Road To Redemption
Road To Redemption
Billy Milan's Road to Redemption
Billy Milan's journey from the streets of New York to the security team at Destiny Worship Center is a testament to God's relentless pursuit of those who seem furthest from His reach.
Growing up as the child of divorce in NYC, Billy found himself joining the NYPD at just 20 years old. Though married to Maria, a woman of deep faith, Billy admits he spent the first decade of their marriage living a double life – saying the right prayers to please his reverend father-in-law while drowning in excessive drinking and creating what he calls "a beautiful house on the outside, broken on the inside."
The turning point came in 2003 when, after years of his wife's faithful prayers, God radically transformed Billy's heart. "He left the 99 for me," Billy shares, describing how his life changed so dramatically that even his fellow officers took notice. By his retirement in 2013, one colleague who had never believed in God admitted, "What I've seen God do in your life, I now know there's a God."
What Billy calls their "30-day miracle" – a vacation to Destin that turned into purchasing a home – eventually led to permanent relocation and finding their spiritual family at Destiny Worship Center. Now overseeing security for the church and its school, Billy speaks candidly about maintaining faith amid tragedy, particularly reflecting on the recent death of Deputy Will May.
Most powerfully, Billy testifies to breaking generational curses: "There was divorce in my family... that was a generational curse. And guess what? No more." His story reminds us that no marriage is beyond restoration when surrendered to God. As Billy says, "You've got to work at it... you need to be selfless."
Ready to experience your own redemption story? Begin by reading God's Word daily, joining a Christ-centered church community, and connecting with a small group who can walk alongside you through life's valleys and mountaintops.
For more information contact us at
rtrdestiny@gmail.com
Welcome to Road to Redemption, a show sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Road to Redemption. I'm John Martin, your host, and we've got an exciting show today. So fun, I'm so excited. My good friend Billy Milan is here. How are you, Billy?
Speaker 3:I'm doing well. Thank you, John. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:We've gotten to be friends. I see you at the school and you're so great. I get to see you every day doing a great job of keeping our kids safe here at Gateway Academy. So thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you and I just have loved getting to know you and really honored that you mentioned to me a while ago. You're like John. Hey, I think I'd like to share my story and I know people are really going to be blessed. So start off and just give us a little background on you, where you grew up.
Speaker 3:So start off and just give us a little background on you, where you grew up. Well, john, like I said, thank you for having me, and this is really, when we say my story, really it's God's story, right, what God has done in my life throughout the years. But I grew up in New York City. I grew up in new york city. Um, I grew up, uh, with my mom, um, only child. Folks were divorced at a young age, six years old.
Speaker 3:Um grew up in a catholic church, basically raised by the nuns, because mom was always working, trying to make ends meet. Um, we were just barely making it right, just trying to make it. But there was always love in the house, right, but because of the divorce, obviously there was brokenness as well. But I grew up in Catholicism and then I joined the police department in 1991 at 20 years old, and I'm grateful for the career that I had within the New York City Police Department. I spent 22 years there doing that. But during that time I got married to my wife, maria, and we had two beautiful children that are now today adult children. And that's a little bit about myself in a nutshell.
Speaker 2:I know you told me this before, but I forget. How did y'all end up in the Destin Florida area from New York City?
Speaker 3:That's interesting in itself, right. So my wife had taken a job in Texas and so she was living in Texas. I was still in New York, kind of waiting to retire, and in 2014, I retired in 2013. In 14, we decided to come to the Destin area to celebrate my retirement and we always wanted to celebrate the kids and how well they did in school and things of that nature. So we wound up down here August of 2014. And while we were down here enjoying this beautiful part of the country, my wife was online looking for a vacation rental, if you will and 30 days later we closed on a home and we call it our 30-day miracle. And in owning that home, we obviously had to come down to care for it. So we started coming down two, three times a year, and then it wound up four or five times a year. In any case, we needed a place to worship when we were here. So Maria found Destiny Worship Center and we would come on Saturday evenings for the 5 pm service every time we were in town.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Yeah, let's talk just a little bit about that. When you started coming to Destiny, what was your relationship like with the Lord and how did it progress?
Speaker 3:Well, I had already had a relationship with the Lord right, because I got saved back in 2003. Now, mind you, I got married in 1993 and I got saved in 03, right, so that goes to show you that about 10 years there I wasn't walking with the Lord, you know. But when we came to Destiny, we had already been walking with the Lord, marie and I, and we were pretty established, if you will, in our walk and we had come from a very strong ministry in New York, long Island, new York, and we served there faithfully for many years. But when we came here, there was just something different, right, it was something different about Destiny. There was just an automatic peace. And it's interesting because every time we'd come back into town and I pull into the parking lot, maria would look at me and say there's a piece, there's a piece about you, and I said I just feel like we're home Every single time. The only part that I would feel a little grieved, if you will, was when I would leave, because I wanted to be a part of Team Destiny. I wanted to go through growth track and I wanted to join a small group, but we couldn't because we obviously were going back home to Houston at the time, but I was always looking forward to that day and that day came to fruition in June of 2022. We were blessed enough to move down here full time and talk to us a little bit about what's God been doing in y'all's life since you've gotten plugged into the church and boy, um, I'll tell you. I mean, it's, it's, the lord's hand's been all over it.
