Daniel Diaz came home one day without his shoes.
His father, Pastor David Diaz, naturally wanted to know what happened to them.
"Daniel, what happened to your shoes?"
The answer revealed something about the young man's character that his parents would never forget.
"Dad, I saw this guy. He was hurting real bad," Daniel explained. The man had no shoes, so Daniel gave him his own.
David remembers his first instinct was to remind his son that those were his shoes. But then he recognized what was really happening.
"That was his heart," David told K-LOVE's Crystal Thornton. "He was always giving."
Daniel had a way of noticing people others might overlook. When he encountered a former schoolmate who had lost both legs to illness and was living in a care facility, he returned regularly to visit, play chess and share his faith.
His mother, Donna, remembers another moment, one that still lives vividly in her heart.
During a family birthday celebration, Daniel interrupted their tradition of going around the table to honor the person celebrating. Instead, he wanted to tell each family member how much they meant to him.
"I only wish we could have recorded that because it was so beautiful," Donna recalled.
At 4 a.m., Daniel would often begin his day with the worship song "I Give Myself Away." His days were devoted to ministering to young people, including those navigating difficult circumstances in Pomona, a city east of Los Angeles.
Then, on November 11, 2013, Daniel's life was cut short.
The 33-year-old youth minister was killed in an act of violence in Pomona, where he had been working to offer young people a different future.
The man who had given away his shoes would leave behind a legacy that would eventually touch people far beyond his community.
But first, his parents had to survive the silence.
Listen to K-LOVE's Crystal Thornton in a personal conversation with Pastors David and Donna Diaz as they share the moments that defined their son's life, their difficult journey toward forgiveness, and how one family's faith is inspiring acts of kindness across the country. Hear their full God Story in the podcast below.
When Faith Had No Easy Answers
For three months after Daniel's death, David and Donna withdrew from much of the life they had known.
David stopped going to church. He stepped away from the radio ministry he had been involved with for a decade. Donna rarely went out.
Their home, once filled with the rhythm of ministry and family life, became a place of prayer, grief and difficult questions.
"What do we do after something like this? What happens now?" David remembered asking.
For a couple who had spent years ministering to people involved in crime, the loss brought an especially painful test of everything they had preached about forgiveness.
Donna remembers lying in bed, curled into a fetal position, overwhelmed by grief. A candlelight vigil was being planned near the place where Daniel had been killed, but she could hardly imagine attending.
Then came an experience she believes was deeply spiritual.
"I remember hearing, I believe it was the voice of my son Daniel. He said, 'Mom, get up. I have something for you to say.'"
She found the strength to dress and join the hundreds of people gathered with candles.
Standing before that crowd, Donna made a decision that would shape the next chapter of her family's life.
She publicly forgave the person who had killed her son.
David says the family had chosen forgiveness even before they knew who was responsible.
When several men offered to find the killer themselves, David refused.
"We want the hand of God in this," he told them.
Neither parent suggests forgiveness erased their grief or diminished the seriousness of the crime.
"I think that a lot of people feel that if they forgive, they make light of the situation or there shouldn't be any accountability," Donna explained. "And it is not that at all."
For the Diazes, forgiveness was not an absence of pain. It was a decision to refuse to let violence determine what came next.
And what came next was something few could have imagined.
Returning to the City Where They Lost Their Son
After months of prayer, David says he sensed God directing them back to Pomona.
The very place associated with their deepest heartbreak would become the center of a renewed mission.
The couple began reaching out to families affected by violence, city leaders, law enforcement and neighborhoods struggling with poverty and other hardships.
Their efforts eventually expanded into an initiative called Care Acts, bringing volunteers together to repair homes and help families facing serious needs.
David describes projects involving roofing, plumbing, electrical work, painting and other improvements for some of the community's most vulnerable homeowners.
One family's circumstances were particularly troubling.
For approximately five years, David recalled, they had lived without a functioning bathroom after work on the space had been left unfinished.
The project was far beyond a simple weekend repair. But the ministry reached out to community partners, including Home Depot, Lowe's and city representatives, and completed the renovation.
What happened afterward meant just as much to David.
