Keith's wife died of cancer. Misti's husband was killed in a plane crash. So what does God do? He takes these two individuals and their separate ministries and brings them together. Now, Keith and Misti Sammons have their own nonprofit. He still makes music. She teaches the Bible. They share their story on stages everywhere. And here on this week's show!
The Dan Scott Show Podcast
Dan Scott Show, Radio Episode 93 - Keith And Misti Sammons (10-19-24)
The following program is a presentation of Grand Slam Ministries Hi again everybody and welcome to the 93rd episode of the Dan Scott show presented as you just heard by Grand Slam Ministries I am Dan. It is great to have you with us again on all of our affiliates whether you're listening to us live on Saturday or Sunday or via the archives. Thank you for tuning in. We Appreciate it. It means more than you know the feedback we've been getting that is Starting to come in on more of a regular basis is something that we really appreciate Continue to let us know what you think about the show and continue to share it with others and help us grow we have a really good show for you today and The more of these I do The more I can see God bringing Interviews to us that I believe Yeah, it's it's speaking to the audience at large listening to the show But I firmly believe there are specific individuals that need to hear this interview today with Keith and Misty Sammons because they are two people who Had their own marriages We're doing ministry and jobs and living life both lost their spouses both were obviously dealing with grief and God brought them together and Now they're doing ministry together and it's a powerful story about dealing with an overcoming grief and how God does have another chapter Prepared for a life when maybe you think It's already been lived and there's nothing else to do We're gonna talk to Keith and Misty Sammons on this week's edition of the dance Scott show But first a word about Grand Slam Ministries Here at Grand Slam Ministries our goal is to share the love of Jesus Christ through multiple platforms Well at the same time executing our core missions of mentorship and helping children in need the primary way We can effectively do all of those things is through the Dan Scott show our weekly Christian radio show that airs in multiple Markets around the nation and the world we are asking you to partner with us to not only sustain what we are currently doing But to grow both our on-air online presence and our ability to fund those core missions Can you spare as little as $25 per month? How about $10 per month if we can get 200 partners to join us at each of those small Sustainable levels we can begin to accomplish everything. We believe God has called us to do So can you help us today with a donation of either $25 or $10 per month? Please go to www.grand slam ministries.org for your donation to get more information or to ask questions That's grand slam ministries.org and thank you for supporting the Dan Scott show and Grand Slam Ministries Follow us on social media search Grand Slam Ministries on Facebook and Grand Slam for God on Twitter and don't forget Dan's personal and public figure sites on Facebook Twitter and Instagram You're listening to the Dan Scott show presented by Grand Slam Ministries Episode 93 of the Dan Scott show Thank you again for tuning in just a reminder as I always try to do it this time very quickly That everything that we do is available for you to find at danscotchow dot org if you navigate to the affiliates and archives page You can find out where the show airs live every weekend. You can find out information about the new sports centric version of the show that airs in upstate South Carolina and the Asheville North Carolina area and The archives are there including some bonus soundcloud material all of our contact info is there social media Find it check it out and then share it with other people help us grow Dan Scott show dot org and if you'd like to drop us a line or Record a voice memo on your phone that we can play on the air do so by Sending us an email with that attached Dan at danscotchow dot org Okay, mentioned that our guest this week Keith and Misty Sammons Keith actually went to high school with my wife Angela in Belfry, Kentucky graduated back in 1981 and He and I have been able to connect by a social media because of what he has been doing over the years in his ministry And now he and Misty doing their ministry together and I mentioned at the outset It's a marvelous story of God taking two individuals who had their own separate lives both lost their spouses and now bringing them together To do ministry together This is their story and I started as I usually do by asking Keith and Misty to introduce themselves I'm Keith Sammons and I have been a music pastor for the better part of 25 plus years and was married for 28 years my first wife passed away and then five years ago in 2019 I met and married Misty and through that process was working for a nonprofit that did suicide prevention and COVID hit and Misty and I launched our our own ministry. I'll let Misty tell a little bit about her back story but that brings us to where we are together today on my part and My name is Misty. I grew up in East Tennessee and I was married to Scott Grantham for just under 10 years and he was killed in a private plane crash in November of 2010 and I had we had a business and I kept that business for about a year and we were in say Miraculous healing in my heart of grief, which is a big part of my story in my life but I sold