Speaker 3:Um, we got here in june of 2022 and I was, um, fortunate enough to get hired on in august by the local walton county sheriff's office, and I didn't think I'd stay in law enforcement after all those years, but I gave it a chance and I gave it a shot and the sheriff was kind enough to hire me on and I stayed with them for about 17 months. In that time we obviously were now here full time. We went through growth track. I got plugged in with the men, maria got plugged in with the ladies, we got plugged in with a small group.
Speaker 3:Just, the Lord was working, but there was something missing in me personally. I just felt that there was more. I felt there was more as far as law enforcement was good to me, but I just didn't feel like I was fulfilling the call at that point in time. And uh, and then, and then, all of a sudden, I uh, I got that text message from Pastor Steven, and uh, and he asked if I'd be willing to meet with him, and we met and the door opened. And um, and, since January 8th of ofth of last year I've been blessed to be part of staff here and oversee the security for the lower school and the middle school and the house.
Speaker 2:And the church, and the church.
Speaker 3:And boy, it's been a real blessing. And yeah, it's just amazing what the Lord's been doing in our lives. I mean, who would have ever thought in 2014 that I'd be even sitting here today, you know, sharing with you, so I'm very thankful yeah, well it's.
Speaker 2:Y'all are doing a great job and I know it's not an easy job because you're in, you're watching over a church and kids, and it's an unfortunate thing about our world that we have to do that. That really wasn't as much the case a few decades ago. And talk to us a little bit about just any what that journey's been like for you just being in law enforcement security but being a believer. You've also a believer in Jesus and you're having to reach out to people and share the love of Jesus and peace and joy, but then you're also having to watch out for the bad guys.
Speaker 3:So it's kind of I don't know if you have any anything you want to share on that, but well, I'll tell you it, it actually became easier for me when, once I got saved right, because from 1991, from the day I swore in to about 2003, I wasn't, I wasn't saved. You know, I, I, I, I wasn't walking with the Lord. I mean, I got, I got married and with with Maria, and and I, I said this prayer of salvation, if you will, I said it, but I didn't mean it, it wasn't in my heart, I just knew my father-in-law was a reverend, great, great, great man. I miss Johnny tremendously and I went from Catholicism to this relationship that everyone was talking about, this relationship with Jesus, and I just said the prayer, to say the prayer, but in reality it was like one foot in, one foot out. I was not living for the Lord.
Speaker 3:So it was tough. Right, it was tough between that timeframe in 2003, because I was living in the world. I was in law enforcement. Yes, you meet great people, you meet nice people, but in, in, in, in, in the world that I was in, in homicide investigations you're dealing with, unfortunately, but you're dealing with with death, right, you're dealing with things that are just not positive in nature. It's dark, it's dark, it's dark. So, and just to continue with that darkness.
Speaker 3:That's where the struggles really really started happening with me, because it led me to excessive drinking, led me to excessive drinking. It led our household to be broken on the inside. You know, when I share with men and Maria and I share with couples, the Milan's household on the exterior was beautiful. It was a beautiful home. We cared for it, we manicured it, we were always doing upgrades. We had one of the most beautiful homes on the block. But the interior was just broken. Exterior surface looked great, the interior was just broken. Exterior surface looked great, the interior was just broken.
Speaker 3:And then, when the Lord finally got a hold of me, thank God in 2003, it was just a radical change. It was just amazing, amazing, instant, amazing. And it was all due to you know. Obviously, you know my wife had every biblical right to during that bad season, if you will, that long 10 year bad season, had every biblical right to walk away. But when I asked her, why didn't you? She said well, the Lord never released you to. He never released you. He wanted me to stay in there and fight and pray and you know he promised me a godly man and she held on to that promise. She goes. Yeah, it was easy for me to quit, but she didn't quit. She prayed, she fasted and she believed, faithful, faithful, faithful woman of God that she is. So I call her my Proverbs 21 woman, right 21, 31? 31 woman.
Speaker 3:So, in any case, so it became from 2003 on, to answer your question, it became easier for me in dealing with people, but it was a little difficult within the police culture because I didn't work with many believers, right, yeah, and they knew me for my work ethic. They knew the detective Milan. They didn't know this new believer in Christ, this new man of God, this new walk of life. They didn't really understand it. But I like to just bring it to this point.
