About Us

Project Prodigal's founder David Park spent most of his life as a "Prodigal." And although he knew God since he was a child only 6 years of age, he had a tendency to run away from God. The longest and loneliest time he spent away from God came after he resigned from his position as a youth pastor as a result of bi-polar depression. He spent 6 years away from God and like the story of the "prodigal son" in the Bible, he ran away from God and began to live a life of recklessness - engaging in reckless fornication and reckless spending with no regard for consequences. As a result, he became homeless and broken to the point of no return, or at least he thought. However, God remained faithful to him and never allowed David to be out of his sight. David learned how much God loved him through his suffering and by seeing how God would not allow him to die from his own attempts at suicide or even from the times he was poisoned by others which ended up with him overdosing and no longer breathing for a period of time. 

David did not understand why God had allowed all the things that had happened to him to happen. But he finally learned why God allowed him to fall away from Him. The devil had plans to harm David, but God had plans to strengthen and refine him. God allowed David to suffer so that he would learn to truly rely on God and also to purge David of all his sinful fleshly desires. And David, being very judgmental, needed to be humbled and realize that he is no better than anyone else. And it is only because David has experienced addiction, homelessness, mental illness, depression, and hopelessness that he can now be used to help those who are suffering like he did. In any case, David had big plans that he was trying to get into motion. However, one day, on his way to  do Jiu-Jitsu, he came across a man about his age who was homeless. He ended up talking with the man and after providing him with food he had the opportunity to pray for him. This same scenario would happen for the next few days. And as such, he realized that he did not have to wait for anything. As a man who desires to serve God and those who are broken, he realized that every day, every event, is an opportunity to do ministry. He also became aware of the fact that he did not have to publicize what he was doing to gain praise from others. God helped to check his heart and made it clear that the time to start serving God again in ministry was now. But just to make sure that he was hearing God clearly, he prayed to God and asked him for more confirmation. Immediately after praying while David was listening to worship songs, the song he was listening to was about the prodigal son. He then prayed again the next day and the same thing happened again. After this, he decided to create "Project Prodigal" which was on July 10th. The following day David went to visit Tapestry LA and it ended up being a day when the church had a guest pastor who was scheduled to preach. In any event, to his surprise, the Pastor preached on Luke 15:11-32, which is the story of the Prodigal Son. This was the only other confirmation David needed and now it is his desire to fulfill the calling God has given to him.