that business after that happened and I moved back to Tennessee and finished up my undergrad that I had never finished and Then it took a year off and went to seminary and got my master's in theology with a biblical studies emphasis And I spent the last several years doing ministry I Also teach I'm currently teaching for the seminary. I'm also teaching for a partner site for Southeastern University in their theology department and We also talked to people about coming through grief and adverse circumstances in your life So that's coming in a nutshell What we do we just moved to Nashville after living in Chattanooga For four years of our married life. We've moved to Nashville and we absolutely love it here Keith this has been a Two minutes start to this program and I can already tell partner you've out kicked your coverage. I Don't know about that he has a lot to put up with I think That's always the other side of that coin with us married man but I was trying to keep it on on the positive side of things, but I appreciate that the the thing that I love about what God has led me into with this radio show is telling stories of how he has in many ways miraculously changed lives and over the course of of almost a year and three quarters. We've heard so many stories on this show of people who've had dramatic salvation experiences and and Just one story after another Which is what intrigued me about yours because it's it's a unique story both of you lost your spouses in very different ways and God used that as a way to bring the two of you and your separate ministries together So he put two herding lives together in one. He took two separate ministries and has taken that and put together Now a new joint ministry that you're doing. It's just an amazing thing to be able to sit back In the 30,000 foot view and watch the way God works and weaves things together that we have no idea That he's doing on our behalf right and I told people when my wife passed away Over the 28 years of marriage and being in ministry that We tell people about the goodness of God and we tell him about his mercies and we tell him that tell them You know that he'll walk with him through the valley of the shadow of death but then when it Comes home to you and you lose your spouse or your loved one of some sort, you know child or Mother or father, then we have to live that out and so I think I've thought about it many times stand that in life We have to experience the realness of God and his word becomes alive in us And I think with Misty and I that's what that's what we have done We we walk through the valley of the shadow of death individually and our roads are very different each each of us are different I became a workaholic and And Misty really really walked through grief in a terrible way and was You know, and she can tell her part of that story, but But we allowed the Lord to be real to us in that situation and I think that is That is the crux of the message that we want people to hear is that God really his word is really true And that he really will walk with us through whatever hurt or pain or situation that we That we have in our lives and I want both of you to To give us a noxis of your stories and maybe we lead into it by me asking this question because as I told you and as our listeners know, it's been a Very challenging year for us starting with the loss of a nine day old grandson in January Lost an ant which was my mother's last living sibling in May and six weeks later my dad passed somewhat unexpectedly and I don't say that for me. It was a crisis of faith because my faith never wavered But just as a for instance We always say That when someone passes if they're if they're a Christian one of the things we say to come for somebody as well They're in a better place. They're there with Jesus now and if they had the chance to come back They wouldn't and that's absolutely 100% true When my dad passed who had worked his entire life as a minister and a pastor to get to that moment and When I Took half second to think he's standing in the presence of Jesus. I had to say to myself Do I really believe that and? The answer obviously was yes and for me. That's the moment. It became the most real I think When did it become real for each of you and in the scenarios that you went through? Well, I Don't know if I can pinpoint a specific time Because I went through Just a severe shock is What I dealt with? I was 31 I had just turned 31 and Scott was 37 and We were people that just believe that You're gonna have a long life. Mm-hmm. That that wouldn't happen You know is one of those things of where and I still do it today is I I pray and plead the blood of Jesus over over my family Asking for God to protect us and to keep us safe and so when he says hey, I'm going up for a 30-minute flight I'll be back and they don't come back. Mm-hmm. Is I remember sitting there in that field surrounded by blue lights and fire trucks and not knowing because the police would not tell me if he was alive or not Holding on to this faith that I had never had before Of saying God you raised Lazarus. So if he's dead You can raise him up and I'm believing free to raise him up if he's injured then I'm believing for you to heal him And so when you get the report of he's basically been cremated because he crashed and the plane exploded It's it's just this plethora of thoughts that go through your head of This isn't real and I'm a widow and What happens to our business and at the same time? I said God, why did you not protect him? Why did you keep me out of the plane? We