Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 8: 5 Loaves 2 Fish
44 Plays2 years ago
Mike McBride
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'Saved by Grace' Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Saved by Grace podcast, bringing you stories of hope, restoration, and God's faithful love.
00:00:09
Speaker
I'm your host, Sylvia Fuentes.
00:00:13
Speaker
Hi, and welcome to Saved by Grace.
00:00:15
Speaker
I'm your host, Sylvia Fuentes.
Mike McBride's Journey Begins
00:00:17
Speaker
And today I have a really special guest.
00:00:20
Speaker
His name is Mike McBride.
00:00:23
Speaker
Mike is going to share his amazing testimony and journey of faith as he takes us through growing up, Mike,
00:00:31
Speaker
his years as an athlete to wrestling alligators and having his God moment.
Mike's Early Christian Life
00:00:40
Speaker
Mike, welcome to Saved by Grace.
00:00:42
Speaker
Thank you.
00:00:43
Speaker
Thank you for having me.
00:00:44
Speaker
So, Mike, as I said, you know, you're going to take us on your journey, what it was growing up.
00:00:50
Speaker
Mike, Mike, you grew up in a Christian home.
00:00:53
Speaker
Yeah, my father was a deacon in a Baptist church and I don't remember not going to church.
00:01:00
Speaker
We were in, I mean, when I say we went to church, we went to church because I was in the Christian school, which was at church.
00:01:09
Speaker
And so we went Monday through Friday to school at church.
00:01:13
Speaker
Then we went Sunday twice a day.
00:01:17
Speaker
We went Wednesday nights.
00:01:19
Speaker
A youth group was Friday nights.
00:01:22
Speaker
And there was a visitation Monday night.
00:01:25
Speaker
So we were really involved in the church.
00:01:30
Speaker
And my mom was raised in the same church.
00:01:34
Speaker
So she has been a member there for over 70 years.
00:01:38
Speaker
Okay.
00:01:39
Speaker
Yeah, so...
00:01:40
Speaker
So you grew up knowing the Lord and you said early on.
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, my dad led me to the Lord.
00:01:48
Speaker
And, you know, I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was about six years old.
00:01:55
Speaker
And so I always I've always had that, you know, faith and that knowledge.
00:02:02
Speaker
And I often wondered what it would feel like not to have that knowledge of where you go when you die, you know.
00:02:10
Speaker
So I hear, you know, you've shared that you were an all-star athlete.
00:02:16
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's probably, I wouldn't have probably said All-Star, but I was a good athlete.
00:02:23
Speaker
When my dad, my dad actually founded the Christian school I went to.
Transition to Public School and Sports
00:02:29
Speaker
And when he started the school, he worked in the public school system as an athletic director.
00:02:36
Speaker
So when he started the Christian school, he said that he opened it with the intention one day that it would be big enough to have organized sports.
00:02:46
Speaker
and he played college football and I always wanted to play football, you know, and he was a wrestling coach.
00:02:56
Speaker
And so we could do that on the weekends during the summer and I started wrestling when I was like six.
00:03:04
Speaker
And so when I hit eighth grade, I finally, he said to me, he said,
00:03:11
Speaker
Do you want to go to the public school so you can play sports?
00:03:14
Speaker
And I said, yeah, I can't wait.
00:03:18
Speaker
And eighth grade, I was probably six foot 220.
00:03:23
Speaker
And I walked into the eighth grade line to get a physical, and they said, the coach's office is that way.
00:03:30
Speaker
And I said, no, I'm playing.
00:03:32
Speaker
And they said, what?
00:03:33
Speaker
And they said, we're going to win a lot of games.
00:03:36
Speaker
And so that was how it started.
00:03:41
Speaker
I wasn't an exceptional athlete as far as skills go.
00:03:47
Speaker
I was strong.
00:03:49
Speaker
I was big.
00:03:49
Speaker
I was fairly fast for my size.
00:03:54
Speaker
But I had this, I think, something that God gave me, but I had this will inside of me that I would work harder than anybody, you know, in practice just to be that, to be good.
