I was like, all right, things gotta change.

Israel Caminero: 15:18

Yeah. Like you said before, you did the robbery that you get, and you actually said you got away with it, but you didn't get away from God. He knew what you were doing.

Mark Hebebrand: 15:29

Absolutely, absolutely.

Israel Caminero: 15:30

And that was the first time that he said, I know whether you think you got away with this or not. So, what happened after that? Did you continue on?

Mark Hebebrand: 15:39

I continued on, I continued on with music, I continued on working at a club. I worked at a club for three years, and then um I um, you know, I'll be there dancing and meet people and meet girls, obviously. And this uh friend of mine, he dated a girl that her sister came to the club. And so it was the last, it's kind of even a weird story. It's the last song of the night, you put all the lights on and you play the worst song. Yeah. So the worst song that night was the YMCA. And so I come down to grab a beer, we're walking around, and and my buddy goes, Hey, so-and-so's sisters here, you want to dance? So we dance, and I kind of just made a joke of it, just dancing to the YMCA. So after that, all the Cleveland people know where everyone goes after the club is the big egg. So we go to the big egg, and um, we're just talking, and I get to meet her, and she's older than me. She's three years older than me, and very pretty, uh, Spanish girl. And um, so I get introduced to her, and we're friends, you know. So for about a year we're friends, we'd go to the club, we'd you know, kick it, we'd hang out in the house and do our pre-party, and then go out about 11 or 12. And then um we started dating when I was, I think my 20th birthday. I was actually at the same club I met her, and then um we started dating from there, and then we dated for about six months, but um in January of 91 uh she radically got saved, she radically got turned on to Jesus, which was my world was flips up upside down. I never seen, I never heard the word born again, saved, salvation. I never heard about Nicodemus, John 3, 3. I never so this girl gets so radically saved. She's loving. We used to argue, and you know, we used to fight about different things, and now she's just very loving and peaceful and praying for me. And you know, she'd say, God, show me that you you're called and you have a plan, He has a plan for you. And then and I would I I started getting aggravated. I started, man, get get that stuff out of my face. I'm not down with Jesus, I'm not, I don't want to be like that. You know, I'm I'm pursuing this music thing, I know this club life. That's and but she she would just you know, sometimes we think witnessing is a lot of words, yeah. And this girl's love was at another level. I've never seen love, I've never seen peace, I've never seen where a person can be changed overnight. And then uh she started praying for me, and so to despite her or to kind of like combat some of the things she said, I would just go up to random people. I'd say, Hey, you know what about being saved? And everyone would say, Yeah. I'd be in a grocery store and I'd I'd go up to some random person, hey, have you ever been born again? Of course, of course. Everyone needs to be born again. I worked at a club, well, it was like a bar, restaurant, and there was this old school uh blues player. His name was Jimmy. I go, I'm gonna wait for this guy to get done with his set to ask him, have you ever been saved or born again? This guy, the qu obvious question, yes, I've been born again at a Billy Graham thing in New York and Brooklyn, and I'm like, what the I'm like, how does everyone know about being born again? How does everyone know about being saved? I'm like, where have I been?

Israel Caminero: 19:11

Yeah.

Mark Hebebrand: 19:12

And honestly, bro, I would ask people over and over, and I would ask barmaids, I'd be like, hey, have you ever been saved? Have you ever been born again? Have you ever heard this term? Because at first I thought it was weird that my girlfriend changed that radical. Right. But then as I started asking people, I'm like, okay, how does this all work? You know, now I feel the odd one out. You know, if you ever seen that Jesus Revolution movie where the girl got saved and the dude was doing acid, and he's like, that's how I was. I'm like, I'm looking out from the outside, like, what's going on? And then she she prayed for me for three months. And to my wife's credit, she would pray for me and she would speak prophetic words over me. She would tell me you're called to reach and Nations, you're called or called to reach the multitude, not the nation, but the the multitude of people. And then one day I just had it. And I just was like, I'm just gonna break up with her. I'm just gonna be, you know, and guys are like, all right, how am I gonna break up with her? I'm just gonna be real mean. Right. I'm gonna be as mean as I can if I see her. And that didn't work. That didn't work. She just said, you know what? God has a plan for you, and he showed me, and I could not shake that. So I'd go to bed at night, and before, you know, because I was paranoid because I was doing rocks or doing weed, you know, I'd be paranoid or acid, you know. But this was different. This was like, what are you gonna do with your life?