should have died if together if we were going to go and It's just this roller coaster of thoughts and emotions and you go from reality to this is not reality but at the same time I'd have to say that it was probably the next day that I just had this extreme peace from God and He gave it to me through his word because I'd heard reports that the plane was on fire in the air and I didn't know if he had Suffered I didn't know if he had burned alive and was aware of it and that's just thoughts that are torture If he suffered and God sent me to Psalm 91 and it says that His angels will bury you up lest you dash your foot against the stone and God spoke to me and he said he didn't suffer He's he didn't know what happened and he's okay. He's with me and that just gave me such great peace. I tell people that When you're going through trials, that's the opportunity to truly know who God is I said we can know with our head with our minds who he is, but it's just experiential knowing when you go through hard times and that's where I really experienced him as my Comforter and my peace and my defender and my counselor and Everything that I needed it was it was almost immediate to the point of saying he's okay and I'm okay and God is bigger and It was just this peace that really does pass all understanding in that moment of This is we're living out what we've been taught all of our lives. Mm-hmm. I tell people all the time you know as we've gone through this here and and Obviously what the two of you have experienced. I don't know how people who don't have Jesus in their lives Get through things. I really don't And I have said the exact same thing of it's it's hell enough When you do know And I don't know how people do it without him. Mm-hmm And I think the scripture says faith will become sight And walking through that process there just comes a time like I experienced God's peace on The third day of Sandy's diagnosis of cancer. Mm-hmm. It was like he wrapped us in his arms sitting on the couch of our home in Chattanooga, Tennessee When the scripture 1 Peter 5 7 came to life cast your care upon the Lord for he cares for you And I just done a study on that and the Lord said in reminder to me is that If you'll just give this to me, I want to do the caring for you And so in that moment We allowed the Lord to have the care of that cancer diagnosis now That's not to say that there wasn't crying and there wasn't bad days and then even transitioning into Sandra passing and going to heaven And me walking back in the house the first moments after she had passed and and all the transition with my son and Or our son and you know living life again having to do life continually without that person There is a peace that passes understanding that settles in our spirit and there is Arms of love that wrap around us in those moments when we really don't even realize it And then when we get through the shock as Misty said of grief you realize You know, this is real life and God is really real Visiting with Keith and Misty Sammons on this week's edition of the Dan Scott show Keith Misty's experience and losing her husband was unexpected Instantaneous, I'm going out. I'll be back in 30 minutes never came back you had more time to Comprehend Prepare might even be a word you were used, but I get the sense that doesn't make it any easier No, you know We felt like and I had just had a conversation with the doctor that she was in a good place in her treatment and Just two weeks before he had told me that if You know if she stopped responding today To treatment, I would say that she may live eight or nine months So he said and she's doing well right now and then two weeks later pretty much she is in heaven and so it was you know, it It was one of those things that you you prepare for but you don't prepare for you see her You know doing good some days and then you see her backing up three steps and going in a negative direction and so it really can play mind games with you if you don't allow the Lord to To to settle your mind in your spirit So mr. You said at the very beginning that in a miraculous way God delivered you from grief can you Share what you mean by that? Sure I'm very blessed in the fact that I have parents who I say they were reading scripture to me in the womb I've always as long as my memory goes back I've prayed and and read or heard Bible stories and been in church and I remember getting to a point Where I really thought I was losing my mind and that's what grief does is It plays these games with you You have days where you are just fine and I'd go into the office and I'd run our business and then I'd have days where I literally felt like my skin was crawling and I could not stand myself and I remember praying one day In my bedroom and I can still see it and I was crying and I said I just had this very real conversation with God and I said Lord You talk a whole lot in your word about joy and rejoicing and I don't feel that right now and if I lived to be 80 and 90 years old that's 50 to 60 years of Lifelift that I can't imagine being like this every day And if you really are able to heal bodies and I had experienced his physical healing then my heart is no different and I said I want to stand the what scripture came to mind in that moment was a mark 11 23 and 24 whatever you ask in my name believe that you receive it and you shall have it and I stood on that that verse and I said God. I'm asking you to heal my heart and I'm just gonna believe that it's done and That I'm healed. It cannot be your will for me to grieve like this forever