"Intense Fire For God"

Travels from: Paramus, NJ
Everything that the modern day youth deal with is intense and in your face. Sex, drugs, violence, and hate are in our faces everyday. Society puts those things on a pedestal to be worshiped as a god. From music videos, to television shows, to radio programs these "false gods" are saturating this society. We live in a society that worships the creation, while turning their back on the creator. It often looks like the road to destruction is the better way. If we profess that Jesus is Lord then we have to be as intense or more intense with His message.

Hard as Nails Ministries is a youth and young adult ministry program designed to
bring the message of Jesus Christ in intense and dynamic ways. Hard as Nails
embraces the missionary spirituality of the "New Evangelization." We travel individually or with teams of youth, spreading the message of Christ at youth retreats, youth groups, conferences, and high schools. Hard as Nails Ministries develops teams of youth all over the United States and beyond, to travel with a Hard as Nails speaker who leads them and challenges them to grow into amazing witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Each member of Hard as Nails has gone through the trials and tribulations that
come with the journey of faith. We have shared in the experiences of the cross and the crown of Christ. We understand that living for Christ in these days can be one of the hardest things to do, but we know that it is Christ who gives meaning to our lives. We know that the love of Christ can pierce the hardest heart and that Christ gives us the strength and the hope to get through the trials that life presents.  We desire to see all young people expose their past wounds to our Lord for healing, and move forward in faith empowered by the Spirit of Christ who is at work in them and whose power is made perfect in their weakness.  By doing so, a new generation of faithful will be born - young people who know and have experienced the joy of a life lived in Jesus Christ!  May His name be praised now and forever! 

WHO IS JUSTIN FACIA?

   That young man's name is Justin Fatica. At the age of seventeen Justin promised God that he would dedicate his life to spreading the name of his personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Upon graduating Cathedral Prep in Erie, PA, he attended Seton Hall University. While at Seton Hall he founded the 12 Apostles Program, a program designed  to help his fellow college students develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. They traveled throughout the metropolitan area bringing the Word of God to high school students. This was just the beginning of Justin fulfilling promise to God.

After graduating Seton Hall, he decided to continue his mission as a religion teacher and campus minister at Paramus Catholic High School in Paramus, NJ. It became clearer here, that the Lord had different call on his life  He made a firm decision to begin
his plan of starting his mission.

Hard as Nails Ministries, founded in 2002, has touched thousands of lives. Fatica now believes that this is an answered prayer that he has been waiting for since 1997. His goal is to use what he calls "ENTERTAINMENT WITH A MESSAGE" to an MTV, video game and in your face generation. It is intense and you will never forget his unparalleled and intensely dynamic speaking style. Whether it is an "in your face" style like so many media outlets polarize or his gentle tender hearted approach. His message is about loving all people no matter who they are or what they have been through. It is not just about him. He has teams of college and high school students who work hard at developing skits and testimonies to touch the lives of young people throughout the country. Fatica has touched lives in such a dramatic way that the ministry has had numerous youth, after their Hard as Nails experience, travel hundreds of miles just to be a part of the mission again.

Example Event Talk Topics...
Listen to what lifts you up
Never Forget God Made You Amazing
Walk Confident not Defeated
Love is the Answer
We Can’t Forget what it’s all about
They Need You!
The Great Strength in Weakness
Standing in the Gap for those who can’t
Hope: It does not disappoint
Celebrate Life
Confession:  Why Do We Need the Doctor?
The Eucharist:  Is it REALLY Real?
Confirmation for Life
Catholicism = Universal: All Are Welcome
Campus Ministry: Service, Reaching out, Sacraments and Community
18yrs of Catholic School Education and I Love It.
Catholic Leadership in the 21st Century
Need for a Community 
Love No Matter What
Commit to Christ for Life
ABC’s of Christianity 
Live in Freedom
Fear Not Stand Your ground
Importance of the Bible 
Reach out to Those Lost
What More Does He Have to do for Us?
Parish Mission Week: “Commitment to the Amazing Life as a Catholic.”
How can the Rosary and a Relationship with Jesus’ Mother Help Me?
Solid Rock:  Why am I Catholic?
Pick a Saint; Be a Saint
Four Marks of the Church and Why?  

WHO IS BRIAN GREENFIELD?

   Brian Greenfield was born and raised in Washington, DC, where he attended St. Anthony's grade school and Gonzaga High School. After graduating from Gonzaga High School in 1997, Brian traveled to New Jersey to attended Seton Hall University, majoring in Communications. While at Seton Hall, God moved powerfully in Brian's heart and life. At the suggestion of a fellow student Brian began to attend a weekly prayer meeting with other students.  This prayer meeting eventually grew into a retreat ministry. The ministry was called the Twelve Apostles Program. They traveled throughout New Jersey giving the message of Jesus Christ to youth and young adults.