Israel Caminero: 20:42

Yeah.

Mark Hebebrand: 20:43

And this girl was speaking into you. Yeah, it was like God has a plan for you. God has a plan for you, God has a plan. So 91, so she got saved in January, March 91, she invites me to Good Friday service. She goes, Come on out to Lorraine. Now she's from Lorraine, her family's from Lorraine, I'm from Cleveland. I go, Yeah, I'll go out to Lorraine with you. And she goes, Well, it's Good Friday service. You know, and I didn't have anything against going to church. So I ride out there, got an 81 Regal, smoking my new ports. You know, I pull up to the church with her. Um, I go in, and this guy, his name is Pastor Gilbert Silva, he's actually still my pastor, 32 years. I mean, I love this guy. He's he's he's been there for me thick and thin. He's preaching a message called the cross, the whip, and the hammer. And it's in this little church, and there's a spotlight on him. But as I'm looking at his face, Israel, I feel like a spotlight is on me too. Okay. It's like me and him looking at each other, like how we're looking at each other across the table with the mics. Right. And he's talking about how Jesus bore the cross and how he took the nails and how the nails are driven in his hand by the hammer, and how he got whipped with a cat of nine-tails, and he had these lashes. And he's explaining the whole crucifixion, crucifixion scene, like I've never seen it. Like the sacrifice, the obedience, the love of Jesus. And I'm just sitting there like glued to him. I can't even like get my eyes off this guy. And I've I've never, you know, met him, and I'm just I've never heard the story illustrated. Now I seen like Jesus of Nazareth. I seen like, you know, um, what's the movie they play on Easter?

Israel Caminero: 22:37

Christ and all that.

Mark Hebebrand: 22:38

I now now up to this time Passion wasn't out. But I'm I'm familiar with some religious movies. Yeah. But this was like a description I've never heard. This was a description of obedience and love. So I don't make a I don't make a decision. I just get in the car and leave, and I'm like stymied, like manette rock my world. That that really grabbed my attention. Like that was deep. So uh I'm talking to my girlfriend, and we're driving from Lorraine, and I lived off uh West Boulevard, and I'm driving, and I go, I don't know how to do this Jesus stuff. I know I need to be saved, I know I need to call on the Lord. I go, I don't even know how to do that. And she says, I'll lead you, I'll I'll pray with you.

Israel Caminero: 23:25

Amen.

Mark Hebebrand: 23:25

So we're in the car and we're going down 90 where we're going east, and we're right around Avon, like, and man, I say this prayer, and I'm telling you, it was like a bomb went off in the car. Like a spiritual bomb. Like I cried, bro. I I don't even remember crying ever like that. I cried from like that point to to uh to West Boulevard, got off the freeway, pulled into the you know, the old Sears parking lot, you know, topp's, wherever it was was over there. I said, what happened? She goes, You got born again. I felt like the backpack of weights I was carrying. I felt like the edge, the anger. I felt like the bitterness, you know, bitterness and anger causes a lot of fear. It does. And it was just layered upon layered upon layered. And and I've never been that vulnerable, I don't think, with anyone. And I just cried and we just hugged, and she was you're born again, you received Jesus. And I just felt light. I felt like, all right, you know, that message, you know, I knew now that the Holy Spirit was drawing me. I knew now that all those months my wife was praying for me, the Holy Spirit was pulling me towards him and knocking on my door. I know now that I came in contact with the marvelous light, the love of Christ that just melted my heart, that I repent, repented, and and all that sin was just washed away in it like an instant, just like that. Wow.