00:04:12
Speaker
And so going through middle school and high school, high school I was a first-team All-State football player,
00:04:20
Speaker
at Atlanta Lakes High School, and I played in the Florida Shrine Bowl, which was an all-star game.
00:04:28
Speaker
I went to four national tournaments for wrestling, and in 2019, I was inducted into the Hall of Fame for high school.
00:04:41
Speaker
Then, when I got out of high school, I went off to North Greenville College.
College Football and Faith
00:04:47
Speaker
And the reason I went there is because
00:04:53
Speaker
I thought, well, I got recruited by everybody.
00:04:55
Speaker
Florida State, Miami, Florida, they all sent me letters, but I was playing offensive tackle and I was only 6'1", and they wanted you to be 6'4".
00:05:07
Speaker
And they told me, you have a spot on the team, you don't have any scholarship money.
00:05:12
Speaker
And I said, well, North Greenville College was the number one school junior college in the nation for sending players
00:05:22
Speaker
to Division I schools.
00:05:24
Speaker
So that's why I went there.
00:05:26
Speaker
And it just happened to be Baptist.
00:05:30
Speaker
We had chapel twice a week and everything like that.
00:05:33
Speaker
So it was a good transition not to get lost in the things of the world.
00:05:40
Speaker
You know, having chapel twice a week and stuff like that.
00:05:45
Speaker
And I
00:05:47
Speaker
Ended up, I walked on.
00:05:50
Speaker
I would, the coaches put me at fifth string, so there were four guys ahead of me when we walked into camp.
00:05:59
Speaker
By the second week, I was second string, and by the second game, I was starting.
00:06:05
Speaker
And at the end of the game,
00:06:10
Speaker
My freshman year, we had to go to an award ceremony in the chapel, and it was an academic award ceremony.
00:06:18
Speaker
And so the football team was all sitting in there kind of snoozing and sleeping and stuff, and I was nodding off, and the guy on the left of me elbows me, and he said, hey, he said, that old man on the stage just called your name for an award.
00:06:38
Speaker
And I said, no, he didn't.
00:06:40
Speaker
I knew who it was.
00:06:41
Speaker
It was my calculus teacher, Dr. Cook.
00:06:44
Speaker
And so my buddy on my right, I trusted more.
00:06:48
Speaker
So I said, Greg, did he call my name?
00:06:51
Speaker
And he said, yeah.
00:06:52
Speaker
So I went up and received an academic award.
00:06:55
Speaker
It was the Alvin Garrett Memorial Scholarship for the most outstanding math and science student in the freshman class.
00:07:04
Speaker
Wow.
00:07:05
Speaker
So all these things are gifts from God.
00:07:10
Speaker
It's nothing, you know.
00:07:13
Speaker
I can say I worked, but God gave me the will to work, the ability to work.
00:07:20
Speaker
So, you know, I have these things that are like credentials, awards and everything, but
00:07:28
Speaker
I owe that all God.
00:07:30
Speaker
You know, it wasn't like it was God working through me.
00:07:35
Speaker
Funny story about the academic award is like two weeks later, my head football or an assistant coach comes to my locker as I'm getting dressed and I have my pads on and he says, Coach Beard wants to see you.
00:07:51
Speaker
And I said,
00:07:53
Speaker
Well, four.
00:07:54
Speaker
And I said, he's the head coach.
00:07:56
Speaker
I'm an offensive lineman.
00:07:58
Speaker
He never talks to me, you know.
00:08:01
Speaker
And he said, I don't know if he wants to see you.
00:08:04
Speaker
I said, and my buddy says, what'd you do?
00:08:06
Speaker
I said, I didn't do nothing.
00:08:07
Speaker
So I went to Coach Beard's office and had my pads on and stuff.
00:08:11
Speaker
And I said, you want to see me, coach?
00:08:13
Speaker
And he says, yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
He said, the dean of the college wants to speak to you.
00:08:21
Speaker
I said, really?
00:08:22
Speaker
He said, yeah, what did you do?
00:08:25
Speaker
I said, I didn't do nothing, you know.
00:08:28
Speaker
I didn't do anything wrong.
00:08:30
Speaker
I didn't do anything, you know.
00:08:31
Speaker
So, he goes, put your street clothes on and go see him.
