By Abigail Aguilar –
Kap Chatfield was selling his “Give Tanks” tank tops on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras when he ran across the Baptist lady who ruined his good vibes.
“It was an avalanche of debauchery: drunk people, people doing drugs, people throwing up on the sidewalk,” Kap says on his YouTube channel. “All of a sudden I see the giant wooden cross in the middle of the road. It was a glaring juxtaposition. These fire-breathing Baptists were the biggest buzzkill.”
He approached one of the Christian ladies. “Who do you think you are?” he challenged her. “Are you saying I’m not a good person? I’m running this (T-shirt) company and we’re giving money to kids in Nicaragua.”
“You’re not doing that for God’s glory,” the lady responded. “You’re doing that for your own glory.”
Try as he might, he couldn’t get her words out of his mind, and it ruined his “good vibes” – until Kap Chatfield, began a journey to discover the truth.
Kap grew up in Maryland and D.C. in a stable home. His parents took him to an Episcopalian church and then later a Methodist congregation.
As he grew up, he became curious about Christianity and asked the pastor if he should read the entire Bible. He expected to be encouraged to do it.
“I don’t know if i would do that if I were you,” the pastor told him.
The pastor’s response dampened his hunger for God. In middle school Kap questioned if he believed. By high school, he “hated” Christians and was an avowed atheist.
He studied film at the University of Miami and launched a company selling tank tops that read “Give Tanks,” an attempt to spread gratitude. He was a “good vibes” kind of guy.
Kap hawked the tanks on the street, and they sold well. He and a buddy took them to Mardi Gras in New Orleans where he crossed paths with Sister Buzzkill. He couldn’t get back into the “good vibes” after talking to her.
He wanted answers. Back home, he confronted his only Christian friend. The guy was decent and didn’t unload judgment on Kap. But when Kap asked about this lady’s “out there” approach, his Christian friend made an unexpected response:
“Do you think everyone is going to make it to Heaven when they die?”
Kap was unsettled, but he responded that he thought yes, they would make it to Heaven.
His friend took a breath and then stated with sober conviction: “Kap, not everyone is going to make it to Heaven. In fact, most people won’t.”
“I was really moved,” he adds. “I could tell this dude really believed it and was concerned about me. To be honest, I became a little concerned about me.”
Kap’s friend encouraged him to read the Bible and explained the gospel. “It’s not a religious rule book,” he explained. “It’s an epic love story spanning the course of 1,500 years. God was on rescue mission to rescue his bride from the dragon who kept us under the curse of sin.”
Kap attended church but didn’t accept Jesus the first time: “Heck no,” he turned down the opportunity to say a sinner’s prayer. “But I’ll let you know if I ever do.”
The next day in his car on the way to the gym he stopped at a red light, Kap was confronted by the still small voice of the Lord:
Give it up. You’ve been the director of your life. There’s only room on the set of your life for one director. You’re not him. It’s time for you to get out of the director’s chair.
A spirit of repentance fell on him, and Kap began to weep and confess his sins. “I was bawling like a baby,” he says. He drove to the parking lot and continued to pray and confess.
“The backpack of shame and guilt that I wore my entire life fell off of me,” he says. “I felt peace for the first time – the peace I was looking for with good works, with drugs, with girls.”
Now Kap is a pastor and entrepreneur based in Omaha, Nebraska. His “church” is online. He is married to Joy and they have four children.
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
About the writer of this article: Abby Aguilar lives in Central Los Angeles and studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy.