Israel Caminero: 25:02

Wow, that's that's so great. You know, you know what's funny that you mentioned there was that the girl, it's always the girl. You know what I mean? Like, like she that's what happened to me. You know, it's it's it's funny because Adam and Eve, she's the one that says eat the apple, but then you have girls like nowadays that lead men to Christ. You know, it's just it's crazy how how it works. And it happens, I want to say at least 70, 80% of the time now, where it's the woman that leads the men to Christ.

Mark Hebebrand: 25:35

And it really should be the other way around, right? That that's a good catch. Well, with her, she prophesied what I was gonna do. She knew what I was gonna do before I was saved. Now, this is a girl that was with me on a night where I got in a hit and run in a car. I'm at a light. This is prior to me getting saved. Okay. This guy's arguing with me. He he runs the light, he runs into my car. I said, Oh my, get these girls out of here, walk them home, and me and my buddy chase these guys down. She just seen this guy. She's seen this guy partying, she's seen this guy fighting, she's seen this guy angry, she's seen this guy not talking to his dad for three years because I'm still mad him. But at the same time, she has enough faith to pray for me for three months and enough faith to tell me God is doing this in your life and God is calling you. And in her mind, she's told me this before. She goes, I would just be like, How is this gonna happen? I just seen this guy like partying and now, but she witnessed me coming to the Lord, and so Easter was the next two, it was Good Friday, and then Easter morning, I she takes me to church again, and so they give an altar call. And I tell you, I was not churched. I mean, I'm 6'3, maybe 160 pounds at this time. Yeah, I get up, I put my hands straight up in the air, like I'm arrested. And she goes, What are you doing? I go, I'm going to give my life to Jesus. She goes, You already did that. I said, No, no, no, no. I gotta do that publicly. And I walked wherever I was to the front of the church with my hands lifted up. Okay. And from that time on, we we we jumped into ministry like jumping off a diving board. We went in the deep end. We just started witnessing for four or five years. Um, I had a I had a short rap career because I had I was so zealous about Jesus. Yeah, I just had to tell everybody, and and you know what my opening line was? What's that? Have you ever been born again?

Israel Caminero: 27:41

Oh, okay. The same question you were asking everyone.

Mark Hebebrand: 27:44

Same question that I was asking. Now I'm asking from the standpoint of knowing what it means. Right. And so then I would do these raps or do my testimony and do spoken word, and then wherever I could get a platform, and then every week, you know, I would go to church. Actually, to the church's credit, uh, House of Praise International Church in Lorraine, they had Friday service at that time. Okay. And I really think that was um a defining factor of me staying in with Christ. You know, I got a really good person to disciple me. I had a really good pastor and elders around me. Um, I went back to school, got my GED, um, and then six months later, after I got saved, I got married.

Israel Caminero: 28:27

So you're saying Friday nights because instead of going out clubbing, you were at the church, right?

Mark Hebebrand: 28:33

I was at the church.

Israel Caminero: 28:34

That's what I got from that.

Mark Hebebrand: 28:35

Yeah, I was at the church. And the first couple of times my wife would be like, Hey, you going to church? She'd be like, Yeah. And then afterwards, I'd sneak, I'd sneak away. You know, I'd go to church, and then 9, 10, 11 o'clock, I'd be in the club. But I just didn't feel right no more. Right. I felt like a fish out of water, and all my boys would be like, Oh, dude, you could drink soda, and I'm like, it's it's not the same. Yeah. And so, uh, like I said, six months later we got married, jumped in ministry, and then uh I was asked to work with youth. And then I became a youth pastor. I did youth pastoring for 15 years. I did music at the church, um, and then I did some missions. And it's it's been awesome. It's it's truly it's it's it came to pass what my wife prophesied.

Israel Caminero: 29:21

Amen. I'm gonna backtrack just a little bit. Yeah. When you said it was Easter and you were going to church every Friday, it well, you actually said that you were still kind of like skipping away and going to the clubs afterwards, but it just wasn't feeling right. Now, what about as far as your your friendships and everything else? Did that change also? Did they stay in your life? Did they start thinking you were weird, you know, because you were saved or anything like that?