While leading one of these retreats Brian promised God that he would stop living for himself and he gave his life to Jesus Christ. He continued to work in youth and young adult ministry during his four years at Seton Hall, speaking at numerous youth events and youth groups. After graduating from Seton Hall with a degree in communications, Brian attended the Franciscan University of Steubenville to study theology.

While Brian was at Franciscan University he felt that God was calling him to give more of himself. He explored this calling by attending a vocations retreat with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.  After returning from the retreat Brian withdrew from school and entered the Community of the Franciscans of the Renewal as a Postulant.  As a postulant with the Franciscans of the Renewal, Brian lived in Harlem, served the poor, and began his formation as a Franciscan Friar.  After finishing the postulancy Brian returned to Washington, DC to further discern God's call for his life.

   After a brief stay in Washington, Brian returned to Seton Hall University to study theology at the Immaculate Conception School of theology.   During his years at Seton Hall, Brian served as a part-time Campus Minister for the university and taught religion at Paramus Catholic High School. He also began his work with Hard as Nails.  He received his M.A. in Theology in May 2005.

Brian has spoken to thousands of youth and young adults about the message of Jesus Christ. He has also written numerous articles concerning various aspects of Christian living. Brian is also one of the few black catholic evangelists in the United States.  Brian believes that God has given him gifts to bring the message of Jesus Christ to others. He knows that there is a prevailing hopelessness in this world that can only be remedied through an encounter with Christ.  Brian is currently a religion teacher at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. He teaches Catechism and Ethics.  He lives with his wife and daughter in Silver Spring, MD.

WHO IS TIM HANLEY?

  Tim Hanley was born and raised in the New Jersey suburbs of NYC.  At the age of 16, after a powerful encounter with the mercy of Christ, he knew he had to serve the LORD.  This is when he met the other men who would later begin Hard as Nails Ministries Inc.  A recruited D1 college football player, Tim went on to play in the Ivy League.  He used this experience of "teamwork" and "commitment" in order to found a college faith community marked by a three-fold devotion to the Blessed Mother, to the Holy Father, and to Our  Eucharistic Lord.  This community, called SOULDIERS MINISTRY, continues to grow with men and women whose hearts burn with a zeal to be apostles to their campuses.  When the LORD called Tim to give up his love - football - in order to devote his full time to “Kingdom business,” he struggled to yield to the Spirit, but grace abounded and he began the next step of his great adventure of the life of faith.   
    
After graduating from Cornell University, Tim discerned the religious life as a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal.  He spent one year living among and serving the poor and suffering in Harlem, Bronx, and Newark, NJ.  The experience of relying on others’ generosity just for the basic needs of life was not only humbling, but enlightening for Tim.  This was a tremendous opportunity to retreat from the battlefield of the world, and enter the battlefield of his own soul.  As the year of formation unfolded, it became quite apparent to Tim that the greatest battle he would ever fight is that of the interior self... the battle for sainthood which we are all called to
fight.  His passion for urban outreach was cultivated in the inner city, and his heart still beats for the streets.    

During this time of formation as a Franciscan friar, it became clearer over time that the LORD was calling him back into the world in order to work to "sanctify the secular."  Inspired by his hero, the Great Pope John Paul II, he now seeks to renew the church and the world as a lay evangelist, traveling and preaching to young people all across the world.  When not on the road, you can find him in the streets surrounding his office in Newark, NJ - bringing hope to an area infested with gangs, drugs, sex, and violence.   

As the spark of the Caribbean mission, Tim has developed the international component of Hard as Nails, founding communities and establishing outreaches on various Caribbean islands.  In addition to the international missions however, Tim also has a passion for the mission to reclaim the masculine identity in Christ.  His dream is to see a RENEWAL of authentic manhood in both the Church and the world.  He also attests to the fact that the first place he fights to see manhood redeemed is in his own heart, in his own soul, in his own life.  Tim's versatility and ability to engage various audiences has had him sitting on faith discussion panels at Ivy League universities, inspiring incarcerated youth in the Caribbean, and preaching Christ anywhere in between. Invite him to your event and you will most certainly be blessed by his authenticity, his passion, and his apostolic zeal for souls!

Example Event Talk Topics...
Struggle On... Struggle On... the struggle of faith
The Four Marks of a Soldier for Christ
Identity Theft: Reclaiming the True You in Christ
Man Up! Redeeming the Masculine Identity (men's talk)
Death Before Sin: Saints in the Making
Faith: Doesn't Make Things Easy... Only Possible!
Daddy's Girl: Princess of the King (woman's talk)
Letting Go:  Our Need For Personal Conversion
You Can't, BUT He CAN IN YOU!
Who's "The Man?" (personal testimony)
Can't Stop, Won't Stop
"Rise and Eat": Food For the Journey
My Life, My Love, My All: My Mama
Living and Loving in Community  

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