MMA Fighter to Missionary: How God Led One Man Away From Drugs and to the Congo

Justin Wren turned from a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol to Christ — and God gave him a vision to help others.

By Nancy Flory Published on January 18, 2017

The Mixed Martial Arts were slammed by Meryl Streep in her harangue given at the Golden Globes. Much like acting, MMA fighting takes skill and practice — and if a fighter performs well, his career can skyrocket, leaving fans clamoring for autographs and pictures.

But fighting can also lead to a life of pain and addictions. Here’s the story of a man who experienced exactly that.

From Pain to Drug Abuse

During a wrestling match preparing for the Olympics, Justin Wren sustained an injury that required surgery, but his insurance didn’t want to pay. He took painkillers, starting a pattern of drug abuse. He tells the story in the latest issue of Christianity Today, and was also the subject of a long profile in a 2013 issue in Sports Illustrated.

When a friend was injured, Justin took his spot in an MMA fight — and performed very well. It was after that first win, said Justin, that he caught the fighting bug. But the fighting lifestyle sucked him in with partying, drugs, screaming fans and tougher addictions. “Before long, I’d added cocaine and alcohol to my already out-of-control narcotics addiction,” he explained.

Still performing well at MMA fighting, Justin made it onto Spike’s reality series The Ultimate Fighter, which ultimately led to an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) contract. Even at that level, Justin said he’s missing memories of weeks because of drug binges.

“I hadn’t reached the top of the top but I kept thinking, ‘Is this it?’” Justin told Sports Illustrated. “I looked around at my teammates, some of them world champions, cheating on their wives and battling some of the same drug additions and knew they were asking the same question: Is this it?”

The lifestyle of addiction caught up with him, though, and the drug abuse led to Justin being kicked off the fight team.

Hitting Rock Bottom

At this point he hit “rock bottom.” Most of his friends abandoned him — but not one named Jeff. Jeff called him several times per day, invited him to a Christian men’s retreat and promised to train with him, provided Justin attend the retreat’s afternoon sessions.

After just a few days at the retreat, hearing the men talk about real struggles but also real peace, Justin knew he wanted what they had. He prayed:

God, I’m a drunk and a drug addict. I’m a liar and a cheater. I’m many things I’ve wanted to be, and I’m everything I never wanted to be. God, I’ve hurt everybody. I don’t want to hurt anybody anymore. I don’t want to hurt. I desperately need you in my life.

“As I prayed, I felt God lift me up,” Justin said. “It felt like something finally released me. I was free. All the emotional chains of depression, all the bondage, just broke and fell away. At the same time, I felt God’s arms envelop me, the way a father bear-hugs his sons.”

Justin said changes happened immediately and rapidly. He threw his drugs in the campfire and hasn’t looked back since. “God took the desire away from me, and I’ve never wanted to return to the life I had before.”

A Different Dream

After Justin became a Christian, his dreams changed. He stopped fighting with the MMA because he felt the temptation to slip back into his old lifestyle was too great. In addition to volunteering at local ministries and prisons, he wanted to serve God in any way he could. He prayed: “God, I’m yours. Is there anything you want me to do? I desire to do your will, not mine.”

That’s when Justin had a vision of walking through a jungle, seeing people living in huts and seeing images of malnourished and very ill children and old men. Justin turned to Isaiah 58:6-12, crying uncontrollably onto the pages of his Bible.

Justin spoke with his mentor, Caleb, who not long after that brought him to the Congo through his missions ministry called Unusual Soldiers. A series of events led him to live with the Mbuti tribe for a year, sleeping in a twig-and-leaf hut, eating their food, sharing their illnesses and learning about their culture.

The conditions were worse than what he saw in his vision. Mbuti Pygmy tribes were starving, suffered persecution and many were enslaved, according to Justin. The Pygmies, called “animals” by other tribes, are refused education and medical care. Justin once held a baby with a treatable condition as it died because the doctor said he wouldn’t waste medicine on a “Pygmy animal.” Justin purchased a casket and buried the child.

“That kind of stuff sticks with you,” said Justin. “That was the moment where I realized I had to do something, that there was no turning back … I thought, ‘If not me, who?'” Justin tells the story in the video below.

Justin Eféosa

As he lived with them and suffered illness with them, the Pygmies learned to trust and love Justin. They named him “Eféosa,” meaning “The Man Who Loves Us.”

Justin worked with the Congo-based Shalom University through a program to free 60 Pygmy slaves, but he didn’t stop there. “I knew for the Pygmies to be free they needed to own their own land, have access to clean water, and develop sustainable agriculture — all for the first time,” said Justin. “I founded the Fight for the Forgotten initiative to work to provide those things to them. With these three simple things, we can begin to break the chain of poverty, suffering, and even modern day slavery.”

“The Pygmies call themselves ‘The Forgotten People,”’ Justin said. “One of my life’s missions is to fight for the forgotten and let them know they’re loved.”

He knew he needed to help the tribe and knew how he could get it done.

Five years later, he’s fighting with the MMA again; but this time it’s for a good cause. He’s raising money for Fight for the Forgotten — and since 2011, his organization has helped provide almost 3,000 acres of land and 25 water wells to the Pygmies.

“The drive to fight is still there,” said Justin, “but I’m no longer fighting my inner demons. I’m fighting to fulfill God’s call on my life.”

Justin Wren has written Fight for the Forgotten: How a Mixed Martial Artist Stopped Fighting for Himself and Started Fighting for Others (Howard Books).

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