The Birth of the Nehemiah Building Ministries Vision
By Michael R. Keller, P.E.
To understand Nehemiah Building Ministries' unique mission, I feel compelled to explain how God presented this vision to me over a period of several years. Please allow me a short period of time to explain how I was prepared for this calling both spiritually and professionally.
Mike Keller had the chance to visit with a gypsy family during a church construction project in Simand, Romania.
The U.S. Navy served as my primary, professional training ground. Prior to entering this ministry, I served as an Officer in the U. S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps. I resigned my commission after nearly 12 years on active duty in March of 2000 to start this ministry. During my time in the Navy I was stationed in New Orleans, LA, Gulfport, MS, and Norfolk, VA. The Navy afforded me the opportunity to learn about construction, facility maintenance and contract management.
During my active duty career I was blessed to spend five years with the Navy Seabees in a number of leadership and staff positions. As a Company Commander, I led Seabees in disaster recovery efforts in Florida, after Hurricane Andrew; in Somalia, during Operation Restore Hope; as well as in Rota, Spain and the Middle East during routine deployments. As a staff officer I had the opportunity to plan and oversee Seabee operational and exercise deployments throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. This included supporting major Joint Task Forces in Haiti and Bosnia.
Spiritually, I was raised in the Catholic Church. At no time during my childhood did I ever doubt the gospel message; however, I never comprehended a personal relationship with God. I began to drift away from the church in the sixth grade, soon after receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. Throughout college and the first several years of my marriage I searched for God several times; however, I didn't find Him. At the time I was under the illusion that living a basically good life and being a good person would take care of everything I needed in eternity.
Soon after the Navy moved my family to Virginia Beach, VA we began attending a small, non-denominational, independent church. For the first time in my life I saw people truly worshiping God. As I witnessed this, I felt nothing - other than a deep feeling that I was missing something. Once again I began to search for God and try to determine, once and for all, what I believed in. At a Promise Keepers conference in Washington, DC, I realized that Christ was the way, and the truth. All of the "stories" I learned as a child were the "truth" and not just stories. It also became clear that God had his hand on me when I didn't even realize it. My life has never been the same since that time. Again, God showed his faithfulness to my family and me by surrounding us with a wonderful group of mentors who made sure that we learned His word.
Early in my walk I was exposed to a Youth Missions trip. It was a very good trip; however, it became evident that engineering and project management expertise would improve the overall program. Over the next several years I worked with our church's Youth Pastor to grow this program in complexity and success. The tools to do this were given to me by all of my experience with the Seabees.
The missions trip was a very important time in my growth and an answer to prayer. Prior to the trip I didn't clearly see how I fit into our church. As a very stereotypical engineer, I didn't think that I had anything to offer. As the summer missions program grew, I did find my niche and God showed me that He was the reason I had these skills and that I was going to use them to serve Him.
A lunchtime bible study introduced me to Nehemiah. While doing my homework one night, at about 2 am, I read "Those who carried materials did their work with one hand and held a weapon in the other, and each of the builders wore his sword at his side as he worked." (Nehemiah 4:17b-18) To my surprise, I was reading a summary of exactly how my beloved Seabees operated. The Seabee motto is "We build! We fight!" and their symbol is a bee with a gun and several tools in its hands. (I immediately woke up my wife and shared this with her. At the time she wasn't as enthusiastic about this discovery as I was.) I began an in-depth study of Nehemiah and saw a literal storehouse of ideas in leadership, project management, and how the church should approach problems.
Throughout this time of growing in the Lord, I became more and more convinced that the Navy was my calling. In March of 1998, God began to show me that he had different plans when I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. This was a very humbling experience. After surgery and one month of radiation treatments, I was cancer-free. God continually showed me that He is the one who is constantly faithful and that He can get me through anything. He also let me know that it was time for my life to change.
One year later I was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. As I began the process of getting new orders, I attempted to keep my family in the Norfolk area. This request would allow some additional time to learn more about some developmental problems we were experiencing with my son. I told the personnel responsible about our issues and my concerns and it became very clear that the Navy would not allow us to stay. At the same time I began to share the vision of this ministry with my wife and close friends. After much prayer and several attempts to convince the Navy that I needed to remain in Norfolk, it became clear that God was closing one door and opening another. The enthusiasm of many of our friends in the concept of a ministry for engineers to support churches seemed to be well received. If nothing else, it was a unique idea.
Nehemiah Building Ministries was incorporated, as a non-profit corporation, in the Commonwealth of Virginia in January 2000. Since leaving the Navy God has been faithful to my family and provided for us more than we could have imagined. He has blessed the ministry with opportunity and growth in our first year. We stand excited today to see what He has in store for us.