00:08:36
Speaker
I said, all right.
00:08:37
Speaker
So, I went up there and see him.
00:08:38
Speaker
And he was a...
00:08:41
Speaker
I knocked on the door that opened up, there was a secretary there.
00:08:46
Speaker
And I said, I'm here to see Dr. Epstein.
00:08:48
Speaker
And she says, I know Mike.
00:08:50
Speaker
She says, have a seat.
00:08:53
Speaker
And she called him on the phone and he said, just give him a few minutes.
00:08:57
Speaker
And I must have been sitting there looking nervous because she looked over at me and she said, Mike, don't worry, you're not in trouble.
00:09:06
Speaker
And I said, oh, that's good.
00:09:08
Speaker
So he brought me in his office and he sat me down and he said, Mike, I just want to congratulate you.
00:09:17
Speaker
You're the first student in 120 years, the history of the college.
00:09:23
Speaker
to win an academic award as a student athlete.
00:09:29
Speaker
And I said, that's a shame.
00:09:32
Speaker
And he said, that's what I said too.
00:09:34
Speaker
And he told me how he got through college on a
00:09:38
Speaker
partial baseball, partial academic scholarship.
00:09:41
Speaker
So we talked for a while and then I looked at my watch and he said, listen, if you don't want to go back out to practice, you can hang out here for the last half hour of practice and tell Good Spirit you were talking to me.
Career Shifts and Spiritual Reflection
00:09:56
Speaker
I said, okay.
00:09:57
Speaker
So
00:09:58
Speaker
So after that, North Greenville decided to become North Greenville University and go to a four-year school my sophomore year.
00:10:10
Speaker
So our head coach...
00:10:13
Speaker
didn't want his players to go to another school.
00:10:18
Speaker
So when West Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, when they all came to look at all of us, he would say, you don't want Mike, he's lazy.
00:10:28
Speaker
You don't want that, you know, there was about three of us that were getting recruited and we all, we got all those coaches that were interested in us suddenly weren't interested in us.
00:10:41
Speaker
So,
00:10:43
Speaker
I left and went to UCF and I played football there for, I was there for a semester.
00:10:53
Speaker
I only played football for probably about a month.
00:10:56
Speaker
I played with Dante Culpepper, but when I was over there, I tore my shoulder up and decided I was done with football and athletics and I was just gonna go to school.
00:11:12
Speaker
you know, that God had given me enough upstairs to, you know, to get through school and do something else with my life, you know.
00:11:20
Speaker
So I came back to USF and I was sitting around with a buddy of mine and USF announced they were going to have that open tryout and it was invitation only.
00:11:32
Speaker
And he said, I bet you 20 bucks you can't make that team.
00:11:36
Speaker
And I said, oh, I've walked on the two college football teams already.
00:11:42
Speaker
I think I could do three.
00:11:43
Speaker
So I went and talked to Coach Leavitt, and I went to the tryout they had, and there was only a couple of us that he kept, and I was like the only one that made the team.
00:11:57
Speaker
But people tell me, I say I played football at USF on the first team, and they were like, oh, I was at that game.
00:12:06
Speaker
What people don't realize is we didn't have any games.
00:12:10
Speaker
We just had scrimmages around the area for that first year.
00:12:15
Speaker
And so I coming in to my would have been my fifth year of college.
00:12:23
Speaker
Coach Levitt and I discussed it and he said he was unable, and I believe him, that he was unable to give a full scholarship to me because I only had one year and it didn't really count for anything.
00:12:40
Speaker
So we parted ways and after that I went to college
00:12:49
Speaker
My major was education.
00:12:51
Speaker
So I had an opportunity to teach Atlanta Lakes High School, ninth grade and, well it's ninth and tenth grade, but it was all math.
00:13:03
Speaker
General math, algebra, pre-algebra, and I think I had one algebra two class.
00:13:10
Speaker
But it was, I went in to teaching with the
00:13:16
Speaker
passion of it is my responsibility for these kids to leave this classroom
00:13:25
Speaker
with more knowledge than they came in here with.
00:13:30
Speaker
And I went from that attitude at the beginning of the year to let's try to keep them in their seats all class.
