SAN ANTONIO, Texas—Mel Keyes forgot about his prayer. But God didn’t.
That explains how an African-American pastor—twice the age of the typical college freshman—ended up at Baptist University of the Américas, attending a school that trains ministers within a Hispanic context.
As a 17-year-old, Keyes left Brooklyn, N.Y., via the U.S. Air Force, with “no idea what (he) was doing or really even why.”
Military service took him to Austin, within driving distance of a San Antonio cousin who picked him up almost every weekend and brought him to Joshua Baptist Church, where he met two people who changed his life—a mentor and a mate.
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Pastor Mel Keyes and his wife, Kendra, give a congratulatory kiss to “Mother Dawson” at a Joshua House of Worship event. (BUA PHOTO/Mel Keyes)
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“Pastor Clifton Phillip was like a father to me,” Keyes recalled. “Under his leadership I grew as a Sunday school teacher, deacon and accepted my calling into the preaching ministry while still on active duty.”
The other “divine, life-altering relationship” he encountered was Kendra Parther, “the sweet Texas girl who I have spent the last almost 21 years with.”
Although he remained committed to starting a church, he also was beginning a successful sales career and raising a family. He decided to slow down his ministerial training, remained active in Resurrection Baptist Church in San Antonio and took advantage of online courses, workshops and books as he found the time.
But things changed in June 2005, when he was called to follow his deceased mentor as pastor of Joshua Baptist Church.
“I had mixed emotions of faith and fear,” he remembers. “Faith, because I knew after prayer, fasting and consecration that it was God’s will. Yet, fear because I knew that now there was so much more learning to be gained, and I didn’t know how I was going to squeeze it in—working, pastoring, going to school and leading a young family.”
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Within two years, the congregation decided to support him in full-time ministry, and he knew it was time to continue his formal education, despite a significant case of what he terms “later bloomer nervousness.”
The available options overwhelmed him, so did the only thing he knew to do—ask God to lead him specifically where he wanted him to study.
A few months passed, and then someone mentioned BUA to him. He recalled his prayer and enrolled immediately, becoming part of a rapidly growing number of African-American students there.
“From day one, I was met with open arms and warm embraces. I wondered if I was at a school or another loving congregation,” Keyes said. “The Hispanic makeup of BUA inspires me in a huge way because in the past five years, I’ve seen our own congregation grow from a 5 percent Hispanic membership to one that averages almost 50 percent.”
The congregation—now called Joshua House of Worship—is overflowing its building and planning new facilities.
“BUA has added a dimension and depth to my spiritual life that I had been after for so long but didn’t know when, where or how to get it,” Keyes said.
“It is amazing to me to consider the various life and ministry lessons that I have learned over such a short period of time. My personal life, marriage and ministry are all better as a result of my education at BUA.”
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