Michael's Story
Michael Doty was born October 31, 1980 in Bridgeport Connecticut. Throughout his childhood from age 10, he dreamed of going into the military. At the age of 19 he began his career in the Navy where he served for 4 years in the administrative field. Although the Navy was a great experience for him, he decided to leave. Upon an honorable discharge he went back home to live in Connecticut. It was then that love struck. Mike met Fanegie and fell in love. In early 2006 Mike proposed to Fanegie at Rockefeller Center on February 25th. The greatest time in Mike's life was when he proposed to Fanegie.
His career highlight was when he got to work with Protect Ya Neck/Wu-Tang Management and The Source Magazine early in his entertainment career. At this point, Michael no longer is in the entertainment industry. He has chosen to focus on owning his own business with his soon-to-be wife.
Some interests of Mike's are; music, skiing, painting, listening to AUDIO books. FOOTBALL (DALLAS COWBOYS), Basketball (BULLS), Baseball (METS), Television (History Channel, Animal Planet, The Apprentice, Deal or no Deal, etc), Studying secret socities, reading the Bible, Business, Video games (MADDEN), Writing, Financial Education, Writing Marketing and Business plans, Conspiracy theories, etc.
Some people Mike has always admired are:
-JESUS (number 1 ...the rest are in no particular order )
-Steve Hill- Evangelist/Pastor
-Donald Trump- Media Mogul, Author, Real Estate Tycoon, and Businessman
-Alfred Watts- Pastor, Motivational Speaker , and Attorney
-Robert Kiyosaki- Author, Businessman, and Financial Genius
-Donny Deutsch- Television Host, Author, Advertising Guru, and Businessman
-T.D. Jakes- Pastor, Teacher, and Author
-Tom Doty- His Dad, Great Writer and Mr. Sikorsky
-Troy Aikman- Hall of Fame Football Player (Dallas), Business owner,
and Sports Announcer
-Jerry Jones- Owner of the Dallas Cowboys
-Bill Gates- Accomplished Businessman, and Author
-Warren Buffett- The Genius of the Stocks and an excellent Businessman
Michael is very excited to move to New York. He has always wanted to live there, and to top it off, he is going to live there with the love of his life! This is a new and wonderful chapter of his life that he cannot wait to start.
My Testimony
Born in 1980, I’m now 26 and happy to declare my love for Jesus Christ. However, it wasn’t always that way. I witnessed; drug use, emotional and physical abuse, constant fighting, and many other horrible things as a child. One day I went to school and told the principal I wasn’t going to go home that day. I was fed up and asked to live with my father. That day I spoke to a social worker from my elementary school. Soon after, my dad came and picked me up. After that day it turned into a long drawn out custody battle. It seemed like years. The final outcome was decided when I was ten years old. After that, I went to live with my father for good.
Because my father was a Christian, I began going to church with my father. I rejected the teachings of Jesus for a while. I thought, If Jesus really loved me why would he let me go through all this stuff as a young kid. People were telling me how much Jesus cared for me. In turn, I was telling them how long Jesus allowed me stay in an abusive situation. I was very angry. I remember fighting in school. Eventually I gave my life to Jesus around twelve years old. However, I still had a tremendous amount of anger inside. I can remember times I would swear at teachers, throw desks at them, etc. I also remember taking what I called, “ Mike Doty half days.” I would just walk out of school at 12:00 and go home. When I started this I was around thirteen. Around this time I had many friends that were in gang related activity. I started listening to rappers like; Wu Tang, Mobb Deep, Nas, Biggie, Tupac, etc. I thought I was living the hard life. I was around people who owned guns and used them. I was around people crazy enough to take pictures with their own guns right in their hand.
My High School years were not much glamorous either. I started selling drugs and pursuing dreams of becoming a rapper. I didn’t care about school. I wanted to rap and I was starting to make the connections to do so. I thought I was going to have it all, so I dropped out of school. By this time most of my so-called friends were in jail. One for rape, others for violence, and others were always coming in and out of the system. Yeah, that was really cool to be down. My father always told me I was going to end up in jail if I didn’t stop. At the age of 18, I got kicked out of my house. I began to hate my father. I was now living with my sister. After she got sick of me, I was living on the streets. I went from home to home of people I knew. Literally living day to day. I didn’t know where my next meal was coming from and I didn’t have the luxury of thinking about it. I had to live for the moment. When I was out of options, I went back to my sister and asked her if I could stay with her. She was not happy but let me stay anyway. She always told me to do something with myself but I never listen ed . I just swore at her and told her to leave me alone.