00:13:40
Speaker
And so... You mean 9th and 10th?
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, right?
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:46
Speaker
But...
00:13:47
Speaker
Yes, only lasted one year and then I had a buddy of mine and I was doing odds and ends jobs.
00:13:55
Speaker
I was working in a bakery and Doing other things and he said to me he said hey What are you doing this weekend?
00:14:04
Speaker
I said I don't have any plans and he said I need you to drive a truck to St.
00:14:10
Speaker
Louis for me.
00:14:10
Speaker
It's a pickup truck and I said okay, I'm not
00:14:15
Speaker
I'm not doing anything against the law.
00:14:18
Speaker
He said, no, no, no, it's all legal.
00:14:20
Speaker
I just need your whole five alligators up there.
00:14:24
Speaker
And I said, well, do I have to handle them?
00:14:27
Speaker
And he said, no, I'll get them loaded up for you.
00:14:31
Speaker
So I...
00:14:32
Speaker
Loaded them in the back of my truck and drove to St.
00:14:35
Speaker
Louis six flags over St.
00:14:38
Speaker
Louis and I watched him do alligator shows and it was amazing to me it was like It was
00:14:49
Speaker
I always enjoyed wrestling because I started that when I was six.
00:14:53
Speaker
But it was like wrestling a beast.
00:14:57
Speaker
And if you messed up, you could really get hurt.
00:15:02
Speaker
But me sitting in the audience watching him do it, and he's one of my best friends, watching him do it, I said to myself, you can do that.
00:15:15
Speaker
And so I went down out there to the show, and I said, I wanted to do that.
00:15:21
Speaker
He said, do you?
00:15:23
Speaker
He said, it'll take me three years to train you.
00:15:26
Speaker
And first of all, we had an emcee, and then we had a handler, which is the guy that caught the gator.
00:15:34
Speaker
So he said, first of all, you've got to learn the script, which was like 20 pages of having to memorize it.
00:15:42
Speaker
And that was pretty tough to do.
00:15:45
Speaker
And then you got in front of 5,000 people, sometimes more, and had to do the script.
00:15:53
Speaker
And the emcee was really the one who kind of set the tone of the show.
00:16:01
Speaker
It wasn't the alligator wrestler.
00:16:03
Speaker
You kind of were following the lead of the emcee.
00:16:06
Speaker
So I went on to do that for several years.
00:16:12
Speaker
And in that time is when I got away from God.
00:16:15
Speaker
Now, don't get me wrong.
00:16:18
Speaker
I never did an alligator show without praying.
00:16:21
Speaker
You know, I always prayed.
00:16:24
Speaker
I want to stop.
00:16:26
Speaker
I'm just thinking, first of all, I would never have gotten in that pickup with those alligators.
00:16:31
Speaker
But I can't imagine anybody, even a non-believer, would pray before wrestling an alligator, I think.
00:16:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think so.
00:16:41
Speaker
You want all the help you can get.
00:16:42
Speaker
Right.
00:16:43
Speaker
So, yeah, lead us to that moment where you realized that you were coming away from the Lord.
00:16:49
Speaker
I realized that I just... I don't like to turn my back on God, but that's kind of what I did.
00:17:04
Speaker
I was... I had been raised...
00:17:08
Speaker
in church and in christian school and i never really saw what the world had to offer and thought in my humble mind that there was something out there and i chased it and i could never find we traveled the countries we went out to bars we went you know and it was kind of like
00:17:33
Speaker
You know, I tell people, I said, you know, it's like being famous because we were on the news in every city.
00:17:38
Speaker
We're on billboards.
00:17:39
Speaker
We went into one town and look up, and there's my picture on a billboard, you know.
00:17:45
Speaker
And so we went everywhere.
00:17:47
Speaker
People knew who we were.
00:17:48
Speaker
And, you know, and it was kind of like,
00:17:54
Speaker
not as much God and more of what the world has to offer.
00:18:00
Speaker
And that lasted even when I got out of the alligator shows.
00:18:04
Speaker
Oh, I did get bit.
00:18:06
Speaker
And in my fifth show, I got 28 staples in this arm right here.