Mark Hebebrand: 29:49

Yeah, they thought I was crazy. They thought, I mean, I'm the baby of five, so uh my family thought I was it was losing it. And then everyone was blaming my girl, and then, but I was like, Jesus, you know, Jesus, everything's about Jesus, you know. And uh, you know, and and on the side, I'd be dumping out their liquor, and I'd come home, we have a mirrored table, and there would be a you know, big bomb of cocaine on the table, and they'd be like, You want to hit this? I was like, I'm going to church, man. And so the first I think everyone's transition coming out of the world and being saved, I think we all feel that tension between family, friends, and this new life. Right. So I'm glad you asked that because I had that tension for about a year. Okay. I had that tension. I got out of the apartment. If I would have stayed in the apartment, it would have been longer, but I got married pretty quick, you know, after I got saved six months later. But I think we all go through that tension because we're learning a new lifestyle. Exactly. You know, I'm learning not to lose my temper, I'm learning not to drop F-bombs, I'm learning not to choke someone out, I'm learning not to be threatening, I'm learning, you know, to be calm, you know, I'm learning not to smoking was crazy hard.

Israel Caminero: 31:08

Yeah.

Mark Hebebrand: 31:09

You know, I smoked for so long and then to give up my new ports and then clubbing. But I would feel that pull to go back in the club, but then I after a while just kind of drifted. Yeah. And my priority changed. But thank God, like like I said, a lot of people try to do it on their own. I had a really good girlfriend that was strong. I had some really good people that discipled me. Actually, three of the guys from the church would come to Cleveland and disciple me weekly. Oh, okay, that's so good. Yeah, so they they seen something in me, you know, they seen uh the God transformation in me. And then the one brother took me under his wing and mentored me, and then another brother mentored me, and then my pastor, he's like I said, he's been here 32 years.

Israel Caminero: 31:58

You know. Yeah, I know Gilbert, he's a he's a good guy. Yeah, yeah. So on that Easter, when you know you made the altar call and gave your life to Christ, did things get easier for you as far as after that, or you know, because they always say once you're saved, things kind of get harder. Did anything get harder for you? Or I know you you joined the team and you were youth pastor, right? Mm-hmm. Did everything go well? Were there any hiccups in?

Mark Hebebrand: 32:29

Well, we were so busy, honestly, Israel. I came out of you know how like an addict has to change his habits and get busy doing other things? Well, when I got saved, I was getting married six months later. I went back and got my GED. I had to go to, I was so behind. Bro, I went to a big shout out to the people that did tutoring in 44th and uh Lorraine Avenue in a McCaffee basement. I hated going to that place, man. It was like an AIDS clinic. I was like, I gotta go there to get tutored. But they tutored me and I got my GED and then I got into ministry, and then in '93, I got hired at FedEx. So, like right after I got saved, like it was boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. But like I said, like addiction ministry, like if you don't get into something, right? You'll fall back into something. Exactly. So what happened was I got into ministry, I got married, I was getting my GED, and and then I was getting a good job. And so progressively God lined up everything. So yeah, it was it was awesome just being able to do street witnessing and being able to testify and you know, just share the love of Christ, the transformation, and and it was me and my wife for the first five years. We didn't have kids, you know. We we had our first daughter, I was 28, and my wife was 30, and so we did all that ministry together. That's so good. Yeah, that's so good.

Israel Caminero: 34:00

You're no longer a youth pastor, you're a pastor now. Yep, yep. And when did all that come about?

Mark Hebebrand: 34:08

Um, well, in 95 I started volunteering, and then I got hired. I left my FedEx job, I started working for the church in '98. And then I was a youth pastor for 15 years. But during being a youth pastor, the church started growing. They build another sanctuary. Um, I started working with the music team. Um, and then about nine years after I got saved in 2000, I went on my first mission trip. Okay. And then um, yeah, it's just after that, one mission trip led to another mission trip, led to another mission trip. And then um, yeah, we just kept growing. And technically, my role here at the church is uh uh the associate pastor. How many mission trips do you think you've been on already? I think I'm leaving in March. This I think will be my tenth. Um this will be my third time to Cambodia, but I've been to India, Africa, Uganda, Kenda, Kenya, um, Kerala, India. I've been to Brazil, I've been to Mexico a slew of times. Um, but um, I've been to Australia. It wasn't a mission trip though, but Austria was really fun because the guy I was doing worship with, we went out there, and that was a really cool trip.

