Rapper Mentors Drug Kingpins for Christ and Garners Support From Rochester Mayor With Man of God Ministry
A Rochester, New York rapper runs the street ministry M.O.G. (Man of God) where he mentors drug kingpins and has the full support from the city's mayor based on his contributions to the area.
D-Will (David Williams), a native of the city, aspires to be more than just a musician and has already broken serious ground for God in his community. He even won the mayoral volunteer service award for efforts with M.O.G.
"The whole purpose of M.O.G. [is to unite the body of Christ]. And if we're going to do so, we have to start with the men," said D-Will to The Christian Post. Us, as men, we've taken a back seat and have gotten lazy [in the church]. You see a lot of the women doing outreach. And with that I said [us men] have to take our place, and not as a sexist, but we need to take our place back with being the leaders in our communities and homes."
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M.O.G. runs several initiatives including H.O.O.D prayer, which stands for Hand Of Our Deliver, where the group travels into low income areas and prays for the surrounding community. With that, Will's group is able to reach out to all walks of life, including drug kingpins.
"We go to right where the drug dealers are," he said. You'll see them huddled with us praying. I mentor kingpins. Drug lords. They flock to me. It's weird. Everybody, especially when it comes to the hood, believes in God. That's a rule. They also believe they have a relationship with Him. In that situation, they do their own thing and justify [their lifestyle and believe Jesus loves them] and he does. But then they meet [me] and I keep it real with them."
D-Will tells them the truth about where they stand with God, and he says it causes conversion in their lives. One big time dealer turned his life over to Christ, and frequently seeks out Will for his spiritual guidance.
"It's so crazy to see somebody that has authority in the streets and he is able to just humble himself, come to me [even though he's older], call me his big brother and want to learn more about God," he said.
M.O.G.'s impact reaches as far as the city's government, as the mayor of Rochester, Lovely A. Warren, communicates with Will on a regular basis.
"The Mayor and I are tight. We text," he said. "She just barked on me the other day for not sending her a shirt. She spoke at my prayer walk last year and [critics] wanted to hang her for wearing a God Belongs in My City shirt."
Will mostly sees his music as a ministry tool, rather than a career.
"I know that my gift is a vehicle for the ministry," he said. "When it comes the music, a concert always reminds me of revival. A revival for movement. You come to a concert and you feel like you're engaged and have this fire, at that point we could do something with that."
He is currently signed to the independent label In My City Records and plans to release music later this year.
"We want to push the movement more than the music," he said. "Let the movement drag the music with it."
For more information on D-Will visit the In My City Records website.