00:18:14
Speaker
And I got an ambulance ride.
00:18:16
Speaker
I called my mom.
00:18:17
Speaker
I was in Harlingen, Texas.
00:18:20
Speaker
And I called her and she said, what happened?
00:18:22
Speaker
I said, no, I'm all right.
00:18:23
Speaker
I just got a little bite.
00:18:24
Speaker
Just had a bad day at work today.
00:18:26
Speaker
I'm going to get stitched up.
00:18:28
Speaker
And they ended up putting 28 staples in it.
00:18:32
Speaker
And there was about like 15 nurses in the ER.
00:18:36
Speaker
And the doctor said to me, son, I'm sorry.
00:18:39
Speaker
There's so many nurses here.
00:18:41
Speaker
I can chase some of them out of here, but none of them have ever seen an alligator bite.
00:18:47
Speaker
I said, no, that's fine, Doc.
00:18:48
Speaker
I'm used to being in front of a crowd anyhow.
00:18:51
Speaker
So they can go ahead and stay, and we'll get it patched up.
00:18:58
Speaker
So I went on to do it for a number of years after that.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, that was the only time, the only show I. So Mike, now you're realizing that you're kind of, you know, distancing yourself from God.
00:19:13
Speaker
What brings you to that place where you notice that and you say what to yourself?
00:19:20
Speaker
I think what really brought me there, because I kind of got, you know, you had 40 years old and you're kind of,
00:19:30
Speaker
That's the end of the rope for alligator wrestling.
00:19:33
Speaker
You're not as fast and you can't move your reaction.
00:19:38
Speaker
You're just not what you were when you're 25.
00:19:40
Speaker
And we all came to the realization that we can't do this forever.
00:19:45
Speaker
So I got out, focused on catering, kept doing that, still never got back to God.
00:19:55
Speaker
And
00:19:57
Speaker
When I turned 45, two days after that, I had a massive stroke.
Health Challenges and Spiritual Awakening
00:20:03
Speaker
I was in probably the best shape of my life.
00:20:05
Speaker
I was training in the gym all the time.
00:20:08
Speaker
And it put me in the hospital.
00:20:12
Speaker
And I was unable to move the right side of my body and unable to speak.
00:20:18
Speaker
And I just cried the entire night, the first night I was in there.
00:20:25
Speaker
I cried because I realized then how much I was going to need God moving forward.
00:20:33
Speaker
And I realized how much that I had gotten away from him.
00:20:40
Speaker
And that should have never happened in the first place, but it did.
00:20:44
Speaker
And so I knew that I had to get back to him first.
00:20:52
Speaker
If I...
00:20:55
Speaker
Because if I didn't do that, I wasn't gonna get right physically, heal my body if I didn't have my heart right with God.
00:21:03
Speaker
So,
00:21:07
Speaker
The doctor came in the first night and told me I might never walk again and I might never be able to use my arm again.
00:21:13
Speaker
And he didn't know about my speech.
00:21:17
Speaker
And I don't like hospitals.
00:21:20
Speaker
And I was like, get me out of here.
00:21:22
Speaker
So I ended up walking out with a walker on the third day.
00:21:28
Speaker
And here we are again at that point that's inside of you that made me a good athlete.
00:21:36
Speaker
It's something that God gave me, and it's a will.
00:21:40
Speaker
And, you know, I prayed, you know, that God would heal me.
00:21:45
Speaker
And somebody once told me in college, pray as though everything is entirely up to God and work as though it's entirely up to you.
00:21:58
Speaker
And that's what I did.
00:22:00
Speaker
I went to physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and
00:22:05
Speaker
went to all three of them one time.
00:22:08
Speaker
And I said, you guys won't push me as hard as I will.
00:22:11
Speaker
I went and got a gym membership and started going twice a day and training myself and walking on the treadmill.
00:22:20
Speaker
And then I built up to a jog and started, you know, really spending about six hours a day doing physical therapy and, you know, trying to talk and,
00:22:34
Speaker
I had some printout sheets to work on from that.
00:22:38
Speaker
But that was the changing point.
