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Charity of the Month: LifePlan

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Learn more about how LifePlan helps people in southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana live a hope-filled life by offering parenting, relationship support,  and pregnancy care. In this episode, Wolf Financial Advisory Chief Executive Officer, Rob Wolf, sits down with Lifeplan Executive Director, Lyndon Azcuna, to discuss how LifePlan’s team of volunteers uses a gospel-centered approach to change hearts and lives in our community.  


Learn more about LifePlan:
https://www.lifeplan.org/

Learn more about Wolf Financial Advisory:
https://www.wolffinancialadvisory.com


Disclosure: Robert Wolf, James Koenig, Sara Wolf, and Michael Rock are investment advisor representatives of, and securities and advisory services are offered through, USA Financial Securities. Member FINRA/SIPC. Additionally, Amanda Opulskas and Adam Wallace are registered non-solicitors of USA Financial Securities, A registered investment advisor. 6020 E. Fulton St., Ada, MI 49301. Wolf Advisory Services and Wolf Financial Advisory are not affiliated with USA Financial Securities.

The opinions expressed herein are not meant to provide specific investment advice or serve as a prediction for future stock market performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Securities and advisory services are offered through USA Financial Securities., member FINRA/SIPC. A registered investment adviser. Wolf Financial Advisory, Lifeplan, and USA Financial Securities are not affiliated entities.



Life Plan Executive Shares Personal Journey

Speaker 1

The strategies and concepts discussed are for educational purposes only and do not represent specific investment, tax or estate planning advice. Investing carries an inherent element of risk and it is in everyone's best interest to consult a tax, legal or investment professional. The opinions expressed herein are not meant to provide specific investment advice or serve as a prediction for future stock market performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Securities and advisory services are offered through USA Financial Securities member FINRA, sipc, a registered investment advisor, wolf Financial Advisory, lifeplan and USA Financial Securities are not affiliated entities.

Speaker 2

Wolf Financial Advisory. When it's important to you, it's important to us, Wolf Financial.

Speaker 1

Advisory. This is the Wolf Financial Podcast. Here is your host, Rob Wolf.

Speaker 2

Good day everyone. This is Rob Wolf with the Wolf Financial Podcast, and today it's my honor to have Lyndon Ascuna, with the Executive Director of Life Plan, joining us today. Lyndon, welcome to the show.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Rob. Thank you for opening this opportunity for Life Plan. I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 2

Absolutely so, lyndon. You have quite a unique story yourself as far as where you came from, where you lived, what brought you to Life Plan, so why don't you share with us a little bit about what your life story?

Speaker 3

looks like. How far do you want me to go back, Rob? Let's go back to the day, mom and dad had a little too much to drink. No, I'm just kidding. Well, I'm a Filipino. I was born in the Philippines, really a small province in the Philippines called Pagadian City, and I'm the youngest of six. Interestingly, within 11 years span, five of my brothers and sisters born and 11 years later I followed. Interestingly, so oops, kind of thing.

Speaker 2

So there was a little whining involved? Yeah, probably there was.

Speaker 3

Anyway, I was born in the Philippines, Interestingly at the age of five probably there was. Anyway, I was born in the Philippines. Interestingly, at the age of five my father died, so I didn't have a father figure growing up and as you see my life evolve you'll see how that impacted me and so forth. My brothers and sisters came to America early. You know, being in the Philippines was easier, much easier back then, compared to the immigration laws now. But anyway, at the age of six my mom and I came to America and elementary high school, I grew up in America Chicago, miami, florida and we were a Protestant family, but not a Christian family necessarily. We were churchgoers. At the age of 15, my mom died too but, being in an Asian family, my siblings took care of me. They were a lot older so they took care of me. And at the age of 15, again, my mom died. But the church that followed up my family in the Philippines, that was a Baptist church and that was the church that followed up my sister in the Philippines, that was a Baptist church and that was the church that followed up my sister after the wake. And that's when my family became a Christian, because when we became a Christian family, started going to church. But I was here in America, we were still churchgoers and after college, my you know, being an Asian, my family always said get a good education and then, when you get a good education, you get a good job and you'll be happy. If you want to be happy, get a good education, make money. So I bought into that.

