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Shining the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout western North Carolina |
By Steve Parker Mike McDaniel is known by many people in downtown Marion as the “running insurance agent.” Mike is a passionate runner and he is often seen running on downtown streets as he stays in shape for the numerous marathons and races he participates in each year. “I got into running in my early 30’s and fell in love with it,” Mike said. I run about 200-250 miles a month, about 5-10 miles a day.” |
Mike McDaniel trusts God through tragedy |
But Mike’s mother had gotten saved and started going to church right when Mike had graduated from high school. “She started getting on to me about getting saved,” he said. “I went to church with her a few times at New Manna Baptist. And I was really tired of myself and tired of my sins. By the Sunday morning of July 30, 1978, I had took all I could take. I went forward and gave my life to Christ.” A little over a year later, Mike had surrendered to a call to the ministry and began doing prison ministry at the Marion minimum security unit. “I would go in 2-3 times a month to preach,” he said. Then in 1982, Mike was called to preach at a church in Madison County, where he stayed for four years. Then he spent 15 months as pastor at a church in Easley, SC. But all that time, he was burdened with the prison ministry. “The Lord wouldn’t let me get away from it,” he said. So in 1987, Mike became a home missionary with Rock of Ages Prison Ministry out of Cleveland, TN. He served as a revival team leader and for the next eight years held revivals in state prisons all over the country. During the course of that time, over 4000 inmates were saved through those revivals. |
But Mike is passionate about much more than running. His passion extends to his relationship with Christ, his family, and the people he interacts with on a day-to-day basis as the owner of McDaniel Insurance. “I graduated from McDowell High in 1976,” Mike said, “and I had been very active in sports during my high school years. I was an all-conference wrestler and had played on a championship baseball team in ’75,” he said. But like a lot of young people, sports were not enough to keep him on track in life. “I got messed up on alcohol and drugs like marijuana. By the time I was 19 I was a wreck,” he said. |
(left to right) Nikki, John Michael, and Mike McDaniel (Photo by Steve Parker) |
“I just enjoy people,” he said. “We have been tremendously successful. God has blessed us incredibly. We have gone from nothing to a very good business with a great client base in just ten years. I never dreamed that God would allow it to blossom the way it has. But I really think a great deal of it has been because I just enjoy the people I work with and the clients we serve.” “My business has just been a miracle,” Mike said. “And we try to make sure that we give back to the Lord. ‘To whom much is given, much is required.’ This business has enabled me to help with a lot of ministry and a lot of work with our Christian school at the church.” Mike began talking about his family again. “I always used to joke about the names of my sons. Whenever I would go to preach, I would talk about my three sons, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I would tell everyone that there would never be a John, that I didn’t want a John. There wasn’t going to be a John. And people always got a kick out of that!” “But on February 8, 2005,” Mike said, moved with emotion, “John Michael was born. He’s one of the greatest joys of my life. I feel like he’s just a gift that God has given me to show me how much He loves me. Because it hurt me so much when I lost my first family, but I had no control over it. And I feel that John Michael is a sort of makeup to me.” And now Mike is active in ministry again as well. He still goes into the prisons to preach. “I just let the inmates know that Jesus loves them,” he said. He is also very active at New Manna Baptist Church, where he and his family still attend church. “Every Sunday I drive a church bus to Morganton with my oldest son Matthew, who’s an associate pastor there. We go to the projects in Morganton and pick up 20-40 kids and bring them to the church.” As noted at the beginning of this article, Mike McDaniel is a passionate man. And he is living proof that God is passionate about His people, and will, if given time, bring restoration of all that the devil takes away. He truly is the God who “restores the years that the locust has eaten” (Joel 2:25). |
But a powerful ministry was cut short by a tragedy at home. Through circumstances beyond his control, Mike’s marriage began to come apart and he had to come off the mission field. “I was 35 when the situation in my family life went beyond my control,” he said. “My wife and I separated and divorced, and I had to start life all over again. I had three boys, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The four of us ended up having to rebuild our lives.” At that point, Keith Cable, a good friend of Mikes, was working for Farm Bureau Insurance. He asked Mike if he’d like to take a shot at selling insurance. “I had been in the ministry since I was 23 years old,” Mike said. “Here I was at 35 with not a clue what to do. So I began a career with Farm Bureau in 1995 at age 35.” “That same year,” he continued, “I met my wife, Nikki, at New Manna Baptist Church. We were married in 1998. Life really seemed to be coming together. And then an opportunity came along to start my own business. I really felt like the Lord was in that, so in June of 1999, I started McDaniel Insurance.” “McDaniel Insurance,” Mike said, “came about because I wanted to have an agency based on Christian principles and Christian character that offered different types of insurance to people in McDowell and surrounding counties. We wanted to offer a good product at a good price. And we wanted to create an atmosphere where people could come in and feel comfortable.” |