The grateful family became involved in the church community and eventually began helping others.
A household that had once needed assistance was now extending it.
David says he has watched similar acts of service open doors that sermons alone sometimes could not.
"Sometimes people won't receive our words, but they'll receive our acts."
The couple says their broader outreach has now extended into five cities. They believe their ministry has contributed to positive changes in Pomona, although the extent of its effect on crime rates has not been independently established.
What is visible in their accounts are the individual lives touched, the relationships formed and a community continuing the work Daniel began.
November 11: A Different Kind of Anniversary
The first anniversary of Daniel's death brought a familiar heaviness.
Donna remembers the shadow that can settle over a family as the date of a loved one's death approaches.
Rather than allow November 11 to be defined only by loss, the Diaz family began asking another question:
What if people spent that day loving others the way Daniel had?
That question became Live Like That, Love Like That, an annual invitation to perform intentional acts of kindness in Daniel's memory.
The idea was simple. Pay for someone's groceries. Help a struggling neighbor. Visit someone who is lonely. Meet a need without expecting recognition.
The response surprised the family.
Friends, relatives and church members began participating in California, Florida, Texas, New York and beyond.
People shared videos of their acts of kindness, allowing David and Donna to see how Daniel's example was reaching others.
Some gestures were small. One participant even gave away a car to someone who needed transportation.
For Donna, one particularly meaningful act involved returning to visit the young man Daniel had befriended at the care facility. The family brought food, spent time with him and continued the relationship Daniel had started.
November 11 is also Veterans Day, and this year Donna hopes participants will extend their kindness to veterans who may be isolated, struggling or simply in need of someone to acknowledge their service.
David says the ministry is also considering helping a local family in which the husband cannot work and his wife is holding down three jobs to support their household and two young children.
Their invitation is not restricted to a particular church or even Southern California.
Anyone, anywhere, can participate.
"The only way to combat hate is to be able to love," Donna said.
Those who want to learn more about the November 11 initiative can visit New Beginning Community Ministries and share acts of kindness using #LiveLikeThat.
A Family's Story Comes to the Big Screen
Now, 13 years after Daniel's death, the family's extraordinary journey is reaching a new audience.
The upcoming film Live Like That, from Sony Pictures' AFFIRM Films and Mucho Mas Media, is scheduled to open in theaters nationwide February 26, 2027.
Directed by Dito Montiel, the film stars Esai Morales as David Diaz, Roselyn Sánchez as Donna Diaz and Carlos Pratts as Daniel.
For the couple, watching their lives portrayed on screen was both meaningful and agonizing.
Seeing the reenactment of their son's death brought painful memories rushing back.
"I think the first time that we saw the film, it was hard for us because to see him get shot again, that was, I think, emotionally very, very hard," Donna shared.
But the couple says they were grateful that the filmmakers worked closely with them to tell Daniel's story and capture the faith and forgiveness at its center.
Their hope is that audiences will leave theaters thinking about more than what happened to Daniel.
Donna wants people to consider the relationships in their own lives.
"Who can I forgive? Who do I need to forgive?"
David hopes viewers recognize their ability to make a difference in their own communities, regardless of where they live or how much they have to give.
The film may introduce Daniel to millions of people who never knew him, but his parents believe the most important part of the story will unfold beyond the theater.
In homes, neighborhoods and ordinary encounters where someone chooses to act with compassion.
The Donation of a Life
Near the end of our conversation, I asked David and Donna how they most wanted their son to be remembered.
David spoke of Daniel's devotion to God, especially when nobody was watching.
Donna recalled words Daniel had written in his Bible:
"It's not the duration of your life that counts, but the donation of your life that counts."
Those words have become more than a family keepsake. They continue to shape a ministry, an annual day of kindness and a movement that began with two grieving parents who chose to return to the city where their son was killed.
Daniel Diaz lived 33 years.
His father still remembers the day he came home barefoot because somebody else needed his shoes.
Thirteen years after his death, his parents are asking the world to follow that example.
Not necessarily by giving away a pair of shoes, but by noticing the person who needs them.
Learn more about the upcoming film at LiveLikeThatMovie.com.