Speaker 3:The day I retired April 30th of 2013, and I did my final sign out of my log in my office, there were 10 men in that office crying and one of them said to me we cry because we rejoice with you, but he said me personally, billy, he goes. I never really believed in god, but what I've seen god do in your life, I now know there's a god. Yeah, let me tell you something, john I broke. I broke. It was just a powerful moment, uh, for me, right and um, and that meant the world to me because of my walk, those final 13 years in the police department. The Lord was just shining through me. Am I going to say they were easy moments? No, but it was just. Those final 13 years were great years yeah.
Speaker 2:What was it for you that clicked for you versus all these other people?
Speaker 3:Well for me. I always tell folks for know for me. You know, he came after me. I was the one he left the 99 for me. So he came, he grabbed me. You know, he came after me, he left the 99 for me. There's no doubt in my mind, right, I wouldn't be here today. But that culture, you know that culture can just consume you, right. But you know that culture can just consume you, right. But we don't have to stay in that police culture, right? The Jesus culture is a lot better. Right, the Jesus culture is so much better. Right, that police culture? I get it, you know, I lived it, I've been there. I don't agree with it because it's not healthy. It's just not healthy. There has to be a balance. But I stand wholeheartedly. There's another culture out there and that's the Jesus culture.
Speaker 2:Amen, that's the way to go Well and we were talking earlier about Deputy May and his family and I know it's a tough thing to bring up but it's real. I know that people. It's just natural for us to question how can this happen? For anybody listening, deputy May was with Walton County Sheriff Department and was killed. Just an awful thing. A guy shot him going out of a store, really for no reason. Very tragic. It's got to be hard on people just trying to understand. Maybe people that are questioning God, you know, questioning their faith. You know when you see things like that happen and I know you being in law enforcement, you know you've seen a lot of that dark stuff Just do you have any words to save to help reconcile, you know, from a godly perspective, when these things happen?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll tell you this one I think I shared with you off the air there a little while ago. This one they're all sad. Right throughout the years I lost many friends and I've been to many scenes and they're all sad. They're all sad. This one seemed to sting. It stung me a little bit.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, I, I, I knew uh, I got to know deputy will may and he was just a sweet soul man. You know, he uh was very good to me in those 17 months that I was with the sheriff's office. He, he answered any question I had. He made sure to roll up on any scenes I was at or come visit and and and check on the uh, on the old cat, you know, make sure I was okay.
Speaker 3:Um, so it stung, um, and you know, I know, I know one thing is that god is near the brokenhearted right. So I had to immediately stand on that right. I said, lord, I don't, I don't understand. Maybe it's not my job to understand it, but what I do know is that you're near to the broken heart right and it's just standing on his word and staying in his word. But as far as his family and the pain that they're going through. I couldn't even imagine right. But what I do know is that Deputy May wore that badge with honor. He had a spirit of excellence. His name, his legacy, will forever be known in the Long County Sheriff's Office. I can almost guarantee you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know everyone's continuing to pray for his family. There really are no words. You know as humans, as believers, that we have. We don't understand God's plans. We won't understand that until we get to heaven why tragedy happens. But I just know you see a lot For anyone listening. What would you say to anyone that's questioning God, that's questioning their faith? Maybe they've believed, but they've fallen away and they're just looking for hope. Is there any advice from Billy to them?
Speaker 3:hope. Is there any advice from Dilley to them? Well, I think one of the worst things we could do is people question God, if you will, but it's one of the worst things that we can really really do is question him as far as, hey, god, why and why, and why it's in his will, right, we have to just stand on his word and we say, lord, may your will be done right. But it's hard when these things happen because you say, well, how can this be? How can this have happened?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I, just for me, I stand on my faith. I just have to stand on my faith. I have to stay in the word of God. I have to stay covered in that covering. I have to find good biblical counsel, good men that I can lean on, folks that I can lean on during those times right, those times of not understanding, because sometimes we don't understand.
Speaker 3:But I may reach out to one of the brothers in the church that I have a relationship with and say, hey, I'm walking through a tough season right now, this whole situation that just occurred.
Speaker 3:You know, I'm not understanding, you know, but we really got to step from outside of ourselves and it's hard to do, but we have to step from the outside of ourselves, let go of the wheel and just let God do what God does. And it's tough, it's not easy, but the one thing I know is that he's near, he's near to us and we have to just remain faithful and stay in the word. We have to stay in prayer and we have to stay encouraged. And this is a tough world out there, you know, and bad things are going to continue to happen, right, yeah, but we know who stands to be true and that's our Lord, right and, and he's with us. You know he, he never leaves us, nor he forsakes us, and we just have to stand on the word, on the word. The word is the word is the word, and, and I'm grateful for the word- yeah, that's actually.