Israel Caminero: 35:27

Okay, so I I I know a little bit about your background. Recently, maybe a couple years ago, you battled something as far as health goes. Yeah, yeah. Do you mind sharing what that was? Because I heard a little bit of the story and I heard how you were being attacked.

Mark Hebebrand: 35:46

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, 2016, everyone knows 2016 was when the Cavs won the playoffs and the big parade in Cleveland, the chaotic parade in Cleveland. Actually, I went to that with a group of my friends and my wife. Um, well, that May I had ran a half marathon. Okay. Then I was training for the Dayton marathon. So I said, well, let me just continue to run. So I'm running, it's late August, I'm in the park, and I feel I had earphones on, and I felt uh this, I well, I heard this noise, it was like poof, and I thought my eardrum blew. And so I started running, but I was running crooked, and um I couldn't straighten out. I couldn't straighten out every time I would try to straighten out, um, you know, I just I don't know why I was running crooked. So I laid on the ground. Basically, I laid on the ground to try to like balance myself because the world was spinning. And then so this guy, he comes by, he's like, hey, do you need an ambulance? And I was like, Yeah, I need some water. But here's the here's the funny thing about it. I didn't feel like it was my heart, and I didn't feel like I was overheated. I just felt like maybe I blew out my eardrum and you know I had my equilibrium's off, and now I got vertigo. Yeah. So they take me to the hospital, they diagnose me as heat exhaustion, send me back. For uh eight days straight, I was watching the 2016 Olympics, and I was sitting in my chair in my living room, but I I didn't want to like turn to the left or turn to the right because then the vertigo would kick in. Okay. And so um, long story short, that went on, and then that Monday I tried to get up out of bed and I I had a stroke, and I tried to like touch my face, and it felt like I was hitting myself with like a hammer, and my words were slurring, I couldn't see, I couldn't stand, and my wife was trying to take me to the to the doctor, and I was resisting. I said, No, no, this is just vertical. I've had it all week. I go, it's just it's gonna go away. I gotta drink more Gatorade or whatever. So she finally talks me into going to the Cleveland Clinic on Nagel. So go there, and they take me to get an MRI. Um, and the thing about when you have a stroke, your eyesight that you can't really zone in, you can't really focus. You're kind of looking, but you can't really bring your eyesight to uh a straight vision. And then your stomach is like, it feels like you want to get sick like every other second. So I was laying in the car, got there, did an MRI. The guy closed the curtain. You know, when they closed the curtain in the in the in the ball earrings, just and I said, I know this isn't good. So he takes her around the corner. He says, Your husband has had had many strokes all week. Multiple, multiple daily. Wow. And uh, has he been in any head, has he had head trauma? Has he been in a car accident? Is something going on with I said, no, no, we don't remember that. So they take me to Cleveland Clinic. Well, we gotta take him down, he might have to have emergency surgery. They have me in the main clinic, and for three days they're just staring at me. They're trying to figure out like what happened to me. They're like, this guy, he's in tip top shape. He's right, and you know, he's 46 years old. So they do an ultrasound on the back of my head, and I had uh a dissection in one of my arteries, basically, one of my arteries ripped. Oh, okay. And it was it was bleeding, and the blood clots were shooting up and it was causing like many strokes. Oh, long story short, I went home, they uh released me. They said it's it's a fluke. They kept asking me, Have you ever gotten hit in your head or you have head trauma? I said, No. They said, Well, we're gonna send you home. So then I had to recover because I had balancing issues and I had memory issues, and you know, I couldn't remember different things, like simple things.