Speaker 3

I went to the Philippines for my undergrad, med school and then. But I stayed with my sister who was a Christian, and I became a Christian after I went to camp and so I grew in the Lord. I felt God. A year later I felt God's calling to the ministry. If any man wished to come after me, let him deny himself. Pick up his cross daily, follow me, luke 9, 27. And then I felt God's calling. So I went to the ministry. I went to a Bible school in the Philippines and if I didn't come back for grad school I would be a pastor there honestly. So grew in the Lord. After graduating I felt God's calling to study further.

Speaker 3

I applied to grad schools in America and Wheaton Grad School followed up the most. I went there and, most important thing, I met my wife there. We've been married for 32 years and we have six kids to prove it, ages 32 to 15. My youngest is 15. Four girls, then two boys at the end and then now we have four grandchildren. But I want to tell you something. Remember a lot of brokenness. Father died when I was five. Mother died when I was 15.

Speaker 3

And you know Asians and Filipinos and my family. You know we didn't know how to handle problems and I thought this was a characteristic of my family until I realized it's everybody's characteristic. We used to hide things under the carpet. You know, didn't deal with things, didn't deal with my father's death.

Speaker 3

But seven years into my marriage, I just had an early kind of midlife crisis and you know the tendency is you blame the closest person, your wife, and so I walked out of my marriage for three months. I walked out of my marriage for three months Now take note, this was undergrad Bible, grad school Bible, lots of ministry experience Walked out of my marriage. I didn't know how to be married, I didn't know how to deal with issues, and you think the grass is greener on the other side and you still have to mow it. I always say, but three months into my walking away and I had two kids at that time already, I already had two kids, seven years of my marriage I don't know if you know, there's that seven-year itch, they say and so the Holy Spirit got a hold of me and I repented and I came back. But, interesting, when I came back that was the fascinating thing I said to myself what broke in me. There's something broken in me Because I had all this ministry experience Bible, a lot of head knowledge and I said what broke in me and I started addressing myself.

Speaker 3

I started addressing the brokenness in me and I knew there were a lot of things that were broken. I didn't know how to deal with things, I didn't have good examples of marriage, but there was just a lot of broken. And then you know, honestly, rob, this was the turning point. I started got rid of media, got rid of music that were not Christian, and I read the book of Romans, one verse at a time for the next three and a half years, and I really dissected. I understood every verse and everything, and every verse, every phrase, every meaning, and I took. It took me three and a half years and during that three and a half years I shut ministry off. I didn't. I went to a secular work and started over again and kind of my life went home instead of being distracted and I could tell you that was the turning point of my life.

Speaker 2

So why Romans?

Speaker 3

Because I knew it was the greatest book in the Bible, it's the pinnacle of Paul's writing and I knew, and that's what made me really deep in my walk with God I shut everything off for a year, started dealing with my anger issues, my brokenness inside of me, and I started figuring that out and, interestingly, just fast forward, what I do with men. I am working on an anti-pornography program curriculum that's Christ-centered, that helps men really address their brokenness, and I work with men who have brokenness and you know what Self-awareness, not understanding how the past has impacted their present. In other words, we buy into a lot of the lies of the past or what we grew up with, or the emptiness that was broken there. So, anyway, I'll say I'll talk about that later. So that's my life. My wife and I've been married now for 32 years, like I said, six children, four grandchildren. Obviously it's not perfect, but we know how to deal with it now and I know how to deal with it.

Speaker 2

And so all these past life experiences have prepared you for your present position Executive Director at Life Plan.

Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

So how have you brought those life experiences into Life Plan, life Plan's overall mission? Yes, yes. And what is it that you all are trying to do there?

Life Plan Executive's Transformation and Impact

Speaker 3

Yes, how about if I even give you a preliminary before that? How about if I even give you a preliminary before that? Because of that brokenness, of my father's absence, I've been working for 32 years in inner city ministry. I went to a Christian community center in Chicago working with the poverty. In fact, my first job out of grad school was a big buddy program for an inner city kid. Then I went to Awana. I was in Awana for Awana Clubs International biggest children's ministry. I was there for 12 years. Eight of the 12 years I did prison work.

Speaker 3

I was in Angola prison the bloodiest prison in this country in the 60s, and I worked there and I established an event for children to be reconciled with their father and I created a fathering program called Malachi Dads that's still running today. After I left because of my brokenness of an absent father and coming home, being a father to my children, actually, that night that I repented, I went home. I was out of the house for three months. I went home and I saw my girl sleeping and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said this is the same pain you didn't want your children to experience that I experienced with having an absent father. Children to experience that I experienced with having an absent father. So that was the pillar or the straw that broke the cabinet back for me to come home and that I taught fathers in prison how to be a godly father, rescuing their children from the cycle of prison, recycle of prison coming back to prison or kids going to prison. Anyway, I was doing that.

Speaker 3

Then, coming to this area, life Plan the reason I started in Life Plan my in-laws lived here because I lost both of them. I married into a great family. We used to be in Chicago. Then we visited them in Granger like 10 times a year all the holidays and we decided to move here to take care of them as they get older. And within two years after moving here, they both passed away and we decided are we going to stay? And that's where I got connected to Life Plan. So I've been in Life Plan for 10 years as the executive director. Do you want me to continue?

Speaker 2

Absolutely. I love this. I don't have to do any work here. This is fantastic.

Speaker 3

So Life Plan again. I've been there for 10 years. I would say first thing that I changed in Life Plan was the mission statement. So how do you know an organization by its mission statement and the mission statement of Life Plan. We exist now. We exist to spread the gospel by helping people choose life and live a hope-filled life. Let me unpack that. I made sure the centerpiece was the first five words. We exist to spread the gospel.

Speaker 3

I believe in being in my brokenness, seeing the world. The heart of all our issues is the heart away from God and we need to restore that. And God has said the power of the gospel is the solution. So I believe that in my own heart and I believe that in prison ministry and I believe it in applying it here in the work with Life Plan. So we exist to spread the gospel by helping people choose life. Historically, in 1985 we were established as a response to an abortion clinic. That's what life was called at that time Pregnancy Care Center of Niles. So I kept that history which, which helped people choose life. And then the last phrase, having a hope-filled life, meaning what we do is we help people choose life, save babies and point people to Jesus, that's our bottom line. I can unpack that a little bit more, but yeah that's life planned.

Speaker 2

You know, what I love about you sharing your testimony just on a side here is the fact that I think some of the hits that people get going to church, or some people have negative views of Christians, is because at times people feel like they hold themselves holier than thou, right as far as I'm better than you, and so forth. And having people like yourself, lyndon, that share your story and some of the fallen and the brokenness, and being willing to share that just goes to show that church is full of sinners.

Speaker 3

Absolutely.

Speaker 2

It's a hospital, it's a hospital for sinners and we can't hold ourselves out as being better. Everyone's got brokenness in their lives and that's why we need each other and that's why we need the gospel and the saving grace that that message offers. So I appreciate you sharing and being open about that, because that's what life's about is caring and sharing and bringing hope to people, and that's exactly what Life Plan does. So can you share with me a couple examples of some stories of impact that Life Plan has and where you've seen personally?

Empowering Communities Through Gospel-Centered Ministry

Speaker 3

Yeah, we have a lot of stories about people coming in. People come to us with felt needs, primarily in the area of relationship, caring for family, children, infant. Some of the services I'm going to give you a story in a second. Some of the services we offer we offer free pregnancy tests, free ultrasound. We have peer-to-peer counseling. We walk with people in their journey.

