My Friend Mike Williams Is Getting a Movie — And Apparently Hallmark Is Playing Him
There are a lot of people in the comedy world who have made me laugh. There are considerably fewer who have made me a better fundraiser. And there are even fewer who have become a genuine friend. Mike Williams somehow managed to check all three boxes for me.
Mike is one of my comedy-fundraising mentors. We have taught fundraising together, talked about banquets, laughed about the ridiculous things that happen when you put comedians and fundraising in the same room, and spent plenty of time talking about how to use humor to help organizations raise money. So when I heard they were making a movie about Mike’s life, I was excited.
Then I found out who was playing him.
Apparently, they found the guy who has been in approximately 73% of all Hallmark movies ever made. Okay, I may be exaggerating. But if you’ve watched enough Hallmark movies, you know exactly the guy I’m talking about. He is the guy who shows up in a small town, runs a charming bakery, falls in love with someone who just moved back home, and somehow has a perfectly decorated Christmas tree in every scene.
And now he’s playing my friend Mike Williams.
But underneath the fun of seeing Mike’s life turned into a movie is a story that is actually pretty remarkable. Mike grew up poor in a dysfunctional home in Chicago. At an early age, he learned to use humor as a way to cope with extremely difficult circumstances. For Mike, making people laugh wasn’t just a talent. It became a survival skill.
Then God stepped into his story.
Mike was rescued from his circumstances and became part of a Christian adoptive family. He eventually took that ability to make people laugh and turned it into a career. He became a highly successful comedian, performing for crowds all over the country and booking national tours.
And from the outside, it looked like he had made it.
But that’s one of the things I love about Mike’s story. Success didn’t fix the thing that was bothering him. The crowds got bigger. The career got better. The opportunities kept coming. But behind all the noise and applause, Mike wasn’t happy.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that there were kids out there who were just like him—kids who were forgotten, hurting and in need of someone to care about them. So Mike talked to his wife, Terica, about what he was feeling. And instead of simply deciding they needed a vacation or a new hobby, they did something considerably more dramatic.
They packed their bags and moved to the Dominican Republic.
Mike was assigned to a small community center where the people were understandably skeptical. They had seen people come and go before. They had experienced disappointment. They had learned not to get too excited when another well-meaning foreigner showed up promising to help.
Mike, however, saw needs everywhere.
He tried to address those needs through the proper channels. He asked questions. He made requests. He tried to work within the system. And the system basically said, “Don’t worry. This guy will eventually give up.”
They were wrong.
Mike found another missionary named Daniel who shared his heart for Jesus and for the children in the community. Daniel’s family had the same passion for serving kids who had been overlooked. Eventually, the red tape became too much.
So Mike and Daniel did what people with a dangerous combination of faith, stubbornness and a complete inability to accept “that’s just the way things are” tend to do.
They started their own mission.
And that mission became the beginning of something much bigger.
That’s the part of Mike’s story that I think is so powerful. He didn’t stop being a comedian. He didn’t abandon the gift God had given him. He simply discovered that the gift wasn’t the destination.
Comedy had taken Mike around the world. But compassion gave him a reason to go.
That’s a lesson I have personally taken from Mike as I’ve developed my own work in comedy and fundraising. We can become very focused on what we’re good at. We build careers around our gifts. We get applause. We get bookings. We get better at our craft.
But eventually you have to ask a bigger question: What is the gift actually for?
For Mike, the answer became kids.
And that answer changed the trajectory of his life.
It also changed mine in ways I’m not sure he completely realizes. Mike has been one of the people who helped me understand that comedy and fundraising aren’t opposites. Laughter can open a door. It can lower defenses. It can create connection. And when you combine that with a compelling mission, something pretty powerful can happen.
So yes, I’m excited about the movie.
I’m excited because it’s about my friend. I’m excited because I get to tell people, “I know that guy!”
And I’m especially excited because there are a lot of people who need to hear the story of what happens when a person realizes that the life they’ve built isn’t necessarily the life God is calling them to live.
Mike spent years making people laugh. Then he decided he wanted to help children who were hurting. And somehow, all these years later, that story is being turned into a movie.
Which means that somewhere right now, the Hallmark guy is probably standing in the Dominican Republic, looking thoughtfully into the distance while inspirational music plays in the background.
I can’t wait to see it.
More importantly, I can’t wait for people to see Mike’s story.
Want to follow the movie and see updates as it comes together? Check out the [Facebook page for The Rescued].
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