Marciano, a gang leader from the Bronx in New York called me this week to talk to me. I met this gang five years ago. They were one of the meanest and toughest gangs in the Bronx. All the other gangs feared and had respect for these guys. The reason God had me visit New York was because he had prepared their hearts and wanted me to bring the love of Jesus Christ to them. When I first met them there were 27 people in their gang. Now they are Christians and 22 have remained. All their families are still living in the same neighborhood in the Bronx, so it was easy for them to stay together as a gang. They now witness as a gang to gangs in New York. Because they are a gang, it is easier for these guys to relate to the gangs they witness to. They even have the markings of a gang in their tattoos. Because of their fierce reputation, the other gangs have respect for Marciano’s gang
Marciano went to King Soopers last Saturday with the entire gang. They were going to buy food for the gang that they were going to witness to that day. When they got in th check out line, they noticed a family behind them with just a few items in their cart. It appeared as they were going on a picnic but Marciano wanted to make sure.. Marciano asked, “How is your day going?”
The family softly said, “Pretty well.”
Marciano asked, “Are you going to have a picnic today?”
The couple said, “No, this is all that we can afford. These are our groceries for the week.”
Marciano was not surprised and said, “Those are your groceries for an entire week!” He paused for a moment and then asked, “What would you say if somebody came up to you today and asked you to go shopping with them telling you to get whatever you wanted?”
God had spoke to Marciano at this moment and told him to go and just do it. The family acknowledged that would be a miracle. Marciano then said, “Let me tell you about Blue Mustang.”
The couple gave them a strange look and responded, “Blue Mustang!”
Marciano said, “Yeah, God tells Blue Mustang to just do it and He blesses families. We believe it is important to bless others so that we too can be blessed. We also have learned from him to “just do it”.”
When Blue Mustang started saying “Just Do It” Marciano just loved that phrase so it is now a part of his vocabulary. So when his gang asks if they should do something, he says, “Let’s just do it.”
The lady started crying. Soon her husband followed. Their kids asked Marciano, “Who is this Blue Mustang? Is he like Santa Claus?”
Marciano responded, “Yeah, he is just like a Christian Santa Claus. When God tells him to do something, he says let’s just do it.”
The kids turn to their mom and asked, “Can we get some cookies?”
She said, “Yes, let’s just do it.”
That entire gang went shopping with them. Marciano’s gang always turns heads when they walk through a store. It is unusual to have 22 guys shopping at the same time. They walked with them through the entire store getting groceries for them. The little boy then asked, “Can we get ice cream?”
His little sister said, “Let’s just do it.”
Marciano said, “Sometimes even as a gang we don’t get everything we want. But today I want you to get the things that you want. I want you to “just do it”. We are here to take care of you.”
They finally got a cart full of food and headed toward the checkout. They got enough groceries to last two weeks. The kids were all excited and said, “Now, this is grocery shopping.”
That family kept thanking the boys for what they had just done as they continued walking toward the checkout. The parents said, “We are going to eat good because of you guys.”
Marciano said, “No, it is not us. It is God entirely. He said to “just do it”.”
When the cashier totaled everything up, it turned out to be $359. The manager of the store happened to be listening when the gang first met with the family at the checkout line so he knew everything that was going on. When the gang got ready to pay, the manager paid for half of the total. What is cool about all of this is what was about to happen to the husband.
That man was crying the whole time while this was going on. He said, “I cannot believe this is happening. Are you pulling our legs and you are planning to walk away at the last minute?”
Marciano said, “No way man. God says to “just do it” and we are going to do it.”
Up to this point, the husband has not been to church in ten years. His wife goes to church faithfully. What was happening today was a witness to the husband. He was seeing what true followers of Jesus Christ are like. He wanted that in his life. Our King was more interested in his salvation then the groceries.
Marciano and his gang were definitely having fun with the “just do it” phrase. Another thing that was interesting that happened, was a young woman standing behind the gang members wearing a Nike shirt that said “just do it.” When they turned around and saw her in line with that t-shirt, they all started laughing. The family’s daughter went up to her and asked, “What size is that shirt? I would like to get one.”
She replied, “I am a manager of a Nike shirt store. You come to my store and I will get some T-shirts for you.”