And I would love to say that that happened instantly and cleanly, but it didn't I prayed that about four months after his death and I had days where I would get up and I would thank him every morning. Sometimes it was crying. Sometimes I Was joyful when I said it and I was full of faith but I also started drinking and That was not something I grew up doing and I just had friends that were like we know that you're having a lot of stress Running this business by yourself So let's just go have a drink and I thought well one drink won't hurt anything. I'm not getting drunk Well, when you don't drink you don't know what your limit is and I would find myself getting drunk Now I didn't do it every day. I was not an alcoholic by any means But I was just writing this fence of believing God to heal me and yet using alcohol to numb the pain self-mediculate what people don't tell you is that you wake up from a night of being drunk To feeling ten times worse than you would have if you had not drunk it intensifies the grief but I did this for about five months and I finally had an eye Ironically, I was in Nashville. I lived in Mobile at the time. I was in Nashville for business meetings and I Had got the worst I had ever got drunk And I woke up the next morning and I was having to do this three-day business meeting and I went to my room and I said God, I'm not I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not playing this game anymore. I need you to heal me tell me what I need to do and He put me on a three-day fast So when I wasn't in meetings when they broke from breakfast or lunch or dinner, I'd go to my room and pray and on the third day I was praying and I heard this phrase in my head and It wasn't audible by any means, but I just heard the plan of the enemy has been thwarted I'm that I don't use I know what means, but I don't use it and So I thought we made this must be from the Lord and so I spoke it out loud and when I did I literally felt something physical in my chest and immediately that grief left me and When I say it immediately left me I Felt like I had stepped into like a new dimension like I'd had an emotional Rebirth the pain was not in my heart. I Didn't cry. I have not cried since that day. It's been 13 years two months ago. I Have not cried since that day for Scott for Scott Scott That was it's like that was a beautiful chapter of my life and he comes up in conversations all the time but I don't grieve over him is And in a people that I talked to I've talked to counselors I've talked to pastors and told them my story and they have a hard time grasping that You know, it's the you'll always have a hole in your heart for that person and I answer with Is God not able to do the miraculous? Why do we believe him to do miracles in our bodies and and so on and so forth and in the world? But we can't believe that he will heal our hearts It's not that I forget Scott. I'll never forget Scott. He's a part of who I am But it's not a sadness Anymore I look on those memories with laughter and with joy. I don't remember the pain I experienced And God revealed to me through prayer that He healed me so that I could help other people. I've been able to help Lots of women over the last decade Just be a listening ear for them and let them know that you can keep living life You don't have to stay stuck. You don't have to be a victim of your circumstance. You can still have joy It's okay to move on. That's not dishonoring that person. That's actually honoring them By moving on and keep to keep living your life And so that's that's my testimony. Like I said some people Don't believe it and that's okay The Lord spoke to me and he said I didn't ask you to make them believe. I just asked you to tell Mm-hmm and they always say you know the person with the experience is never the mercy of the person's argument and that's my experience is is Complete healing and being able to use that to help other people And as you're talking, I can't help but think that that Somebody who's listening to this program now needed to hear that And that's why we do what we do Keith. What was your? grief process like Dan I think I touched on it earlier is that I threw myself into work I'm standing in the room. My wife had just passed away and I'm there with the gentleman that I worked with and he's a minister in a Motivational speaker for teenagers across America and my wife had worked for him as well And he looked at me there in that moment and he said what are you going to do with your life? Are you going to get married again? Are you going to you're going to come back and work for me? Where are you going and we got on the airplane to travel? About a week later and he looked at me and he said I know that that was a tough moment for you in that room But he said I really felt the Lord In and struck me to to speak to you that way to get you forward thinking And to allow you not to stay in a rut of where am I going to go and what am I going to do and to begin to question? Well, I think we all question Going through that process and you know it was very painful and my son and I both grieved together And then we grieved our separate ways, you know crying and weeping and feeling lonely and questioning You know, what what is life like? I don't think I ever questioned God. Why? But what what's the purpose in all this and you know what what's going to happen in life? And so my process began throwing myself into work and I worked well over 180 days on the road traveling that next year And I probably didn't take care of myself physically or spiritually