During my time on the streets, I used to always walk by First Assembly of God. It was a small church at the time. However small it was, it reminded me of my father constantly teaching me to seek God. I began going to the church and recommitted my life to Jesus. This time I had to remember to stay strong because I knew I had a hard road ahead of me. I met so many great people at the church. When my sister kicked me out again, this time God only knows what for, one couple took me in and let me stay with them and their two children for a while. From there I got a job and started working for a living. It was hard. I didn’t know why I was working and hated every minute of it. When it was time for me to live on my own, I got a room right next to the church. It was literally next door.
I forgot to let you guys know how I got started even paying my rent due to all my spare funds being used up for food. Well, as I was going to the church I began to have this crazy amount of fire for Jesus. I told people about Jesus everywhere I went. Since I was living alone, the only person I could talk to was Jesus. Cell phones did not exist with me. Not because I didn’t want one, It was because I couldn’t afford one. So anyway, I was constantly ministering to people. The pastor of the church started letting me to pray over people at the alter. God was doing a tremendous work in my life. One day I was at a church event of all the local churches in the area. When it was prayer time I felt God telling me to go and minister to these two people I didn’t even know. I don’t know what happened from there. God got a hold of me and I started praying and prophesying over these two gentlemen. We met and built an excellent friendship. They started to come to First Assembly of God. One Wednesday night at Bible study, one of the gentlemen called me over. He handed an envelope. I took it and said thank you without looking in it. I went into the bathroom and opened it. There was $1,000.00 in the envelope. It was very funny that this happened because that very night was the first night I moved into my room and was worried about funds to eat and pay rent. I remember praying to God during the Bible study’s worship time. I remember saying, “God, I don’t know how I am going to survive. I have very little for food and two weeks until I get my next paycheck. Please do something.” I guess you can say God answered that prayer. God not only answered but gave me more than I could ever expect. Especially, because I didn’t expect anything in the first place.
After all the money was spent on rent and other entertainment items, I had to look for another job. I had no car so I walked about 1 1ž2 - 2 miles to my job at K-Mart. It wasn’t too soon before I found myself not wanting to work at a place that paid me $5.15 an hour. Because I was involved in church I got to know a lot of people. I would regularly speak to Pastors and people in leadership positions at churches all over the county. One pastor got me a job at the business he started but was no longer working at. I started operating Lathe Machines. For those of you who don’t now what that is, unless you want to be bored and unimpressed, then please keep it that way. My job consisted of me getting up in the morning, walking about another mile in the other direction of my job at K-Mart, and working all day, for $6.75 per hr. Not glamorous at all. One day I woke up, went to work and said to myself, “I have to make something out of myself because this is not the life I want to live.” So at 18 I made the choice to go into the Navy. It was probably one of the smartest decisions I made for myself. I failed the military entrance exam (ASVAB) my first time taking it. This meant I couldn’t take it again for another 2 months. I moved into my first apartment and not soon after, I lost my job at the machine shop. I was stressed out. I was 18, making $6.75 an hour, trying to make a rent of $425.00. I started talking to my father when I went back to church and he gave me a car. I still had to pay the insurance. Because I was a new driver my insurance was $275.00 per month. Because of all this stress I had my first episode of Kidney Stones. I wouldn’t wish them on anybody.
So I was at the position in my life where I was now out of my apartment. I was bouncing from house to house again. This time I was living with different people from the church. I was still studying to take the ASVAB. This time I had to go back to school to get a high school diploma. The Navy would only take me if I got a certain score on the ASVAB test. Since I failed the first time, the recruiter suggested I go back to high school. This pushed my next test back for another year. So I was going to high school, not having a place to live and praying the Navy would just decide to take me anyway. The latter never happened. I was literally living out of my backpack. At night I had my books in the bag below my clothes. At school I had my books on top and my clothes on the bottom. I was moving like a bag lady. Taking all my stuff with me wherever I went. Only I didn’t have the luxury of a shopping cart. My belongings consisted of one pair of jeans, boxers, socks, and two clean shirts. I also had to stuff a social studies and a math book in my bag. Despite all the uncertainty I graduated in a year. I managed to do 2 years worth of high school in one year. I went to day and night school and took whatever independent courses they gave me.
