BEMIDJI -- The Bemidji Area Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship of America chapter is set to meet at 8 a.m. on Saturday, May 1, at Mt. Zion Church, 414 Lincoln Ave. SE.
Mike Burkhart from LaPorte will be the guest speaker at the meeting and shared a bit of his story in a release:
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"I was raised in the hills of middle Tennessee in a community named Big Rock. My father was an alcoholic who was rarely home. My mother was and still a person with unshakeable faith who could make the worst of times bearable," Burkhart said in the release. "I joined the Marine Corps when I was 18 and served two years where I gained life skills that I still use to this day. I also discovered alcohol and drugs. Upon leaving the Marine Corps I drifted through various jobs until one of my uncles helped me get hired as a deckhand on a commercial riverboat.
"I started riding motorcycles with folks I had no business being with and my drug use increased. I started going in and out of jail for various offenses, which steadily got worse as time went on. I tried multiple times upon release from jail to quit alcohol and drugs on my own with very little success. Only after my conversion did I realize that you can't defeat a spiritual problem using natural means.
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"I was looking at some serious time in September of 1989 and decided to hang myself in the Sumner County Jail in Gallatin, Tenn. But our merciful Father had other plans and untied the knot as I hung on and then also kept me from going to prison. From that moment to this very day, all I can say is, He's still working on me. Glory to His name."
The public is invited to attend the meeting to hear more of Burkhart's story, and to worship, praise and fellowship, the release said.