because I was so overwhelmed with working and doing and So in that process of doing that I found myself very sick in the a few months into the grieving process Laying on the couch had to cry out for help from friends to come to my house and help me I literally could not get off the couch. I was a bag of nerves. I could good all I could do was cry I was shaking my body was kind of shutting down on me in a in a sense through the nervous system and come to find out I had Just allowed my body to get into a place with Not taking care of it that I needed help and it began a process of getting physically well through medical treatment and focusing I Renewal in my life really focusing on the Lord and and Allowing myself to have space for myself and not be involved with people and worried about what people has and then about a year Into my grieving. I Told the Lord. I needed to hear from him and I spent a week at the beach I scheduled a vacation and I go to the beach and I said I really need you to speak to me Lord And I think we do that sometimes, you know Maybe maybe it's laziness. I don't know in the spirit in us as spirit beings and not dig into the word, but I said I really need a word for me Lord I need you to speak to me and sitting on the beach on a Tuesday in January of 2018 I received a phone call from a minister who I hadn't seen in 30 years and he said I was Sitting at my desk this morning praying and the Lord said there's a Keith who's lost his wife and you need to minister to him He asked his wife who Keith was because he didn't have a Keith in his rolodex at the time and So that shows you how old I am talking about a rolodex in his contact But but anyway, he asked his wife and she said there was a guy that sang in revival You preached at in Bristol, Tennessee, Virginia area 30 years ago named Keith. He looked up Friends mutual friends on Facebook Got my phone number call me that day and said I need to give you this word And I need to speak into your life where you're going to be next Tuesday And I just happened to have Tuesday free in Chattanooga He said I'm driving through Chattanooga meet me at J. Alexander's and we're going to share and I've got the notes in my In my notes on my phone today. He said God has not forgotten you And he brought up the song that Israel Houghton wrote and sang you are not forgotten and then he also said there's a lady coming into your life She'll come quickly. She's got a like story And he said I see you both standing on stages together and separately sharing your story around the world of hope and healing and So my process of grief Dan was a little different than Misty's it was painful. It was hurtful But during the whole process leading up to sandy passing There were several opportunities that the Lord used to speak in in my life words of affirmation and his word scripture and Those became real to me and that's how I made it through the process of grieving Now I have to laugh because I get into Chattanooga at least twice a year Broadcasting and if I was going to set up a meeting with you would have been at Sugar's Ribs But that's one of our favorite spots. I love the tacos that sugars It is it is fantastic But but as you're as you're telling that story and specifically the the pastor Just having that revelation that there was a guy and not just a guy, but a guy named Keith There've got to be some people listening to this and say I'll come on There's no way something like that happens and yet Again those of us who know Christ That's that's not an unusual way for God to work No No, he he's a very supernatural God and when we least expect it missing our in a position We're living in Nashville today because we got a word from the Lord We heard the Lord in our spirit and then it was confirmed through the mouth of another person And you know, it's crazy, but God does use his Word the holy Bible to speak to us. He does speak to us through our spirits We hear his voice in our in our spirit, you know Maybe not audibly And we've heard some people say that they have heard his audible voice But God speaks to us through his word He speaks to us through our spirit and then a lot of times he'll confirm it through natural things here in in life And to be honest with you, we had prayed about coming to Nashville. We had looked at homes We didn't have peace and on a Saturday night. We were laying in our bed and we said Lord We need to hear from you either send somebody to say the word national to us or do a miracle that we only know because we need to know your voice in this manner in our lives because we feel it but we need to know confirmation and The next morning at church at the site pastor at the church with it said I really feel like I need to encourage you guys before you leave today and he said I again confirming I see you guys standing on sages across America sharing your story And then he said I don't know what this means, but the Lord dropped in my spirit this morning to tell you all Nashville And he said you can do that whatever it is Now we don't base everything in our life upon somebody telling us something and it being you know the voice of the lord But it was confirmation to us and then we speak to our pastor and we allow him to Confirm things and to counsel us and we use wise counsel in all the situations above that we've talked about to help guide us To where we are through grief and through Transitions in our life and ministry. We're visiting with Keith and mr. Sammons. We're gonna Get to their joint ministry here in just a moment, which includes a a new book that