Needing to do something Michael agreed to be a Junior High School Bible Teacher in Jacksonville, FL at less than half his pastor's salary.  He agreed to do so for one school year while he prayed and searched for his next career.  Michael's "ex-wife" had to also teach in elementary for us to make ends meet.

With both of them as teachers, life was very busy, and they had no time for anything else.  This is probably why they don't have any photos of this year teaching.  Sorry.

Michael then went to work for a nation-wide Computer Consulting company.  He was hired as a Project Manager with an offer to earn $90,000 per year after his initial training.  However the Regional Manager in Jacksonville had not secured a contract with a new client for Michael to be a Project Manager.  Therefore Michael was kept at the $36,000 salary and placed on a Y2K project at a client called Guarantec where they billed the client $80 per hour for Michael to work there, while Michael was paid $36k/year.  Again, no photos of these days either.  Life was so stressful that there was no time for photo taking.

Chronologically, in January 1999, Michael's ex-wife said she "no longer wanted to work" as a teacher any longer.  She said the "stress was too much" for her.  Michael told her she did not have to sign a teaching contract again, and Michael would work a 2nd job if needed to pay the bills.  So after that school semester, she resigned as a full-time elementary teacher.

After 13 months at Guarantec, Michael was offered a position as "Resourcing Manager" -- a fancy title for "Head Hunter Recruiter."  Within 5 weeks, Michael was out-performing all Resourcing Managers nationwide.  This upset a number of people within the company, and after several strong disagreements Michael felt it best to just resign in February 1999.  The Jacksonville-area Regional Manager sided with Michael's decision and courage to resign for moral reasons, that he resigned with Michael, giving up his long-term comfortable position.

At that point Michael was out of a job, and his ex-wife's small teaching income would also end June 1, 1999. So two IT friends and Michael started a small IT consulting firm of their own.  Two people donated $10,000 each to get it started.  Michael worked out of his home, but within months Michael could see it was not going to work.

So on May 5, 1999, Michael started as an independent contractor with a Discounted Healthcare Benefits Company (a home based business marketing benefits nationwide).  It started with 4 health care benefits and grew to include all health care benefits for anyone regardless of health problems.  Later it expanded into Legal, Finance, Home, Auto, and Entertainment savings.  Michael's income soon surpassed his highest salary ever, and allowed Michael to volunteer ministry services on the condition that he would NOT be paid <= this has proved to be the most rewarding type of ministry for Michael.