Israel Caminero: 39:57

Yeah. You know, I I don't mean to interrupt you. Well I guess I just did. Yeah. They sent you home without doing anything to that artery?

Mark Hebebrand: 40:04

No. Yeah. They said uh it's gonna heal up and um it healed up and I just had to sleep a lot. I had to be careful in what I did, exercise, and um yeah, I didn't have any um physical therapy. Um I remember going back and the guy asked me to close my eyes and like walk to him across the room. Yeah, and I was so dizzy. Every time I close my eyes for months, I got dizzy. And so the guy goes, Can you walk to me? He goes, Are you dizzy? And here I am. I'm trying to lie. I'm trying to like, yeah, yeah, no, man, I'm cool. He goes, No, are you dizzy? I go, No, I'm not dizzy. He goes, I'm not gonna take away your keys. And I go, every time I close my eyes, I'm dizzy. He goes, That's normal. And so I'd be at church ready to pray for someone, and I'd close my eyes and the room would start spinning. Yeah, so that lifted uh the memory, you know, little things like not closing the car door or finding my keys, and that came back. Um, the balance. My wife had to walk me to the pulpit, and like two weeks later I had a wedding, so I had to just be careful the way I walked. She she was golden, she's she's just awesome. Yeah, but she um helped me get up on the pulpit, had a little delay on my speech. You know, I would talk and have a little delay, but that probably worked because I talked pretty quick anyway. So well, I can't tell.

Israel Caminero: 41:30

Yeah, and like you said, when you said you had the stroke, you're a healthy guy and everything like that. And I'm just glad that they figured it out because you're still here with us. God has a plan for you, right? Yeah, yeah. The plan wasn't done yet, or is not done yet. That's right. And you're going to uh Cambodia uh next week, is it, or two weeks?

Mark Hebebrand: 41:52

Yeah, I'm going with uh a team from Lakewood New Life, uh Mike Folder and BJ and Alex and two women are going with us, Jonelle and um Kateri. So the team of six. Yeah.

Israel Caminero: 42:06

For how long are you going out there?

Mark Hebebrand: 42:08

Uh we leave March 5th and we come back the 20th.

Israel Caminero: 42:11

And your and your plan is to save some people out there, right?

Mark Hebebrand: 42:14

My plan is to ask the same question. Do you have you been born again? So I went from a world of no fear and no care to caring for the world and reaching the nations for Jesus and sharing my testimony wherever I can go. So I'm looking forward to preaching and encouraging. And uh this church we've been supporting locally, our church, for over 25 years. And last year they just built a huge facility. They were sitting on some property and they were waiting for the right time. And so um, I'm just looking forward to seeing what God's been doing over there because last couple times I've been there, they were in a rental space, a rented space, and now they have this beautiful facility, and they're reaching out to so many people in Cambodia. Um, so I'm looking forward to going back.

Israel Caminero: 43:06

That's so good, and your story's so good too. Like you just said, a person that had no cares to a person that's trying to reach God's in the nation, right? Is that what you just said?

Mark Hebebrand: 43:17

Absolutely. I'm going to the nations. Uh, and that's that's to fulfill what the Lord told my wife before I was even saved. He's like, He's called to reach the multitude. Amen. And the Bible says, you know, we're a peculiar nation. We're a holy people. We've been called to show forth the life, love, and power of God to the nations. And that's that's one of our church's uh beelines. House of praise called to show forth the life, love, and power of God to the nations of the world. And I'm just glad, you know, sitting here with you, bro. This is it's an honor, bro. This is a dream come true. I I love, you know, what you're doing. I love seeing people that have a DJ background and music background. Now they're doing podcasts and doing things for God. But it's a dream come true that I get to speak about God's goodness and how he how fast he can save you. Amen.