After graduating with honors I wasted no time and went to take another test for the Navy. On this test I scored too high. Let me explain. If someone fails, and they take it a second time, they can only get 30 points better than their previous score. I got more than 50 points more than my previous score. I couldn’t believe this. The navy was not going to accept the score just because of that fact. My recruiter pulled some strings and got me another test the next day. I spent the night in a hotel paid for by the Navy and I took the test the next day. I had to pass it because the next test was 3 months from then. I prayed and prayed and prayed some more. They woke me up at 4 in the morning. Despite me not being a good test taker, especially in the morning, I passed with 5 points over a failing score. Wow! I was finally in the navy.
Boot camp was simple for me. Although I had some rough patches I got through it ok. The way I looked at it, I spent the last 2 years of my life in a boot camp. When I got to my first squadran I found my first church home, Faith House of Refuge. The people were great and for the first time in my life I had a car and was actually paying for it! Life was great. Some years later I switched church homes and met another bunch of great people. My dad and I were also talking again and became quite close. God really worked out the forgiveness I needed to have for him.
When I got out of the Navy I began working for Protect Ya Neck Records/Wu-Tang Management. I presented a gospel division to the co-founder of Wu-Tang who also became a Christian! I got a chance to work with; The Source, Wu/PYN Records, Top Lawyers, etc. in the entertainment industry for Jesus. I eventually gave this up to pursue other business ventures in which I am still pursuing to this day. My dad is my bestman for my wedding. My mother and I also started talking and now have a fairly good relationship. God has healed all.
The Love of My life
First and foremost, the love of my life is Jesus Christ. He has always been there for me through the hard times. I know he will continue to be with me.
When I met the other love of my life, Fanegie. It was something I can’t really explain. It is the type of thing you can only feel if you experienced it yourself. Without sounding corny, It was something magical. We spent time with each other and the more we spent time together the more I wanted to be with her.
I first realized I loved her when I found out how funny she was. I think weird suits her better but I love it. She makes me laugh and I can’t think of another woman I would rather be with than her.
I had a lot of girlfriends but I wasn’t sure I would ever fall in love. Before Fanegie two months was my longest relationship. I remember sitting in my barracks in that navy and asking God to please send my wife to me. It is natural for anyone who goes to the park, beach, or out to dinner to see a happy couple kissing and hugging each other. I always asked God why I couldn’t have the same thing.
God’s answer, BE SINGLE!
I thought he meant I was going to be single for the rest of my life. How could God be that cruel? As I listened more to the voice of God I realized that He meant to move toward a single life. When many people get married they get married without ever having been single. I know you don’t understand so let me explain.
When people waste their time looking for a mate they never concentrate on becoming their own person. When they get married they find themselves trying to find out what their identity is. They find that their idenity is not based upon whether you have a mate or no mate. Identity is based on who you are in Jesus Christ. Without knowing, you begin to concentrate on being married so much that you fail to ever become a single person. This is the one contributing reason why so many husbands and wives split up late in their marriage. They are struggling with who they are. So they try to find themselves by leaving their spouse and clinging to something else that will only let them down. Unfortunaley, if this cycle is not realized they spend their lives being let down.
My advice to anyone would be to find yourself in Jesus. Strive towards becoming single and when you are ready for marriage God will put the desire back in your heart and send you the perfect mate. However, don’t waste your time trying to look yourself. Especially, if you are a Christian. This is a dangerous territory to be in. I remember when I was in the Navy and I was telling God to make this one be “the one”, I said “Lord give me a sign” He did. I turned on the radio and the preacher was talking about how NOT to step out of God’s will. Then when I got to her house to watch a movie, we turned the TV on and a preacher was talking about how NOT to step out of God’s will. I ended up getting the point. This happened countless times until I told God, that I didn’t care anymore and no matter how much I kick and scream, or how good this one looks or how nice she is, to not let me step out of his will. To this day I am glad I waited. Fanegie is everything I ever wanted and I can say we know each other very well. Which brings me to my next piece of advice, BE REAL. Do not put on a front. I am the way I am all the time in front of Fanegie. She is the same to me. Sometimes we get annoyed with each other but through it all and more often than not, we find ourselves laughing with one another. And that's what makes all the difference.
God bless all of you on your search to become single first.