Today we’d like to introduce you to Mercedes and Derrius Tyler.
Mercedes and Derrius, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Our story is like most, we come from extremely humble beginnings. We both grew up with single parents who struggled to take care of us. But we both can attest to finding the beauty even in that and we both knew we wanted more out of life. When Derrius joined the military, I can say that’s when our journey officially started.
We came to a new city; BIG city I might add in comparison to the small town we grew up in. Coming to San Diego almost three years ago made us heavily rely on God and each other. We’re away from our families and everything that we’re used to and comfortable with. We took the opportunity as a fresh start and new outlook on life and we ran with it. We sought God like we do in everything in our life and asked what He wanted us to do while here and He gave us Transparent. So here we are. Even now, we’re fairly new, only one year in and we’re still learning a lot of things. But we have some pretty amazing things coming up and we’re extremely excited about it.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We both agree that this road has been extremely bumpy with some smoothness. There is a lot of researching and learning that goes into starting a nonprofit organization and maintaining it. As Believers of Christ, we find ourselves in moments of stillness because we’re constantly seeking God for direction and guidance because one of our primary goals is to the world about Christ through our service & giving. Those still moments can be pretty challenging because at the end of the day, it’s still an organization and we have to conduct business accordingly, so finding the balance has been difficult but we’ve been successfully managing it since there’s really no solution.
More than anything we want to know that we’re being obedient to God and what he wants us to do with this organization. Another struggle has been finding our way in a new city. For instance, making the proper connect and finding people and other organizations to partner/work with because we’re fairly new to the city. One of our biggest challenges has been trying to get others to believe in the value of your vision and it sometimes makes you question the value of your vision and why you even started. However, we believe the more we get connected and increase our influence, the value of our vision will speak for itself through our acts of service and transparency.
Transparent Movement – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Transparent Movement is about taking off the mask. Unmasking our shame and just being transparent about the things we struggle with in life. Our belief is that when we’re open & transparent; we open our hearts to God’s intervention (His love, His compassion, His mercy, His grace, etc). So apart of our mission is to have those hard conversations. We talk about the things that we would normally keep to ourselves out of shame or humiliation and let others know that they’re not alone.
And most importantly that God still loves them and that they don’t have to hide anything from the one who created them. We make God relatable where ANYONE can establish their own relationship with Him knowing that they can just be themselves, not perfect. We display our transparency through conversation (on our #TransparentTuesday Facebook live videos on Tuesdays) and through our community service. We’re currently working on an initiative that will allow us to reach & influence the homeless youth in San Diego. We’re also launching our podcast and YouTube channel next month. This will allow us to connect people to God all over the world. In the future, our goal is to establish initiatives in the community that heal & shine the light on the beauty of marriage and families, like marriage retreats and family workshops.
We think our greatest specialization is relation. People who don’t really know Christ think that as followers of Christ, we have to be perfect and it’s mostly because for the longest Christians have led them to believe that. Transparent Movement is putting an end to that false image. Our motto is “reaching God through relation.” People are more open to God’s love when they feel like they can relate to His people. Sin is real and we’re not saying it’s okay to sin; we’re saying it’s okay to not have it all together. God can work with that. God works best with our transparency. We don’t have to be perfect; He doesn’t expect us to be.
We think what sets us apart is God. We firmly believe that God makes the difference in our organization. His favor has been tremendously present since we began Transparent Movement and we firmly believe that we’ve come this far because of Him.
What were you like growing up?
For me (Mercedes) I feel like I was always more advance than most of my peers. I was always the serious one, extremely careful, loyal, and mindful. I believe it’s because I had to grow up kind of quickly. My mom got sick when I was young and she had recently divorced my Dad so I felt led to just help her out as much as a could around the house and with my little sister. I still had fun as a kid and had a pretty enjoyable childhood, but like I mentioned before, we struggled a lot and my mom did the best she could so I ended up getting a job at 15 just to lift the burden off of her as much as I could.
I was interested in anything that contributed to my future. I wasn’t really into sports like some kids; I was more interested in my education and advancing my life. So I would say I was pretty responsible (sometimes too hard on myself at that age), focused on obtaining better and establishing my relationship with Christ, and extremely goal-driven. Those closest to me, like my friends and family, would say that I’m silly, I like to make people laugh, look out for others, and I love to be around family.
For me (Derrius) Growing up there were a lot of challenges. Learning how to navigate through poverty, drugs, and the influence of street life is part of the journey. Growing up without my father being present was the biggest challenge. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my youth. I was always into sports and my education. I could always see the bigger picture, even when I didn’t know how I would escape the lifestyle around me. I would always sit around and listen to the older men in the neighborhood and even though they were in poverty, they had the knowledge to escape it. I just took what I heard and applied it along the way so I would have a better life.
Contact Info:
- Email: transparentmovementinc@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transparentmovementinc/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Transparent-Movement-Inc-334285650515623/?ref=bookmarks
Image Credit:
Transparent Movement Inc.
DymeDigital Media
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