Israel Caminero: 44:07

Amen. And that's what this is all about to reach people, like you said, that might be going through things like you just described in their own personal life. And who knows, they might just turn on a podcast and hear it, you know, and was like, wow, you know, I thought I was the only person going through that. But here you are, here's a pastor talking about how he went through it too, planting seeds in people's heads to where someone else might water them, but it's a start, right? Yep, yep, absolutely, absolutely. But I I I appreciate you being here, and I know you have a lot more stories, and in an hour you can only share so much, but what you shared is so good. Before we leave, I always have two questions that I ask people. Yeah. And my first question that I'm gonna ask you is what's your go-to Bible verse that you always fall back on when you might be having a hard time or a hard day or or anything like that? That's that's a good one.

Mark Hebebrand: 45:07

I know there's probably many. Yeah, yeah, that's a good one. I was gonna say right off the cuff, uh, the Bible says, honor all people, love the brotherhood and fear God and honor the king. And I had a lot of fear in my life. That's another podcast. Um, but I'd rather honor God and fear God. And so that's that's a go-to. I want to be a man of honor, I want to live honor uh for God and for people. So that's one of my um my go-to verses.

Israel Caminero: 45:34

Oh, that's good, that's good, and it matches what you went through. So now we're gonna go back to my back in time section, and I officially named that if I could turn back time. If Mark could go back in time and tell young Mark what he knows today, even though young Mark probably wouldn't have listened, yeah, what would you say to young Mark?

Mark Hebebrand: 46:01

Man, man, that's that's that's that's hard and that's deep. That's because you're like, like you said, I wouldn't have listened. Right. You know, I'd say God has a plan for you, it's bigger than your plan. Um, you know, he's predestined you to do this. And I think I would spit the word of God to him. I would because the word of God is eternal, and heaven and earth shall pass away. So I would say, man, everything you're building is on sand. But if you build on God, you know, he's gonna take you from glory to glory, he's gonna open up things, he's gonna take you further and deeper, and he's gonna show you things that would be amazing. But you have to humble yourself and fall to the feet of Jesus and um trust him as your Lord and Savior. And you're right, I I probably would have rejected it, right? But I think the eternal word, when we share with people the eternal word, just like my girlfriend, it was messing with me. And I think the word of God can get in your heart and get in your mind and mess with you. So I would say God's plan is so much bigger than your plan.

Israel Caminero: 47:14

Right. Because like you said, you might have not listened, but it's still plant seeds regardless. They might not sprout right away, it might take someone else to water those seeds, but eventually the end goal will get there, which is Jesus in your life, right?

Mark Hebebrand: 47:30

Absolutely, absolutely.

Israel Caminero: 47:32

So, Mark, I I really appreciate you being on here. I know it's only an hour podcast, and there's only so much you can share, but you shared a lot. I love your story, that's why I invited it, invited you on here. And if you want to see Mark, he's at House of Praise International. He's there every Sunday. He's a pastor there. You could hear his word, and also Pastor Gilbert is there with him. But before we leave, Mark, could you close us out in prayer?

Mark Hebebrand: 48:03

Absolutely. I love praying and I love this opportunity. Father, I just thank you for my story. It's all because of your story, and your story was so much bigger. You reached out into my heart and you transformed me. And I just pray that if this word can just transform someone's heart that is listening, that you can show them that they can trust you, that they can get born again, that they can surrender their life to you. If they're suicidal, if they're confused, if they're angry, if they're bitter, if they're going through confusion, Lord, I pray that you would just reach them and speak to them. I ask that you would just bless my brother as he continues to do these podcasts and the people that are on here, bless their story. I thank you that you are the King Eternal who alone is wise, that you lead, feed, and guide us because you're the great shepherd. I pray your blessings over this time and over the people that listen to this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Israel Caminero: 49:02

Amen. Amen. Thank you again for being here. Thank you to everyone that plans on tuning in, that hopefully this plants a seed in your life, like I was saying. You could find this podcast in any platform, Apple, iTunes, anywhere. And if you have a testimony that you might want to share, don't be scared. Just share it because it might touch someone else. And you can reach me at living testimonies at hopmail.com. So don't be scared to send that email or reach out because what you think might not be a good story might be a good story for someone else. And it's to glorify what God did in your life. So, to everyone listening, I just want to say my blessings to you and have a great day.