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300 stitches to my face, reattached eyelid, reattached lower lip, and some stuff too graphic to describe...my natural birthday is September 17th, 1979, but my second birthday is November 28th, 2004. This is the day that I came within inches of death in a head-on car collision. After much heartache, hard work, prayer, and support from my family... I recovered a new man!

I really have had a very amazing and fulfilling life! Atlanta has been very good to me. Since moving here as a 17 year old about years ago to attend Morehouse College, I have become a man that I never imagined I would be. In the decade since I arrived in Atlanta the Lord has graced me with countless opportunities that I have never quite felt qualified for. As I reflect back on it all – from serving as a grassroots activist in the Atlanta University Center and eventually the first sophomore elected Student Government President at Morehouse since 1947 to teaching high school civics in Stone Mountain and serving as a full-time motivational speaker to incarcerated Atlanta youth for two years, from marrying my high school sweetheart, having our own children and adopting our niece, from returning to Morehouse for a year to work as a Resident Director to serving as an associate pastor at a great church in the city – I would not trade my life, my family, my friends for a billion dollars.

But it hasn’t all been easy by any means. In fact, it is because my life has been so hard that the mountaintop moments taste so sweet. When I was 15 years old I was the victim of a hate crime/assault that left me battered and scarred. With fractures in my face, two ruptured discs in my back, and a bruised psyche to match my bruised body – two spinal surgeries caused me to miss nearly two years of high school. At my lowest point in that ordeal I was depressed, considered suicide, and knew that I would have to move and make some major changes to get a fresh start. Atlanta and Morehouse really provided that for me.

I never let on that anything at Morehouse was difficult for me, but it was. Brothers, particularly Morehouse brothers, do a lot of frontin’ like everything is ok and that life isn’t challenging. The school work was fine, the social scene was fine – but money was always an issue – at least it seemed that way to me. I am a first generation college graduate. My hardworking mother has worked at the same rural light bulb factory for over 35 years. Getting me to Morehouse is a miracle story all by itself, but my college roommates (MySpace - Deacon the Villain and Soul Akoben) can tell you that we struggled for gas money when it was 0.86 cents a gallon. We were the sorry guys that sometimes had to sneak into the caf to get a meal, we would be so hungry and have so little money that we would choose vending machine snacks by what weighed the most (honey buns). If one of our broke down cars broke down – that meant it was broke until we got our next student loan refund. When I ran for Student Government President – I spent about $45 dollars on my campaign and used sweat equity for the rest. At banquets I couldn’t afford to rent a tux so I wore my only black church suit and smiled big enough and told myself that clothes don’t make the man. I remember going to a Candle in the Dark (a big Morehouse gala) and having to smooth talk the parking attendant to let me out of the deck because I didn’t have enough to get out. I can remember being amongst the most well-known students in Atlanta and waiting in line to complete a Food Stamps application for my young family.

So, I thank God with fervor today because the struggles of yesterday are still real for me. I have lost many of my best friends to drugs, street violence, and long-term prison sentences and know that I narrowly escaped being one of the guys that someone else on MySpace reminisces about. So, when I say, “Thank You Jesus!” I have a big fat laundry list of things that I am thankful for.

If you have read this much of my ramblings, let me minister to you now and tell you that I am absolutely convinced that the only reason you (and I) are still here after all that we’ve been through is because the Lord has kept us and brought us to this very moment so that we could live a courageous and adventurous life for Him. I encourage and admonish you, if you are hearing a voice in your ear that is whispering, “give your life to Me”…give your life to God. Walking with Him won’t be easy, but I am absolutely sure that walking without Him will be hard.

Your Brother!

Pastor Shaun King

A few photos from my world

My main man - Ezekiel Shaun King (New Photos Coming Soon!)