that's about to come out but those are your individual stories Misty, how did God bring the two of you together? It's actually very funny. I I when I came back to Tennessee, I went back to the church I had grown up in And once I had finished actually while I was at seminary working on my masters the pastor at our church was just Just extremely affirming and gave me opportunity to teach on Wednesday nights And That is when I graduated from the seminary So I had been Doing a lot of ministry and it was so fulfilling because that is my gift from God is Is to teach And it was in January of 2018 where I started feeling this This uneasiness of something's changing and sure enough God speaks to my heart. He says your time here is done And I'll let you know when you're released. Well, it wasn't until November Of that year that God really spoke to my heart. He said You're done at this church. You are to go to this church in Chattanooga and I've kind of Question God is like why would you send me there? Like I'm doing ministry here and that church is a very large church and I'm going to be a wallflower and it was just this go And so I went and Sitting there the first Sunday just kind of like why am I here And I get a phone call from my brother the next day Who is on staff at this church? He's the CFO And he calls me. He's laughing and he said Somebody's asking about you And I said what and I'm sitting there in my mind thinking who Like I didn't see anybody. I got I took a there was about 2,000 people in this congregation like who would have Who would have seen me And so I said who is it? He said his name is Keith Sammons and I said well What what tell me about him and he told me he's lost his first wife and he said the guy that he works for is a trustee at our church and He asked me about you And I said well, what did you tell him and he said well, Keith called me And I told him that he didn't want to touch that with a 10-foot pole I had I had just gotten out of literally the week before and off and on mostly off relationship for seven years That took me to the point of engagement three times and had Just broke up with me again for the last time and I was just done I was like, I don't care if I'm just 39 years old. I'm good with just me and you Jesus. I don't need this pain I already been through the death of my husband and now here's open rejection. I don't need it And so he told him he's like, I don't think I would I don't think I would go there right now Um, so I was kind of like you told him right, but then I was kind of curious and I was like well how old is he? And so he looked it up and he said He's 55 and I said absolutely not I was like, that's a 16 year age difference. He's only four years younger than my mom like that's just odd He's seven years younger than my dad. I don't know what to do with that. So now that I knew That he was interested. I avoided him like the plague And I was such a child about it If I saw him waiting on like at the back of the church and I could tell he's just waiting for an opportunity I would whip up my phone and put it up to my ear about halfway down the aisle And I thought I was talking to somebody so he couldn't try to get my attention so I played these childish gains for about three months and My thing was I'm not going to Give him any inkling of hope because that's not fair. That's not fair to him. That's not fair to me And he asked about me again one night in my sister-in-law She takes me and told me and I said This man is so persistent like does he not get the hint And she's the head missy. I really I understand what you're what you're coming from and I support you completely But he really is he's really a sweet guy So I got on my knees and I prayed Literally on my knees and prayed and I said god In the very very slim chance that this is from you Then I need you to change my heart Because I really do want the person if you have a person I want that person in my life But in the bigger chance that this is not from you Then I need you to take away all interest for me away from this man because that's not fair We we've been through too much In the next morning, I'm driving to church and I actually found myself driving faster Hoping that I would see him And I'm having this conversation in my head of what is wrong with you You don't really want to meet this man and yet at the same time. I was like, no, I do want to meet this man and Funny thing is he wasn't even there that Sunday. He was traveling So he wasn't there and it was that next Wednesday night that we were both at church And I did not run from him this time And it's a good thing I did because he had made up in his mind that if I ran again, he wasn't trying anymore so we had a conversation that night for about 15 minutes and Needless to say it was not an easy first couple of weeks. I did a lot of crying a lot of not understanding what was going on um Going to end up in marriage. Is it not just It's not going to end up in marriage. I don't even know why we're dating And I remember my brother told me one day. He's like, mr. You need to chill out And stop trying to figure everything out and just enjoy the journey. You're having a fun time with this guy just enjoy it and that kind of broke something off of me and Needless to say short story is we were dated two months got engaged And we got married two months after that Now keith that's her version of events. Do you need any time for do you need any time for rebuttal? Well, I will say a couple of things. I was known as persistent as she thought I You know, if I was near her, I