So after getting the groceries, the family headed to the Nike store to get some “just do it” shirts. What happened at that King Soopers in the Bronx was so powerful the husband gave his heart to Jesus Christ. Marciano and his gang are going to disciple him and check on him once a week to see if he needs anything to help him start his new walk with Jesus Christ. Marciano’s mom called the wife of the family to have her come to their Bible study where she could get support from the women.
Marciano is a lot like Paul. Before he turned his life over to Jesus Christ, he had that reputation that he did not take no crap from any other gang member. His guys were all top notch when it came to protecting themselves from other gangs. He has had to live with that reputation trying to convince people that he has changed his life to Jesus Christ. He even tried using an alias to hide his identity but was too well known in the Bronx. On the positive side, his gang’s reputation definitely has advantages when it came to talking about Jesus Christ. Other gang members knew about him and what he was capable of doing so they had respect for him. But Marciano would always tell whoever he would come in contact with that he came in peace. Like me, he would always have food or something to bless the gangs.
Another thing that Marciano does is neighborhood clean up. He would rent a truck when some areas in the neighborhood get messed up because of gang activity. He and his gang would go out and clean up those areas. The gang members would always come out and demand to know what he is doing. He would always tell them that he’s here to clean things up for them so they’d have a nice clean place to hang out. He would then share with them that Jesus Christ asked him to do this because he loves them so much. Many times the gangs would give their lives over to Jesus just because of this sacrifice.
When you serve God, he not only looks out for you but blesses you. For example: When the guy that he rented the truck found out what Marciano was doing, he said, “If I only knew that you were doing this, I would not have charge you anything for the trucks.”
The owner just stood there for a moment then quickly went into the office. He looked through Marciano’s past charges. After adding everything up, he wrote a check to Marciano reimbursing him for past rentals. He then asked him if he had a favorite truck that he liked. Marciano said, “Sonny likes the number 51. If you have that number I would take that one.”
The owner did not have that number in his fleet so Marciano asked for 12 representing the twelve disciples. The owner said, “Marciano, I don’t have a number 12 either. I do have a number 13.”
Marciano thought for a minute then said, “That will do. That would be twelve disciples + Jesus Christ. That makes 13. That will be a great truck.”
The owner then gave Marciano a key to the lot so he could pick the truck up anytime someone is not here. He promised him that it would be fueled up and ready to go when he got there. The owner completely trusted Marciano. He earned his trust by living for Jesus Christ.
Marciano is cleaning up the Bronx and he is also blessing families at King Soopers. He was told by God to look for people with lists. Those people will usually be looking at their list trying to decide if they can afford to get anything on the list and what they might have to leave out. Also, look for short lists. That is another sign that may show people who do not have the money to buy groceries. By using this information from God, he has 100% success rate of reaching people who are in need.
As Marciano hung up his cell phone talking with me, he said, “God gets the Glory and the Victory.
Marciano is still having fun with that phrase “just do it”. One Saturday his gang spread out in a King Soopers parking lot in the Bronx near the doors where people were coming in and out and they started rapping the phrase “Just do it in the name of Jesus Christ”. They kept repeating that phrase over and over again and they were actually getting quite a melody going. Soon there were people who were coming out of the store and they were rapping the phrase with them. One black couple asked them what they were doing that for. When Marciano started telling them about a man blessing families in Colorado and what they were doing here at the store, the couple said, “We don’t need any help but that couple over there needs help bad.”
Marciano said, “Well, I’m going to go over there and bless that couple.”
The couple then said, “Just cool your jets! We are coming with you. We want to bless that couple to.”
Marciano is changing lives for Jesus in his neighborhood. On another weekend, he and his men brought all the shopping carts into the store so they could clean the parking lot. If you ever go to stores in the poorer areas, they tend to be more rundown so Marciano had his work cut out for him. The manager came running out and said, “What are you trying to do?”
Marciano said, “We live in this neighborhood and we come to this store a lot. We are helping to make this store a showplace in our neighborhood. We are just showing our love to the people who come here plus this a great place to shop.”
The manager began to cry because he has never experienced this kind of love or dedication. He said, “If more people would be like you, this world would be a different place. You have already made a difference here at this store.”
Marciano said, “Really its not me. GOD gets the Glory and the Victory.”