Speaker 3

I think our society since the 60s has been broken and families are fragmented and people need a community that they belong to. Somebody will walk hand in hand through their issues. So we address felt needs and we love on people. So we address felt needs and we love on people. Our centers have been known as a place of peace, harmony and just vulnerability and openness and compassion. So we walk with people and then we help them through their journey, whatever it is broken relationship, child caring, issue with their children and then hopefully through that we earn an opportunity to bring the gospel in, because that's the ultimate brokenness in their lives. We are a gospel-centered ministry. We equip our volunteers on what is the gospel. They're generally compassion-oriented people. Most of the people that volunteer with us have experiences of brokenness also, so they can better minister. They want to serve in this area.

Speaker 3

Anyway, here's a great story about a client, and then I'll piggyback on the strategies behind how this person has experienced the whole gamut of our ministry. Okay, let me share this. This is a story of a client Sometime within the last eight months. Okay, when I first started going to Life Plan, I had no idea how much I would grow to love coming every week. It started with watching videos and learning about my soon-to-come son and received ultrasound to see him. I would get diapers and clothing every time I come in, which helped out so much on the expenses of diapers. After my son made his appearance, I was welcomed back to Life Plan with even a greater love from everyone from my son and I to Life Plan, with even a greater love from everyone, from my son and I. I also appreciate all of the different video classes that I have to choose from. I have watched so many educational videos about pregnancy, newborn. My husband also came in to watch the father's video course and I have done some of their Bible study courses. The past years of attending classes at LifeLive have meant so much to me the staff and the educational courses, the materials they provided for the babies and mothers, the nurses and the environment. I look forward to coming every week. I also appreciate receiving prayer for my week ahead of ahead every time I come in. I am so thankful for Life Plan in my life.

Speaker 3

Interestingly, this person has not only benefited from the service and her husband. She has become a Christian and is connected to one of our local churches that we partner with. So I want to give you our five-prong strategy. Our five-pronged strategy is community relations. We're all about being in the community, connecting to churches, connecting to business. You know, connecting with the community because it's all about relationship. People know you by the relationship. They trust you because of the relationship. So the more we're out there, through social media, through connecting like this, through offering our service, connecting the resources in the community to the people in need in the community. So we're all about community relationship. Number two we're about prevention.

Speaker 3

We believe being in a prison ministry. I used to say prison ministry starts in the high chair. That was one of my quotes when I was in prison. You have to start young. When I was in prison, you have to start young. I realized, you know, when the ladies started coming in with their husband I said, okay, we have to start back a little bit. You're in good strategy and you're good in programming, you realize you have to do some prevention work because here's a brokenness. You know this. There's a brokenness, it must be somebody's not doing their budget right, so anyway. So, anyway, we have to do some prevention work.

Speaker 3

So some of the prevention work we do, we started a men's ministry. We're in schools. We're in five to seven different schools in our area and wherever we have a location, we start connecting with the schools there. We offer a SRA sexual risk avoidance training. We have a specialist that go into the school and I want you to know all the Michigan and Indiana schools across the country and even a lot of different things. They require their students to get sex education, health classes when we were young, right. So that's a huge need. That's a huge need. That's a huge opportunity. This is one of those areas that just bursting to the steam. We just okay. So we're in schools and we started also doing because we only did ultrasound pregnancy tests, but we started offering now STI testing and treatment so people can come at a rough week, they can come and see if they have any of the diseases. And why is that? Why did we open that Because it's an opportunity for more conversation for the gospel. Okay, so we started doing prevention work. Okay Then. So community relation, prevention services Again, the typical services in all three of our sites, most pregnancy care centers across the country, free ultrasound, free pregnancy material goods, peer-to-peer counseling. We do that.