Speaker 2:We have three key pillars of road to redemption is number one is to read the word of God, Because a lot of people are like I don't hear from God, I don't know that God will. If you start reading the word of God today, you can pick up the Bible Every phone has a Bible, Holy Bible or pick up your hardback Bible. But if you just start reading right now or today, tonight, he will speak to you through the scriptures, you will hear from God. And the second thing is to get into a church community. Get into a.
Speaker 2:Christ-centered church. There's many, many, many good ones across Northwest Florida Destiny Worship Center and the last thing is, once you're in that church, is to get into a small life group that you meet with regularly, and these are people you can make yourself vulnerable to. That they can pour into you and pray with you and really strengthen each other through these small groups is vital. So we just encourage you folks to do that. Billy, is there anything else you'd want to share for anyone listening from your story, your testimony, anything you've been through, or just your road to redemption that you'd like to share?
Speaker 3:You know, I'd like to John. If it's okay, I'd like to end by reading Psalm 23. But before I do so, there's a word that's been in my spirit for quite some time, and one thing I'd like to share with everyone is the word complacency. In the police world we say that complacency could cost you getting hurt, ultimately cause your death. In the spiritual world, complacency can really cause spiritual death. So when I went through my years of turmoil, if you will, and I was half in and half out, half in the pool, half out of the pool, if you will spiritually, complacency is what really got me. I became complacent Routine. It's good to have a plan, but stay consistent. Stay consistent in the word, Stay consistent in prayer, yes, Stay consistent in the church that you're at, Stay consistent in fellowship. Do not allow complacency to set in right, Because that's dangerous territory, if you will. So that's a word that I just like to get out. There is just complacency. Just be aware that we don't want to become complacent spiritually.
Speaker 2:That's really good and I also just felt don't give up. I was thinking about you, were talking about your marriage. The easy way would have been y'all could have given up and you wouldn't be here right now. So I just know I see a lot of marriages out there that are struggling. I'm talking to people every day and they're just like, yeah, I mean, it's done pretty much. It's tons of people every day I'm running into and it just it breaks my heart because I know God does not want those marriages broken up His desire is to heal those marriages.
Speaker 2:So we would just say anyone listening, don't give up, seek help, get into counseling, get into a Christ-centered church, give it one year of your life or give it time, because if you just go and start let God working on you and your spouse and, just like you were saying, don't get complacent, he can heal. He can just dramatically do miracles in marriages and families. Billy, I think it's a miracle that y'all are here and your marriage is thriving now.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's a miracle. Yes, it's a miracle that we're here. You got to work at it, right, even until today. We'll be married 32 years together, 33, right, we've been on the mountaintop and we've been in the valley, but you got to constantly work at it and what I learned is I need to. You know you need to be selfless. You know I need to be selfless. Maria needs to be selfless. What's the end goal? You know what's the end goal here and you know there was divorce in my family and that was a generational curse. And guess what? No more.
Speaker 2:No more, no more.
Speaker 3:Thank you, Lord.
Speaker 2:What a great testimony.
Speaker 3:You got to break that generational curse and but yes, I echo your words, you know, get that counseling that you need here at Destiny. We've got. We got Pastor Garland.
Speaker 3:Exactly we got one of the best out there Exactly, and he devoted his, his calling, his life to help marriages. So there are people, there are resources. We're here for you. I could say that wholeheartedly and full confidence. We're here for you because we want to see marriages restored. You know, because that's going to affect generations and you know Pastor Stephen always talks about the next generation. You know, let's think about it. There is no next generation if you've got broken marriages, that brokenness. Look at me. I came from a broken family and it led me into adulthood, so we got to jump on that early on.
Speaker 2:So anyway, and it's because you and your wife, you trusted in God. You seeked God, that relationship, and it wasn't easy. But through that relationship and seeking Him and giving it over to Him, that's the reason why your marriage was saved and you're living a vibrant, peaceful, joyous life and I see that and it's just a great testimony. And thank you, too, again for what you're doing with the security at the church and the school. You do a great job of being there in peace. It's a very peaceful, joyous, security presence, which is good. That's what you want. You don't want a fearful one, and y'all have done a great job with that, you and your team. Thank you, thank you, billy, thank you for coming on. It's been a great, great conversation.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Can I read Psalms 23?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, please. We'll be just closing that. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 3:The Lord is. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff. They comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Speaker 2:Amen. Wow, that's so great. That really blessed me hearing that Great show.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Road to Redemption, sharing powerful life testimonies, giving hope to those on their own road to redemption. If you have any comments or questions, we would love to connect with you. You can reach out to us at destinyradiolive. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week on Road to Redemption.