00:22:44
Speaker
It took me having a stroke to realize that I was away from God.
00:22:55
Speaker
How far away from God I was.
00:22:58
Speaker
The girl I was dating at the time,
00:23:01
Speaker
she was also raised in the same church I was, and she had gotten away from God too.
00:23:08
Speaker
And at the time of the stroke, I sat her down and I said, listen, we have to change.
00:23:16
Speaker
Now, I said, we've got to get back to God.
00:23:20
Speaker
And I know God's in their heart.
00:23:22
Speaker
And so she changed with me.
00:23:26
Speaker
And then we got married.
00:23:28
Speaker
But anyways, to...
00:23:31
Speaker
They found out what caused the stroke was a bad aortic valve.
00:23:36
Speaker
So I went through a couple heart catheters and they, my Sunday school teacher was also my cardiologist.
00:23:50
Speaker
So it was great because I knew this man was going to tell me everything that's truthful.
00:23:55
Speaker
He said, I don't want you to get a cow or a pig valve because those flash valves only last around 15 years and you're young.
00:24:05
Speaker
He said, I want you to get an artificial valve, which means you're going to be on blood thinners and stuff the rest of your life.
00:24:11
Speaker
And so, but he said, I want to put it off as long as we can.
00:24:18
Speaker
because medicine changes every day.
00:24:23
Speaker
And so he said, in a year, something better may come along.
00:24:30
Speaker
So we waited.
00:24:33
Speaker
And I went to the Keys for lobster season, diving about two years after the stroke.
00:24:43
Speaker
And I had this real bad chest pain.
00:24:47
Speaker
And I said, I'm not, I'm done.
00:24:50
Speaker
And so when I got back, I went to him.
00:24:51
Speaker
He did another heart cath and he said, it's time.
00:24:55
Speaker
And so I went in for what was supposed to be minimally invasive open heart surgery.
00:25:05
Speaker
And they were supposed to cut me on the side and go in between the ribs.
00:25:11
Speaker
Well, I was split wide open when I woke up.
00:25:16
Speaker
And they sent me home after about a week and I started swelling, you know, and I was just swelling, swelling, swelling.
00:25:26
Speaker
And my wife, being a cardiac nurse, she said, we're going to the walk-in ER.
00:25:32
Speaker
And we went down there and they did x-rays and MRIs and everything.
00:25:35
Speaker
And they said, if there's a problem, we will call you.
00:25:39
Speaker
And so...
00:25:42
Speaker
They called at like four in the morning.
00:25:44
Speaker
Actually, my surgeon called at four in the morning.
00:25:47
Speaker
He said, get Mike in here now.
00:25:49
Speaker
He's, we got issues.
00:25:52
Speaker
He's bleeding internally.
00:25:55
Speaker
So she rushed me to the hospital.
00:25:58
Speaker
They cut me open again.
00:26:04
Speaker
apparently didn't fix it either because I kept bleeding internally and That's when I was laying in the bed with a breathing tube in and I supposed to be unconscious I think and the doctor came in and told the nurse that he has about a five percent chance to live and That's when I said to myself.
00:26:28
Speaker
I said you don't know my god if he wants me here.
00:26:32
Speaker
He'll be here and
00:26:33
Speaker
But it went on, a few days went on before they did the surgery.
00:26:37
Speaker
And I finally, I gave up.
00:26:44
Speaker
I just asked God to take me home.
00:26:46
Speaker
I was tired of fighting.
00:26:48
Speaker
For the first time in my life, I had that will that God had given me.
00:26:53
Speaker
And I just felt like I didn't have it anymore.
00:26:56
Speaker
I was done.
00:26:57
Speaker
And so I asked God to give everybody that loved me peace.
00:27:03
Speaker
and to take me home.
00:27:05
Speaker
And I went in for the third surgery, and by then my liver shut down, my kidneys shut down, I was on dialysis.
00:27:16
Speaker
And the next thing I know, I'm in recovery again.
00:27:21
Speaker
I'm back in the CV ICU unit.
00:27:24
Speaker
And I had this nurse, and I don't claim to have ever met angels,
00:27:33
Speaker
I'm sure I will one day, but I felt like she, she was the charge nurse and she told everybody else, you take care of everybody else.