Speaker 3

Then we do church integration because we believe we are not the church. The church is God's instrument to change the world. So church integration is we work with churches to get volunteers, because our work is the work of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. So we go to churches. Do you have people that can volunteer with us, for us and doing the work of the ministry? And not only that, just like this story of this girl she became a Christian. Now she's connected to a local church, because after they become a Christian in our ministry, we connect them to local churches. Hey, what kind of church would you be comfortable with? Hey, you go to this. Here's somebody ready to receive you because we are not the end.

Speaker 3

Long-term discipleship, I believe, belongs in the local church and that's the partnership we have with the local church. Last but not least, the five-pronged story community relationship, prevention service, church integration and, last but not least, god has given us the strength to organize and really systematize, and so we have duplication. In 1985, it was in Niles. In 2019, we started one in Benton Harbor, very close to here, like, I think, 10 minutes from here, and then last year we started one in South Bend and then, god willing, as the Lord provides, every four to five years we're going to start a new one. We're thinking about Michigan City, thinking about Dwoajak I would love Gary Indiana kind of thing. So that's the strategies we have.

Speaker 2

So what is the biggest needs that Life Plan has as an organization right now? Is it financial resources, volunteerism? What is it that is holding you back from being able to do this expansion the way you want it?

Speaker 3

So I say to my staff what would we spend if we had a million bucks given to us? So they love that. It's fun thinking about that. Not in ranked order, but I would say the needs that we have. And this is immediate right now, because some of my we know we have a lot of snowbirds. We have a lot of snowbirds. A lot of people come to us after their kids have graduated so they have more time now. So that's good, it's great. So sometimes, because of snowbird during the season right now, we lose some volunteers and we need some volunteers in all our three sites Because the more volunteers we have, the more times that we can open up. So right now I'm trying to get the number. I think we are 60, 70 percent capacity. We could do more. We could do more. So volunteer needs is it's ongoing Financially sure? You know, if the Lord gives us financial provision, what would I invest on? Well, you can always every nonprofit. The last thing they spend their money on is training and marketing, obviously, because you know they got to do program first. So training and marketing I would love to do more marketing stuff, billboards, things like that. Update all our marketing pieces, and then the prevention stuff. This is one of my favorite things. This is one of my favorite things.

Speaker 3

We are about to launch two children's books, two anti-pornography children's books. Pornography is a huge area of brokenness we feel in our ministry, meaning in the ministry that we serve, the area God has called us into. Brokenness is broken. Sexuality Pornography is one of them. I'm building an anti-pornography men's program, but we want to build anti-pornography children's book for parents to help their children be aware of pornography. If you go to Amazon right now, there's only one and it's not Christian. We have one and we already wrote it. We have the guy from I don't know if you've heard of Focus on the Family, odyssey. The graphic artist of Odyssey has committed to doing it for us. We're just waiting for the money. David Miles is his name, so he's going to do the graphic and then this would be a product that we would have on Amazon that parents Christian parents can buy, and it can help them in a tactful way to share with their children the danger of pornography and what you do if you get exposed to that.

Speaker 2

Yeah, because you were sharing with me some pretty significant stats regarding the use of pornography. Oh my, goodness so why don't you share with the audience what that looks like I?

Speaker 3

have so many. Let me tell yeah, the one I shared. I recalled that in 2013, there were 1.4 million pornographic sites. That's 2013. That's 12 years ago and today they don't even know because it has evolved so much but the number one pornographic site in 2019, it was the biggest one, but it's only one out of the millions had an equivalent viewing of 665,000 years. We don't even have things to comprehend that. 665,000 years of viewing in one year. One pornographic site.

