Hey Everybody!

My name is Keith Michael and I live in South Carolina.  I attended Greenville Technical College and will be transferring to North Greenville University in the fall.  So about my family... I have two older brothers; one is 22 the other 25.  They are two of the greatest role models I know and I really look up to both of them and learn a lot from them as well.  I have the most wonderful parents that support me in all that I do.  Well about me…  I played on my high school varsity baseball team 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th grade years, and  I mean like that’s all that I did was play baseball.  My mindset was to play college ball, but God had a different plan for me.  My junior year I had college scouts & offers to play at multiple colleges around the state.  One week our team was invited to go play in a spring break tournament in Hilton Head.  We made to the championship game and my first at bat, I hit a double. When I was sliding head first into second base, I dislocated my shoulder, and eventually had to have surgery to repair a torn labrum.  Colleges stopped looking at me and my baseball career was over in a flash.  So I just started blaming God saying why now! Why me! WHY!  I know now that God answered by saying, “Keith, I have a plan for you.”

I went to Greenville Tech praying and asking God to guide me and show me what it is He wants me to do and where He wants me to go.   I finished a year at Greenville Tech, but still did not know what He had for me.  I started working out at the gym a lot my first year in college, and I found out that Greenville Tech had a personal training program that could be completed in two or three semesters.  I started in the fall and finished my first semester in December.  The beginning of January, I went to Passion 2011 in Atlanta GA.  That whole week God just rocked my world!  God showed me who He really is! He showed me that He is worth all our affections!  He showed me that He had to be my focus.

When I came back home, I knew I had a whole new path that God laid out for me, and I was definitely not going to miss it.  So I stopped on the path that was leading me towards a personal training certificate, and I went down the new path that God had for me.  I started praying about what colleges I needed to apply to for studying some sort of ministry!  My family and I asked my church family to pray as well, and I just prayed and prayed asking God to guide me and show me where I need to go.  Two months of many prayers, much research, and many phone calls led me to apply to North Greenville University.  I must admit my transfer grades were not excellent and I just didn’t want to get my hopes up.  A month went by and I finally receive a big envelope from North Greenville University with my name on it.  I took a deep breath and as I was reading the letter, I felt like Rudy Rudager in the movie Rudy.  I was ecstatic!  Fist pumps were going everywhere! And I was thanking Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior because I knew it was only because of His grace that I had been accepted.

This brings me now to the expedition trip to Africa this summer.  Ever since Passion 2011, I felt like God was calling me to go somewhere and join Him in His work. I just didn’t know where He wanted me to go.  About a month ago I just stumbled across this site called Adventures in Missions.  I dug deeper in the site and felt like God was telling me that this one was the mission trip He had for me.   I told my family about how I felt very strongly about going, so we prayed and prayed asking God to bluntly swing open or slam the door shut. One week of intense praying went by and I applied with a week left on the deadline.   I clicked submit and 3 days later I had my interview.  Then I just gave it to God & more prayer went into this trip.  I mean, shoot! You can’t go wrong with more PRAYER!  Within THREE days I was accepted! I was speechless then I started thinking about the money and how I was going to raise all of it.  It was like God yanking me back and saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, do you not remember all that I’ve done for you!”  It was a reality check and I’m trusting in Him and praying that I will have all the money when the deadline hits.  I haven’t had a lot of time to raise money or prepare, but I believe I am suppose to go on the mission trip and I can’t wait to see what God will teach me.

It’s funny how God works. I went down a path hoping to play college baseball,  then down a path of just half-heartedly going to school, and settling on the personal training path, but somehow winding up at Passion 2011 where God rocked my world.  I know that my experience there put me on the path to North Greenville University and ultimately to a mission trip to Africa.  Five years ago, heck, 1 year ago, I didn’t see myself ever doing this, but the beautiful thing about the God we serve is that He saw it!  God already knew that all of this was going to happen before it happened! I mean that is so amazing! He puts us on these paths until we are where we need to be! Really, where we long to be!  The only way to find God’s plan and purpose is to first accept Jesus Christ as Savior and build a RELATIONSHIP with Him.  And that’s the bottom line, I have learned that we are here on this earth for one reason only and that is to build an army for Jesus Christ, to make His WORTH known, and to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible!  I can’t wait to serve alongside my brothers & sisters in Christ.