It Changed My Life: How A Men's Group and Prayer Changed Hundreds Of LIves

By Michael Haddock

This is the story of how success can blind a man and lead him down a path of sin and destruction. It is the story of how effective prayer can change a man's life and the powerful impact that prayer can have on all those whom you love and care for. It can give hope to the hopeless and joy to the brokenhearted and peace to those who seek it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098341213

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Copyright © 2020 by Michael Daddock

It Changed My Life

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-09833-290-7

eISBN: 978-1-0983412-1-3

Dedication

For the ones so close to my heart, Shane and Vivian, Michele and Mike.

For all my brothers who have been my extended family for three decades!

For my brother who started it all—Al Hanna.

In Memoriam

This book is also dedicated to the memory of two brothers of Catholic Men’s Fellowship who were very dear friends and brothers in Christ and two very special priests who were loved by so many in this ministry. Rest in peace!

Paul Melton

8/17/1956–5/11/1998

David O’Connor

6/14/1935–9/29/2016

Fr. Santan Pinto, SOLT Fr.

9/13/1948–12/16/2011

Michael Manning, SVD

12/30/1940–12/14/2016

Special Thanks

Tom and Josi

W. M. Kinsey Graphic Design

Foreword

This book is about the incredible journey I have experienced over the last thirty years, all of which have changed my life forever as well as the lives of hundreds of other men who are a part of this story.

Pope John Paul II said, The future of the church is in the laity. It may very well rest in wonderful lay ministries like Catholic Men’s Fellowship. There are twenty-four active groups in the state of California, and there are many similar groups by the same name in cities like Cincinnati and Steubenville, Ohio, that have large memberships.

My experience has been that the average man is looking for more than going to mass once a week. Today, more than ever before, men are looking for a confidential place they can go and discuss real issues that are of deep concern to them. A confidential place where they can be heard and won’t be judged or condemned. Those places do exist in organizations like the Catholic Men’s Fellowship.

Like so many of you, my life started off pretty ordinary in a little town in northwest Florida, an area affectionately known as Hurricane Alley. It was very much like the iconic paintings of Norman Rockwell depicting life in small towns across America. It was a wonderful place to grow up. From the time I graduated from college, I experienced great success in everything I tried. I came to California in 1963 and enlisted in the pricing development program at Autonetics, a developer of guidance systems for the Minuteman missile program. During this time, I met my wife, and we were married six months later. I heard about the Apollo Space Program in Downey, California, and it sounded more exciting than what I was training for. I applied for the job and was accepted. I was hired as a manufacturing cost analyst. My job was forecasting the manpower required to build the Apollo command module. By the time I was twenty-six years old, I was a group leader and had several people working for me. It was a marvelous time and the most exciting job I had ever had. I could walk out of my office and there was a spacecraft right in front of me. It is hard for me to believe that I was a small part of that historic program. While the command modules were being assembled, there was a picture of the astronauts who would fly the mission. By their picture was a sign that read P.R.I.D.E., which meant Personal Responsibility In Daily Effort. In other words, their lives depended on how well we did our jobs. We took it very seriously.

Life was really sweet in those days, and it seemed to be almost perfect. But fate would deal my wife and me an awful blow. We experienced a tragedy. We lost our first child at birth. It was devastating, and it took me about three years before I could talk about it without being overcome with emotion. I was angry with God, and I could not understand why He would let this happen to our little boy. Later our daughter was born, and life began stabilizing again. I was reclassified by the draft board from 1-A to 3-A which prevented my being drafted into the army. Four years later, our son was born, and now we were a complete family. After every dark night, a bright, new dawn is inevitable.

During this same period, the Vietnam War was raging, and due to my top secret clearance, I was deferred from the draft, keeping me out of the war. My brother Marc served in the war. He was a door gunner in a Huey helicopter and received the Purple Heart.

After five years of working on the space program, I became interested in going into business. I participated in dirt-bike and off-road racing with my boss from the Apollo program and we became great friends. From those hobbies grew an interest in the van conversion business. He and I left the space program and went into that business, naming it Holiday Wheels. It was an instant success. But I wanted to be my own boss and make my own decisions, for better or worse. Shortly thereafter, I went into the custom paint business, painting vans with murals, lettering, pinstriping, and adding new wheels and tires. It was the right thing at the right place at exactly the right time! Kolors West would soon become