Speaker 3

The average age of kids getting exposed to pornography the average is eight, the number one culprit. 80% of pornography comes average is eight. The number one culprit. 80% of pornography comes from right here. Pornography earns more money than Major League Baseball, major League Football, major League Hockey combine. In a year, pornography makes more income than that. So it's huge. It is destroying our families, destroying our men, destroying our marriages, and we have to protect our children and we have to protect our children. There's a video online on YouTube that I don't recall the name right now, but it's a Christian, a non-Christian video, and it talks about the danger of pornography to children, because children at the age of zero to 15, 16 don't have the mental capacity to push back against it. They don't. They don't have the mental capacity. So when they get exposed at a young age, it's very dangerous for them. They get hooked on it, and that's what we want to prevent.

Speaker 3

Because children are naturally curious, yes, yes, and they're going to want to see what this is all about yes, yes, are naturally curious, yes, yes, and they're going to want to see what what this is all about.

Speaker 2

Yes and so, and when you and when they're seeing that and they're seeing it, they're they're seeing sexuality in a much different light than what it was created to be one of my.

Speaker 3

I do a talk among teenagers and I tell, I tell the boys um, uh, you don't want to get into pornography because it's like this.

Speaker 3

It's like this Imagine if you were junior high, early high school, and I said to you okay, in six years you're going to be in a competition. Okay, we're going to prepare for that competition. It's going to be a big tournament, okay. So the next six years we're going to meet three to four times a week, meet and practice for two to four hours and we practice, practice, practice for the next six years. Then the sixth year, we come to the tournament and we practice football, practice football, it's a football tournament. And then the sixth years, we come to the tournament and it's a football tournament. And then the six years, we come to the tournament and it's a golf tournament. The point there if we teach our boys that this is what sex is and then they get married and their marriage bed, they will start off with the wrong image of what sex is and they're already starting way back in what their healthy relationship should be and it'll mess them up and this is killing our country. So that's the brokenness that we want to address.

Speaker 2

So if somebody wants to get involved with Life Plan, what is the best way that they should go about doing so?

Speaker 3

Yes, very simple Info at lifeplanorg. You just communicate that in an email. Info at lifeplanorg If you want to volunteer, send us an email. Somebody will respond to you within 24 hours because it's a need. If you want to give, through that, they can also go to lifeplanorg, our website. There's a page for giving. We are a ministry that's being provided by the Lord through people and through churches and through businesses.

Speaker 2

So it sounds like to me, the greatest need is people, sure, the people, the human resources that will allow you to connect with these vulnerable people, these broken people that are coming in. Whether it may be it's a young lady that's pregnant and has questions and doesn't know what to do, or a young man struggling. You guys are much more broad than just. We're providing services to help those who are pregnant and choose life. You are so much more.

Speaker 3

We are so much more. I say that sometimes we're a glorified pregnancy care center.

Speaker 2

There you go. Absolutely. The other way people could find out information about you is just visiting wolffinancialadvisorycom. Go to our resource page. You are highlighted Life Plans, highlighted as one of our Charity of the Month recipients. We have a full page on you and also a link right back to your website as well, along with many of the other charities in our local community. So, lyndon, I just want to thank you for sharing in your heart, for wanting to serve our community and the brokenness and really bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to those people, because it's only once people realize that they're broken that they can start rebuilding. So thank you for your service and God bless. This is Rob Wolf with the Wolf Financial Podcast. We look forward to having you folks join us on our next episode.

Speaker 1

Thank you for listening to the Wolf Financial Podcast. For additional information about our firm, please visit our website at wolffinancialadvisorycom. The strategies and concepts discussed are for educational purposes only and do not represent specific investment, tax or estate planning advice. Investing carries an inherent element of risk and it is in everyone's best interest to consult a tax, legal or investment professional. The opinions expressed herein are not meant to provide specific investment advice or serve as a prediction for future stock market performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Securities and advisory services are offered through USA Financial Securities member, finra SIPC, a registered investment advisor. Wolf Financial Advisory, lifeplan and USA Financial Securities are not affiliated entities.

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Rob Wolf

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