Chaplin Malizzi Shares Gift, Invites Everyone To Climb Aboard the "Glory Train"

by Lesley Misko

“God moves in mysterious ways” is the title of a well-known Christian hymn. However, it is much more than a hymn: it is a belief that God’s plan may be beyond human understanding, but he has a reason for everything he does.

Mark Malizzi, executive director of the local Thunder Outreach Ministry, can attest to that belief. He shares an unusual experience: “It started in my backyard with my dog.”

Malizzi describes what occurred: “One night I was outside walking my dog, and I was looking around and looking up at the sky. Words and phrases started coming to my mind, along with a tune that I could almost hum. The words began to come together, making sense. ‘I’m going to ride this train, this train to glory…’.” It seemed like the chorus of a song, and not having any skill or talent in music, Malizzi initially thought it was a song he had previously heard someplace.

Recalling the events that night, Malizzi shares: “I heard a chorus. When I looked up it became clearer; even my dog looked up and heard it. I went indoors and wrote it down as best I could. I kept humming it in my head. Pictures and words came into my mind…. I ‘saw’ Jesus as an engineer; I ‘saw’ a person, lost and hopeless, walking on railroad tracks. The things I heard and felt in my heart and spirit, I tried to write in words.” Malizzi believes that God gave him the song.

Over 15 years earlier, Malizzi and others involved with Thunder Outreach Ministry came together to form a band and they named it Heaven’s Thunder Band. Malizzi, the drummer in the band, describes it as a “Christian band with a southern rock flavor.” After his experience, when the band got together, Malizzi was excited to hum the song he “heard” to lead guitarist and Worship Leader Keith Morris, who put music to the words.

But Malizzi credits the whole band as working together to perfect the song. “We began with the chorus and then built verses. I told them what I heard, and they rearranged the words to make it singable. We came together, inspired by God, and finished it in one night.”

After the words and music were written and the song was practiced, the band performed it at several different events, tweaking it each time until they finally felt they had it “right.”

As part of the process, additional singers were added in the form of a gospel choir from Heart of God Family Worship Center in Pottstown.

The band had been performing the song – now named “Glory Train” – locally, but Malizzi believes it can be meaningful to a larger audience. With the Colebrookdale Railroad’s supportive cooperation, a music video of the song was filmed on a train car and in the train station area.

The song is now available on YouTube and iTunes, where it has found a sizeable audience, attaining over 1,400 views in just one week. It has been sent to Christian country music radio stations down south and shared with other music outlets. There is also talk of the song being nominated for some Christian music awards.

“God will do what he wants with it. We just hope to encourage people to listen to the song so that it gets them on the right track and blesses their lives,” Malizzi summarizes.  

Click here to play the video of "Glory Train."  

[ For our readers who may be unfamiliar with the youtube site where you will play the video, hold your cursor over the video screen and look for the right-most small icon. Tapping it will give you the full screen view. To leave the full screen, click the escape key on your keyboard.]

You can also access the song from Thunder Outreach Ministries' Facebook page.

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