Would pursue her To an extent at church, but that was on sunday as I was traveling the rest of the time And I never reached out to her by phone because her brother kind of scared me off a little bit um, but the Wednesday night whenever Whenever we talked for the first time I was walking out to the car I'd got her phone number and we had set up coffee for the following weekend, which coffee led to um the possibility of a a Broadway show that was coming to chat and nougat and then the possibility of um dinner he smooth Dan He's turned off this coffee then it's like why don't we do dinner? Well while we're doing dinner Why don't we do a show and I was like, yeah, I've got you figured out Well, I only had a short window so I had to do all I could but anyway while I was walking to the car that night after we'd spent 15 minutes at the church Um, the Lord spoke to my heart and he said she's going to be your next wife And I'm crazy thinking. Well, how's that going to happen? Um, and did you speak that to her? You know, I'm doing all these questions in my mind, but anyway Um, we did go out and on the next monday. Um We had an evangelist from hillsong uh in australia at our church speaking and um So misti said why don't you come and sit with me? So I was a little late getting there She was already there and I'm walking down the aisle and there's this african lady that was a friend of ours that Had prayed us through sandy's passing and her journey of cancer And she stopped me going down the aisle and she said pastor keith She said I had to tell you something Um, and I said, what is that? She said you see that young girl down there? I said, yeah And nobody knew that misti and I had ever talked or dated or went on coffee And she said the lord just spoke to me and said she's going to be your next wife Well, i'm florid. I did not tell misti. I did not say anything to misti about that Until we got engaged, but over the next two months. We would date and talk nonstop Um, and it was very very very evident that the lord had put us together And we did get married. Uh, we got engaged in two months. We got married two months later, which was four months after Beginning our courtship and now five years later Um, we are still getting to know each other. We're loving each other. We're loving life and god has given us um Just a great new lease on life together Well to your credit walking out of church after that first 15-minute conversation and getting that revelation from the lord you didn't texture And say god just told me you're going to be my next wife, you know That might have been that That might have been a suicide Suicide to the relationship right there So As we start to to to head down the home stretch here God did all of this in your lives individually and collectively including the speed dating and marriage To get you To get you to this point where you're doing ministry Together uh through a charity called the happy shoes project Yes, that charity was birthed out of my first wife's journey through cancer One day early on she wrote about her shoes And she called them her happy shoes of the day She wrote personal spiritual inspirational messages about the color style and texture of that shoe and so We were in the process of putting that book into Pramp and she just and uh, she decided to go to heaven So we were left with an idea of giving that book to cancer patients to inspire them And um in that process we're going to heaven Uh family encouraged us people began to donate and so um, I started Following the happy shoes project Then um, we were actually it's a tote program that we give totes to cancer patients and inside that tote Our items that will help them through treatment of a blanket books Things that will encourage them There's also a voucher that they can go online and order their own pair of happy shoes and compression socks And so those are items that really help cancer patients because they they need them on their journey and they need the encouragement Um, and so I took misti, uh, or I asked her one day. I was going to a, um a packing um Of the totes with a group of our friends that were gathering it and I said you don't have to go But I have to go pack totes She said oh, I want to go and so she tells me that that night was when the lord, um Or she really realized that she loved me and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with me And um, she actually called her parents after I dropped her off through her car and told them that And um, so, um, the happy shoes project is ongoing now. We are a 501c3 public charity We have an outreach to children with backpacks and a kids book that I wrote post sandy's passing and then we have the adult program where we give the totes away through hospitals, um, and other avenues, um, and so we have to raise about a half a million dollars a year to, um, to give that away And that's a total free charity, uh, give back to cancer patients misti, what does The ministry together look like you because both of you've said that You had these visions of Being on stage together and sharing your story. What what what does that portion of the ministry look like these days? um is It's interesting in all honesty. We're still Working on it. We just rebranded ourselves. Um, we were Keith and misti ministries and We met with a a marketing person who is a believer and we are now labeled as wild hope ministries And what it is is basically a big umbrella that encompasses my teaching Keith's singing As well as our ministry together Of telling our story and the maturity outreach is the