Basketball Star Abandons Promiscuity for Love

“Poorly built homes. Poor sewer systems. Barely any electricity. No proper running water” remembered McDonald “Mick”. “You look around, all you see is what you’re experiencing, you feel like it’s normal.”

Growing up on the impoverished island of Abaco in the Bahamas, Mick had little to look forward to in life.

“When you're a kid,” said Mick, “you don’t really know what's out there, so all you really know is your reality.”

Mick was just a baby when his father abandoned the family. His mother worked long hours in the citrus groves to provide for Mick and his two siblings.

“And you see your mom struggling, you're like, ‘man, where is my father’” wondered Mick. “I started kinda questioning God. ‘Why we got to struggle so bad,’ you know?  ‘Why we gotta live like this?’"

To help out as the “man” of the house, Mick started working odd jobs at age eight to aid his mom – while still going to school. Although his excellent grades earned him a spot in the top classes, Mick felt like he didn’t belong.

“Classes where the kids, their parents were doctors, lawyers, bankers, teachers” recounted Mick, “sometimes I felt like that wasn’t my place, ‘cause I was experiencing a different reality when I got home. So it was almost like I was in my own little world.”

One day, while staying at his brother’s home, Mick discovered porn.

“Now instead of being lonely, I have something to go to” said Mick. “It almost kinda filled that void and made me feel like, ‘hey, this is all you need.’ That was my first real representative for what a man should be doing.”

Then a couple of years later, he went to church with a friend, where he learned how Jesus rescues all from Hell who turn to Him.

“I asked the Lord to come into my heart and forgive me for my sins” smiled Mick. “‘Save me’ yeah. ‘I don't want to go to Hell.’"

As Mick grew in his new found faith, his loneliness and desire for porn faded away.

“You know, my relationship with God definitely was so refreshing because it helped me, to understand that I wasn't by myself” Mick said passionately, “I had someone watching over me and taking me through life.”

Meanwhile, Mick was emerging as a star high school basketball player. As he traveled with his team throughout the Bahamas, he began to see basketball as his ticket out.

“I prayed, you know, for God to help me get a scholarship” said a hopeful Mick, “so when it started coming true, I was like, ‘man, my prayers are being answered.’"

By his senior year, Mick landed a full ride scholarship to St. Thomas University in Miami.

“It was a different world,” said Mick as he shook his head, “I'm in a different country, I’m by myself, I was a man now. Like a ‘man-man.’ Time to explore a little bit.”

“‘Come to this party’ or ‘come hang out,’” quoted Mick, “So I’d do certain things, or have certain conversations, or I’d be in certain environments, I knew I shouldn’t be in.”

He also started having sex. Even though he knew it was wrong.

“I had that strong conviction in my heart” persisted Mick. “I knew when something wasn't right. But that guilt started to get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and that's when you’re losing yourself.”

Mick sought affirmation as a man through pursuing women.

“I felt like that's what a man should do, just have sex, and I just started messing with prostitutes, finding women online” he said heavily. “It felt good in the moment just being there, but, you know, whenever I left - guilt - and it would come back, and that conviction. I was being transformed to this person that I didn't know.”

That person was a man who had drifted far from God – and every aspect of his life suffered for it.

“I wasn't just a basketball player, like I was there because of my spiritual life,” professed Mick. “Even like with basketball, I just felt like it was a spiritual connection. It was God, and I lost that part, so my game started suffering.”

With his focus missing on the court, Mick lost his scholarship at the end of freshman year. Devastated, he transferred to Webber International University with hopes of playing ball again. Then one night while waiting to meet a woman, Mick realized how far he had strayed from God.

“He did all this for me.  Brought me all the way here from where I came from, and now look what I’m doing” exclaimed Mick exasperated. “I got emotional, very, very emotional at that point. And I remember just asking God to help me. ‘I don't know how to say no, how to stop it. Like I need You.’”

“I repented right there” said Mick with relief, “it was one of those moments, of Him (God) reaffirming that to me that, ‘I'll never leave you nor forsake you.’"

With God’s help, Mick took control of his desires, and dedicated his life to pursuing God.

“As I grow in God, I just started to see myself in a whole different light” said Mick with confidence. “And I started to understand that, I’m complete.”

Mick went on to become a three-time all-American for Webber. Now in his senior year, he will graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing. Mick no longer seeks manhood through women, because he knows his identity is found in God.

“To me, God is everything” smiled Mick, “He’s this friend. He’s this comforter.  He’s this loving Father, forgiving Father.  Just everything.  Everything for me."