Rudy Hatfield's transformation

source: Joaquin Henson | philstar.com

When Rudy Hatfield returns to action with Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Fiesta Conference, fans will see a changed man.

The word is he won’t be around when the conference opens March 21 and will check in sometime in April. He reportedly signed a one-year contract to resume his career with the Kings.

“After about a year of researching, speaking with God, receiving so many signs and just putting myself out there to believe, I was finally saved,” said Hatfield. “My old life was put to death and I was reborn. I now truly believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior.”

Hatfield, 32, took a leave of absence from Ginebra in 2007 to attend to family matters. Now that he’s put his life in order, Hatfield said basketball is back as his priority.

But Hatfield said spreading the Good News of salvation will be a continuing commitment.

“Currently, I attend Northridge Church in Plymouth, Michigan,” he said. “Together with Mega City Ministries in Metro Manila, we were able to reach out to thousands of people, spreading the love of Jesus to each of them during a brief visit to Manila last November. I intend to continue working with Mega City Ministries and senior pastor Greg Lyons. They have a wonderful ministry that opens doors to any and every person. Understandably, basketball is my job and ‘if a man will not work, he shall not eat.’ That’s from 2 Thessalonians 3:10. However, the decision to return is truthfully God-led and ministry work will be just as important, if not more, than basketball.”

Hatfield said his eyes were opened to God during his leave of absence.

“I’ve always been interested to find out what the purpose of life is,” he opened up. “I was, and sometimes still am, a skeptic. I loved to argue with Christ followers about their faith in Jesus. Eventually, I got to the point where I realized I wasn’t a very good person, yet I received so many great things. I realized I didn’t deserve anything and wondered why I was given certain things that so many others deserved.”

Hatfield said he never strayed from the path of discovering the truth.

“I stayed on the path of many questions, many arguments with people but rather than doing it just for pleasure, I was looking for the truth,” he went on. “With the help of my amazing wife, who went to a Christian school her whole life, and many others I eventually got to the point where I started believing that the Bible may be true. I now truly believe that if we believe in Christ’s death in our sins, His resurrection as ourselves being resurrected into a new life and that He is the way, truth and the life.”

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Hatfield said he’s not proclaiming himself to be saintly.

“By all means, I still sin, I still make mistakes and I have a long, painful journey to go before I’m made into the perfect image of Jesus,” he said. “But at least, I know I can repent and be forgiven and I focus everyday on getting closer to God.”

Hatfield said his wife Bethany and daughters Bella, 5, and Lylah, 1, are his backbone.

“My wife is truly an angel sent from God,” he said. “My baby girl is a gift from God and Bella is an amazing little girl. I met my wife while she was dating a good friend of mine. When I saw her, I really knew she was something special. I met her on New Year’s Day of 2006 when I initially went home after my contract ended with Coca-Cola. This was just before I entered the fire academy. I never asked her out because she was dating my good friend. I remember one day, talking to him and asking him, ‘How’s Bethany?’ and he told me they were no longer together.

“About a month later, I went up to the bar where she worked at the time, sat down and had a few drinks and spent the night chatting with her. We ended up going on a date and that’s when I really fell for her. I ended up calling my friend whom she was dating before and asking him if he minded if I dated her. I was trying to be a good man by asking but honestly, if he had said no, I still would’ve gone out with her. Once my mind is set on something, it’s very rare that I’m going to be stopped. We were married on Aug. 8, 2007, in Turks and Caicos island off the coast of Jamaica. That’s the reason I couldn’t play for the national team at that time. We had scheduled that wedding a year in advance before I even came back to play for Ginebra.”

Hatfield said he had dreams of becoming a fireman and even a professional wrestler but in the end, he realized he was cut out for basketball and that was his love.

“I was never able to get a job as a fireman although it may be the fact that I never applied,” he said. “In Michigan, 90 percent of firemen also need to have their paramedic license which entails about another year or so of school plus doing emergency ride-alongs and a crazy amount of hours doing hospital internships, unpaid internships I might add. I really just wanted to put out fires and not deal with medical stuff. I don’t think I will go back into doing that once I’m finished with basketball. Maybe, I’ll continue doing ministry work both in the US and the Philippines for the rest of my life. I’m sure. I’ll just leave that up to God.”