00:27:44
Speaker
I'm going to take care of Mike.
00:27:46
Speaker
And she stayed with me the whole time.
00:27:49
Speaker
And even when she, she got my COVID test back and she says, well, I got to tell you, we got your COVID test back and it came back positive.
00:28:00
Speaker
You have COVID.
00:28:01
Speaker
I said, what does that mean?
00:28:03
Speaker
She said, it doesn't really mean nothing for you.
00:28:06
Speaker
You're going to die of a lot of other things first.
00:28:09
Speaker
And then had a grin on her face, and I started laughing.
00:28:14
Speaker
And, you know, it was...
00:28:18
Speaker
I needed that.
00:28:19
Speaker
You know, I needed that sense of humor, you know, going through that time.
00:28:23
Speaker
So I started healing and then they put me in a COVID unit and it was like a five star hotel.
00:28:31
Speaker
It was 10 foot ceilings, wood floors, 65 inch TV.
00:28:37
Speaker
I was watching the Bucks games, you know, and yeah.
00:28:41
Speaker
But they wouldn't let me out because it was a COVID unit and kept me for 16 days.
00:28:47
Speaker
I was in that room for 16 days.
00:28:50
Speaker
And finally, I was got a hold of my surgeon's office.
00:28:54
Speaker
And I said, I need to see him.
00:28:56
Speaker
I need to see him soon.
00:28:58
Speaker
And so he came over and I said, Doc, I need to get out of here.
00:29:05
Speaker
I need to get out of this hospital so I can start to heal.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:10
Speaker
And I had a drain tube.
00:29:12
Speaker
It was wrapped around my heart.
00:29:15
Speaker
And he said, I don't send anybody home with drain tubes normally.
00:29:19
Speaker
But since your wife is a cardiac nurse and I know what you mean, I'll discharge you today.
00:29:28
Speaker
And I wanted to hug the man, you know, because I just, I was sick of hospitals.
00:29:33
Speaker
So,
00:29:35
Speaker
One thing I just want to mention, we're kind of like running on time here, but your multi-system shutdown, your liver, your kidneys, those are signs that everything, you know, your body and the liver and the kidneys are filter systems for our body.
00:29:55
Speaker
You know, so there in itself, there's a miracle, you know, so you're asking him like, hey, I my resolve is done, but he's providing miracle after miracle because just the fact that your aortic valve wasn't in place correctly is a grand miracle.
00:30:13
Speaker
So we see he's the healer.
00:30:16
Speaker
He's a miracle worker.
00:30:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah, without a doubt.
00:30:19
Speaker
I think of one thing as you're sharing your story in Proverbs.
00:30:22
Speaker
I believe it's Proverbs.
00:30:23
Speaker
It says, train a child up in the way he should go.
00:30:25
Speaker
And when he is old, he will not depart from it.
00:30:29
Speaker
Right.
00:30:29
Speaker
And obviously the story of the prodigal son, Mike.
00:30:33
Speaker
Mike, before we end, you have a very important ministry that has come.
00:30:40
Speaker
you know, God has laid this on your heart, which is the five loaves, two fish.
00:30:44
Speaker
Can you share with our listeners about that?
Starting a Ministry and Embracing Purpose
00:30:47
Speaker
Yes.
00:30:47
Speaker
In fact, that was just about what I was going to get into.
00:30:52
Speaker
So when I got home and started to heal and started to recover, I started getting closer to God, reading my Bible and everything.
00:31:00
Speaker
And I said, this life is no longer mine.
00:31:05
Speaker
This is your life.
00:31:07
Speaker
I gave it up in the hospital.
00:31:09
Speaker
What would you have me do?
00:31:12
Speaker
And it just so happened that we had family friends, good family friends that lost
00:31:20
Speaker
women in their lives separately it was two separate families but both the families came from means you know they had money and so my father came to me and he said I will pay for the food if you cook it so we did dinners for the funerals for the memorial services and
00:31:42
Speaker
And both men came up to me and said, how much do I owe you?
00:31:48
Speaker
And I said, you don't owe me nothing.
