In our Weakness, He is Strong
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:9
Joshua Poindexter grew up in a single-parent home and had a very broken relationship with his mother. He started getting into trouble more at school and joined a gang at the age of thirteen. He was then kicked out of his house to live with his grandparents. His father died in a bar fight when Joshua was a baby so he never had a relationship with his biological father. The men who came in and out of his life were never good representations of what a father should look like. These men were abusive both to his mother and to him and his sisters. This abuse shaped his understanding of love and what it means to be a father. He spoke in his interview,
“I built up this person inside of me that really wasn’t me. I wanted to be intimidating, the person that was in the center of attention. The only god I knew was me. So there was no place for any other god.”
Joshua first went to jail when he was eighteen which started a cycle of being in and out for the next three decades of his life. When he was arrested in December 2020, he decided he needed to do something different when he got out. After he was saved, he started praying for God to be the father figure in his life; someone who he’d never had before. God was working in his heart and freeing him from his old habits which he always reverted to, and, for the first time, he wanted to go through a rehab or transitional living house after release from prison. So, he started in Healing House which helps people transition back into society, and he has been there for almost three years now. The Lord has placed him in a position of leadership at Healing House, and he has six men that he works with. The Lord has used his life to encourage and help many other men despite his feelings of inadequacy.
“I never thought I would be in a leadership position because I had been that broken person for so long.”
Joshua sees this as an opportunity for God to continue growing him to maturity as he pours into these men’s lives. He has also been able to develop his leadership qualities in his job outside of Healing House, which they have encouraged him in and given him more responsibilities.
Joshua is the father of two sons, ages twenty-two and seventeen. He knew he needed to learn how to be a father to his sons because that was never demonstrated in his life while he was young. Someone he met at Healing House connected him to the Good Dads Kansas City program which he saw as yet another opportunity for God to work in him and shape his life. He described it by saying, “Another uncomfortable position to be vulnerable in front of a group of guys was amazing.” God was at work in his life: through the group discussions which allowed him to learn and be vulnerable, the training content, and establishing relationships with the facilitators and participants. One of the most valuable things learned through the Good Dads KC program he summed up perfectly in this statement,
“This is what I found out I needed to do to grow up. If I was gonna be anything in my sons’ lives, I needed to show them emotions and that was something I hid for so long in my addiction.”
Growing up he was not taught emotions, vulnerability, and true Biblical love only found in Christ. He was taught that manhood is elevating yourself at the cost of others and he had no foundation for genuine relationships built on trust and vulnerability. God broke down these false identities in his life and brought a community around him to encourage, support, and love him as he walks this path of fatherhood.
“Good Dads helped me get into a vulnerable position and to be open and encourage other men to do the same.”
Joshua was asked to speak at a Good Dad’s KC presentation which was something he never imagined himself doing, but he took it as another uncomfortable position that God wanted to put him in to grow and encourage others through what God has done in his life. God continues to use him and his testimony in so many ways to impact the lives of people around him, but he does not forget who is doing this great work in Him. “Every day I have to remind myself to humble myself… If God puts me in these positions, I feel like I have to do it to grow to be the man I need to be.”
Story by Havannah Foster
Please continue praying with us for the men going through the Good Dads Kansas City program, that God would work in their hearts as they hear the truth of His Word!
Thank you for all your prayers and support; we could not do this work without you!
- You can make a financial gift to Good Dads KC here: tinyurl.com/good-dads-kc-donate
- Learn about serving opportunities here: tinyurl.com/nwcvolunteer
- To join our prayer team email: care@newlifekc.org
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