One act of mercy turns man's life around

March 18, 2024

Johnathan Manchester admits he was not heading in a good direction.

In his early years, he went to an evangelical church with his parents. But after a family issue arose in his late teens, Manchester grew angry with God and became atheist for a while.

He started getting involved in some criminal activities.

His former neighbor, Zeb Burkhiser, said Manchester had changed.

“I remember him working at Walmart. He wouldn’t even look at you, wouldn’t acknowledge you,” Burkhiser said. “He was like a different person and not in a good way.”

It took one act of mercy to completely change Manchester’s life.

On Dec. 30, 2022, this married father found himself facing criminal charges.

“That was a big smack in the face,” he said. “It was a really big wake-up call.”

For his sentence, he was fined. 

He sees that fine as an act of mercy, and says it changed his life.

“I could have faced some jail time.”

It was a low point in his life. Though he had started going back to the evangelical church, it was more to keep up appearances. 

“I was not really concerned about the message. I just wanted to go back so I could present myself in a better light. I was still selfish about it.”

After receiving the fine, he began to do some research.

“I wanted to take my Christianity a little more seriously and see how I could go about doing this the right way instead of being selfish and going for appearances and presentation. I was looking for what this is supposed to be. That led me to the early Church and trying to figure out how the ones who lived right after Jesus established their church and traditions. Ultimately, that led me to the Catholic Church.”

About that time at the evangelical church, he ran into his old neighbor, Burkhiser, who is Catholic and was there to support his wife, who was evangelical then.

Manchester peppered Burkhiser with questions about the Catholic faith. 

One year ago, Manchester decided to take the plunge and go to a Catholic church for a fish fry.

He liked it.

He’d done so much research that when he met the pastor of St. Mary Parish in Shenandoah, he said Father Tom  Thakadipuram thought he was a cradle Catholic.

Comfortable with the fish fry dinners, Manchester was ready for the next step. He asked his friend Burkhiser to take him to Mass.

Burkhiser, who is a parishioner at St. Patrick Parish in Imogene, sometimes goes to Mass at St. Mary in Shenandoah. That’s where they went. 

“I told Johnathan: ‘Before we go in, here’s what’s going to go on. You can do everything we do, stand up, sit down, kneel, I will help with prayers printed in the missalette. The only thing you can’t receive is the Eucharist, but you can receive a blessing,’” Burkhiser said. “I think that really helped because it made Johnathan feel welcomed.

“He went to Mass the one time with us. Then he just started going on his own. Then he started taking his family. Then last summer, he came up to me and said he wanted to join the Catholic Church and would I be his RCIA sponsor. I said I’d be honored to.”

Manchester and his wife, Rekae, baptized their older son last October, and their newborn twin boys were baptized last Christmas. Manchester was baptized at the evangelical church. He will come into full communion with the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil, and he says his wife may start the RCIA process and come into full communion with the Catholic Church next year.

His faith journey has followed a winding road and, as he prepares for the Easter Vigil, he reflects on his path forward: “All I can do with the rest of my life is try to give back to God the same mercy God he gave me. I try to give that to everyone around me.”