00:31:51
Speaker
It's been paid.
00:31:54
Speaker
And they said, come on now, I know it costs something.
00:31:57
Speaker
And each one of these men could have probably bought my company.
00:32:02
Speaker
But I said, no, it's paid.
00:32:05
Speaker
And in a way, that's what Jesus did for us.
00:32:10
Speaker
You know, he said, how do I get to heaven?
00:32:14
Speaker
You can't.
00:32:15
Speaker
Your debt has already been paid, you know.
00:32:19
Speaker
So that feeling in my heart that I got from telling them, it led me to start Five Loaves and Two Fish.
00:32:28
Speaker
And I wanted to get out there and reach people.
00:32:33
Speaker
First of all, with food, people that were hungry, that didn't know where the next meal was coming from.
00:32:41
Speaker
And second of all, reach them with God.
00:32:44
Speaker
Because that's, you know, more important than food.
00:32:48
Speaker
You know, I'd rather have God than food.
00:32:50
Speaker
So five loaves and two fish, you'd say, feeds them physically and feeds them spiritually.
00:32:56
Speaker
It does.
00:32:56
Speaker
That's our mission statement.
00:33:00
Speaker
Feed them physically and feed them spiritually.
00:33:02
Speaker
So anyone who wants to connect with you, learn more about five loaves and two fish, how can they do that?
00:33:09
Speaker
They can do that by going to fiveloaves-twofish.org.
00:33:16
Speaker
And it's the number five and the number two.
00:33:19
Speaker
Fiveloaves-twofish.org.
00:33:23
Speaker
We are fairly new, but we're going to eventually get to a place where we will need volunteers.
00:33:32
Speaker
What I'm asking for from people right now is prayer and prayer.
00:33:39
Speaker
as far as guidance, that we stay in God's will.
00:33:43
Speaker
And then down the road, we're going to need volunteers, and we're going to need donations.
00:33:51
Speaker
And you can do all of that on the website.
00:33:53
Speaker
You can sign up to volunteer.
00:33:57
Speaker
But most of all, prayer is what we need right now.
00:33:59
Speaker
Amen.
00:34:00
Speaker
Well, you definitely have our prayers here at Saved by Grace.
00:34:03
Speaker
Thank you.
00:34:03
Speaker
Mike, I want to thank you for sharing your amazing testimony.
00:34:07
Speaker
We see God's love, his redemption, his restoration, his healing power.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:13
Speaker
I went to the Lord seeking a passage in scripture for you, and this is what he impressed upon my heart.
Conclusion and Reflections
00:34:23
Speaker
It's Proverbs 19, 21.
00:34:26
Speaker
Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
00:34:32
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:33
Speaker
Amen.
00:34:33
Speaker
He always does prevail.
00:34:35
Speaker
Yeah, he does.
00:34:37
Speaker
And we know that his plans and his thoughts are always way better than ours.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:42
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:43
Speaker
And beyond ours.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yes.
00:34:44
Speaker
Amen.
00:34:45
Speaker
So, Mike, would you mind closing us out in a prayer?
00:34:48
Speaker
Not at all.
00:34:49
Speaker
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for us, Lord.
00:34:55
Speaker
Thank you for giving me the chance to sit here with Sylvia and share your story that you have done through me.
00:35:03
Speaker
And Lord, I just ask that, you know, if there's somebody out there that doesn't know you, that they will reach out and get to know you.
00:35:13
Speaker
If there's somebody that's gotten away from you,
00:35:16
Speaker
that you're always there to take them back.
00:35:20
Speaker
Thank you for all you've done for us.
00:35:23
Speaker
We ask all this in your name.
00:35:25
Speaker
Amen.
00:35:26
Speaker
Amen.
00:35:28
Speaker
That's been another episode of Saved by Grace.
00:35:30
Speaker
I thank you all for tuning in.
00:35:32
Speaker
Till next time.
00:35:34
Speaker
Thank you for tuning in to Saved by Grace podcast.
00:35:37
Speaker
Do you have a God story that you'd like to share with the world?
00:35:40
Speaker
If so, please send us a message to Saved by Grace, P-D-C-S-T, at gmail.com.