happy she's project and then all of that together. So it all has a hope motif and So it is is we When we're asked to come to churches Keith sings he's a phenomenal singer And so he shares his gift of song And then if the pastors want we tell our story we say we are not the grief people where the hope people We're not the anomaly people have been through far worse than we have Um, but we're just not afraid to talk about it We talk about our spouses all the time Sandy's um parents have just adopted me as as a bonus daughter Which is very um Just very rare that that would happen So we tell people that there is hope and we just simply share our story We have this coming out in book form Which we met with a ghost writer a little over a year ago and he spent three days with us Just really getting into our heads and wanting to know Every part of our story And what our heart was he wanted to write our story with our voices with our thoughts And we got the final final man new script on that in july of this year And so we're shopping publishers now, but it's It's just going to be an incredible book that we Really believe is going to help people. We really had to hear from god to do it. It's an investment Um But we believe that it's going to help people with whatever they're going through. It doesn't have to be Death it can be divorced. It can be a job loss. It can be just a disappointment of some kind whatever they're going through We're believing that This book will help people um And once again, you know, we we come together with that, but then we also have our separate, you know Keith had a song released to radio and it charted And I've had an incredible opportunity. Our church in national has a college that is a partner site for southeastern university out of florida and I am able to teach um Old and new testament there teach a little greek hopefully in the spring um So god has allowed us to share out of our tragedies And he's also allowed room for us to share our gifts that he's given us So we're very multidimensional. We're not a one Shot ministry. We have different aspects. So we just kind of um, share that with people whatever you're looking for. You know, this is what we have to offer Well, I I can't imagine that god would let you go through the entire process of of writing the book and not Bring a publisher to to get into the hands of people. So we're going to look forward to When that happens and and the title is to live and love again living life after Correct. Yes. Yeah, yes and that living life after Dot dot dot that is whatever Circumstances that you may find yourself in whether it's divorce or bankruptcy or You know illness and sickness in your life or your family or or even death hours comes through death But but as mr Said we don't want to be the death people and the grief people we want you to see that there's hope on the other side of that And whatever you're called to and whatever your purpose is in life does not stop At the death and the loss of a loved one, but your purpose in life The person hearing our voice today The person that continues to hear your program around the world then they still have purpose And god still has a plan for their life if they're breathing That's where we had to stop and normally at this time we would take another break But that interview went a little longer than we usually go And uh with good reason because it's just a phenomenal story some things I need to let you know The podcast that keith and misti Host is called on purpose with keith and misti m i sti by the way So you can find that wherever your podcasts are found You can find them on social media at keith and misti or keith and misti sammons And the website is keith and misti Dot com that Ministry again is called wild hope encouraging hope and inspiring purpose And uh, I hope that you got something out of that and I I said it during the interview. I'll say it again now. I believe That somebody out there specifically needed to hear This story probably more than one person somebody who's been dealing with grief over the loss Of a spouse or the loss of another loved one And wondering if there is light at the end of the tunnel Jesus said I am the light of the world. So there is light, okay I hope that this was an inspiration to many of you out there, but specifically Whoever needed to hear it know that we're praying for you. That'll wrap up episode 93 of the show Back again next week With another interview and we've got some good ones coming down the pike Find out what we do Dan Scott show dot orgi and we'll see you again next week until then I'm dan. God bless you and so long everybody Thank you for listening to this week's dan scott show To hear it again catch up on past shows or find out more about grand slam ministries Please visit our website dan scott show dot org and while they're Perfectly consider making a gift to help us in our mission to share the love of Jesus Christ That's the dan scott show dot org You may not realize it, but every minute of every day you're enjoying your first amendment freedoms You can wear what you want give out your opinion for free even if it's unpopular Listen to your playlist. You can put a sign out on your front lawn that says vote for bigfoot Someone you can believe in Create to the god of your choice or don't You have the right to hang with a posse that thinks like you do Tell the government what you think about its policies They're the freedoms that let you be you and they're all brought to you by the first amendment Yeah Learn more at freedomforum.org [MUSIC PLAYING]