#62 Gangster by Day. Hacker by Night. Then Jesus. - Mike Felch
Mike Felch’s search for identity, approval, and a place to belong drove him to a life of burglary, violence, and computer hacking. However, through all of those experiences, God was placing people in Mike’s life that would ultimately draw him to the only true Source of identity and belonging.
Note: This episode has a direct tie-in with our next podcast episode, #63 The Final Heist: From Criminal to Christ - Tyrone Summerall.
The following is a summary of the podcast interview above with Mike Felch. Many more details are included in the original podcast episode and we encourage you to listen.
Written by Jace Bower
Mike Felch’s early memories from childhood include feeling the rejection of kids at school. When his family moved outside Orlando, Florida, he was the new kid, and he looked and acted differently than his peers.
Mike was bullied at school but didn’t have a close relationship with his parents which enabled him to be open about his pain. Instead, he tried his best to earn the respect and love of other people through his own behaviors and the way he presented himself. He wanted to be “cool” but underneath this lay a desire for acceptance and being wanted and cared for by others.
The Skatepark
Amid rejection from peers and without a strong relationship with his parents to lean on or a faith in the Lord, Mike soon found another outlet and place where he could finally fit in and find the sense of belonging and identity he craved. Mike found this outlet for this hunger at the skatepark.
He grew quite good at roller skating and used this to his advantage in attracting friends. He also connected with his first girlfriend at the skatepark. He felt like he had finally found someone who wanted him and cared about him for who he was. But even this was short-lived and Mike and his girlfriend broke up.
Getting Involved With the Wrong Crowd
Unfortunately, Mike’s time at the skatepark also brought him into contact with a troublesome crowd. He started getting involved in a gang and their criminal activities. He was part of a car club that showcased cool cars. But Mike wasn’t just content to join the car club. He was soon involved in stealing car accessories like rims.
Meanwhile, he was getting involved in criminal activities of other sorts. He was a computer nerd and used his skills for hacking. By day he roamed the streets with his gang and by night he prowled the world of computer networks with his hacking associates. The hackers would compromise government computers and the FBI was soon after them.
Mike got raided by the FBI who seized his computers and confiscated his dad’s work computers. His daytime burglaries and gang activity also caught the notice of the local police. One night, Mike and his friends burglarized five cars. Within a few days, they were tracked down and arrested for all five burglaries.
The charges against Mike were severe and he was sent to jail. But jail is exactly where the first signs of hope would shine forth.
Meeting Junior and Tyrone
Mike found himself in an overcrowded jail, sleeping on a cot under another bunk. One inmate named Junior approached him and invited him to join a Bible study in another room called the “church room”.
Mike was hesitant. His life of crime on the streets had taught him not to trust anyone. He turned down Junior’s offer again and again.
Then one day, Mike got the opportunity to move out of the overcrowded room he was sleeping into the church room. He took the chance and set up his cot in the room. While Junior and another inmate, Tyrone, led the Bible study, Mike listened in. During this time, Mike heard about Jesus, who had only been a figure in stories that he had heard growing up.
God is the Judge
One day, the gospel got real for Mike. He was facing several serious charges for his criminal behavior and Tyrone challenged him: why was he so concerned about facing a judge with these charges but he wasn’t concerned about facing an eternal judge, God, for all the sin and rebellion in his life?
This challenge gripped Mike. He understood the great debt he owed for his sin and his inability to pay it. He saw how Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection had provided a way for him to find complete forgiveness for this enormous debt.
This conviction translated into devotion on the part of Mike. He and Tyrone and Junior would fast and pray fervently in jail and encourage each other in their faith journeys.
Backsliding
Mike had been happy to make Jesus his "Savior" while in jail, but he wasn't really interested in making him Lord. When Mike was released from jail, his devotion to God began to fade quickly. He immediately got back into crime with his old friends. It wasn’t long before he was on the run from police who were trying to track him down in connection with more burglaries.
Eventually, about 2 years later, Mike was arrested again and found himself back in jail. Tyrone found him in jail again and was clearly disappointed to see him. Tyrone encouraged Mike to stay faithful to God and to repent of his lifestyle During his stint in jail, Tyrone exhorted Mike and helped him recalibrate his faith.
Sometime after being released again, Mike got in an altercation with a former rival and landed in the hospital with a shattered elbow. He was surprised to hear that a visitor had come to see him. It was Tyrone, who had also been released and was now running a lawn care business.
Once again, Mike received the faithful wounds from his friend as Tyrone warned him about the road he was on and pointed him to true and genuine repentance.
Encountering God in Scripture
Mike still struggled with hanging around the wrong crowd and this got him involved in drug activity. But it was during this time that he began to earnestly read the word of God. He found a Bible in a donated desk in the house he shared with his roommates. The more he read, the less he wanted to be involved in the activities his friends were involved in.
Finally, Mike got so sick of the way he was living his life that he cried out to God. As he continued to read the Bible he was struck by the story of Paul’s conversion and the radical transformation the apostle experienced. He particularly noticed that Paul had gone into the desert after his conversion.
It just so happened that Mike’s parents had divorced and his mom had moved to Arizona. Mike decided that God may be calling him to move to the desert as well. So he moved to Arizona in search of a new life with God, away from the influences that had led him down a path of sin and misery.
New Community
God was faithful to Mike and surrounded him with a new community of dedicated Christ-followers in Arizona. He got plugged into a church with young people his age who were serious about their faith and they encouraged Mike in his own walk with the Lord.
After all these years, Mike finally found a place of acceptance at the foot of the Cross and in the body of Christ. He was accepted as he was and he didn’t need to play a certain character or put on a mask to be welcomed.
Back in his childhood, Mike had first found short-lived acceptance in his girlfriend at the skatepark, and in an amazing display of God’s sovereignty, he was reconnected with that same girl through Myspace. She had been experiencing her own faith journey and the two hit it off quickly. She moved out to Arizona and after seriously dating and pursuing pre-marital counseling, they got married.
The Lord’s Pursuit
Despite early struggles in their marriage, mostly brought by the baggage of Mike’s old lifestyle, Mike and his wife pressed through by the grace of God and the patience of Mike’s wife.
God’s pursuit of Mike is a recurring theme in his story. From the early days of computer hacking and gang activity that led him to encounter Junior and Tyrone in jail to the repeated exhortations from Tyrone to get back on the right path, God was relentless in his pursuit of Mike. While Mike had found himself running from the law, he couldn’t run from God.
The boy who had yearned deeply to be accepted had finally found home in the person of Jesus Christ who had redeemed him, paid his debt, and reversed his guilty verdict for a clean slate!
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Jace Bower is a writer with a passion for justice and biblical principles. He writes at jacebower.com.
