Joe McKeever

Steve and I have been on the receiving end of many financial blessings since we have been in the ministry and we cannot begin to express what those tangible,monetary gifts have meant to us over the years. They came, and still come at the precise moment we need them. When we were preparing for the ministry there were times we didn't know how we were going to eat or how we would pay the electric bill. Early on in our ministry we decided to help others just as we have been helped.

When one recieves a monetary gift, it not only relieves the immediate need but it refreshes the soul and gives you the strength to press on.

For the record, Steve and Ann Corbin are full-time volunteers serving with Global Maritime Ministries at the Reserve, LA, center, upriver from New Orleans some 20 miles. As "Mission Service Corps" missionaries, they raise their own support. They are such valuable members of our local team and we thank God for them, as well as for every person who contributes to their support which frees them up to touch the lives of thousands of men and women coming off the ships to our port.

I was 17 and it was a March day in 1974, spring break to be exact. I had been through a particularly tough time at home and just wanted to get away from the turmoil for a while, so I caught a ride into town with a friend and decided to walk around downtown a bit. If you have never seen Columbus, Mississippi in the spring time you have truly missed God’s revelation of Himself through His creation!

While I was walking about, I encounter a man coming out of the garage of his home pushing a lawn mower, he then stopped me to ask for my help in cranking it. He was a recovering heart patient he told me. It was ok for him to push the mower, but not crank it his doctor told him. I helped, he said he was grateful and then I went on my way. It had been awhile since I had done something like that, that was "outside of my self". To help someone else felt really good. The childhood story of the Good Samaritan came to mind and I felt the need to talk to someone about the feelings I had about helping some else. I remembered Joe Gillis of Columbus had given me the phone number of First Baptist Columbus after a particular spiritual conversation we had together. He encouraged me to go visit the pastor there sometime. I had tucked the number in my wallet and had not thought about it until that spring day.

I was walking down College St. when I encountered the elder gent which put me in the neighborhood of First Baptist, so I decided to walk to the church, instead of calling, and visit the pastor. When I entered the church and made my way to the pastor's office area, Connie Hammett the Pastor's secretary greeted me and I ask to see the him. She told me she would check and as she opened the door to his office I could see box after box stacked in the office and a dark haired man removing books from those boxes and placing them on the shelves. She spoke with him and he told her to invite me in. As I entered his office his inviting and gentle personality and pearly white smile greeted me. I felt at ease...

He asked why I had come and I shared with him the incident with the elder gent and how it made me think about the Bible story of the Good Samaritan. He related to me of how my actions we similar to those of the Good Samaritan and how like the Samaritan I went out of my comfort zone to help someone in need. Then he told me about Jesus who loved me so much that He did the same thing for me by dying on a cross and rose again to give me a life with a God that keeps giving of His love even when I was at my worst as someone that was separated from Him by my sins.

After realizing the condition of my heart, I knew I needed this Jesus to forgive me and wanted a relationship with a God that thinks of me above Himself. He then lead me in a prayer that would radically alter my life and set me on a path that was going to lead me to many more encounters with others that would need God’s love and how God would allow me to demonstrate that love to them by my actions.

I have never looked back… and Joe, that’s the way it happened over 34 years ago during your first week on the job at First Baptist Church in Columbus Mississippi. To this day Joe you are still a loving friend, mentor, encourager and "dad" to me.

Since that day, every time I or any member of my family thinks of Joe McKeever we do it… “for love “.

Dave,Tammy and The Boyz
Ps. 71:18

Joe: It has been a very good blessing in my life that people along my journey have helped me with small gifts of money. They helped me get through college and also seminary.

When enrolling the first semester of my seminary training I was walking across the campus. Our Vice President came along and asked, 'How are things going". Not "very well I replied". We went on to discuss the problem. A check that would have covered my tuition was late in arriving and as a result I was not able to register. That would have meant that I would have lost that first semester and not begun classes until Jan. Dr. H. I. Hester, the Vice President then told me to go to the Registrar and tell him to register you that your expenses are covered. I did so and was able to register.

Later when I received the expected check I went to Dr. Hester and said, "I have come to pay you the money for my tuition". He said "it has already been taken care of and you do not owe anything". I thanked him and was very grateful for the help.

To this day I do not know whether he or someone he knew would be willing to help that paid my bill. Whoever it was I am eternally grateful. Since that time I have tried to help others along the way.