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To God be the glory, great things he has taught us great things he hath done.
Mar 1, 2024, 6:52 AM
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Michael J. Rogers Masonry, Inc. Since March 1993
31 Years - The story! A blizzard, $400 and a pickup truck!
INVESTING is the key.
It started in 1985. I was 18 yrs old. I’d went to live with Preacher Ray Aiken in Nov. ‘85. I started working for Preacher Ray’s two sons, Allen and Phillip Aiken. I was a tall fella , kinda wimpy, very skinny and only weighed about 140 lbs. First job as a mason laborer was at the Lake Toxaway Condo’s. Massive tall fireplaces, rolling wheelbarrows with mortar up ramps, carrying cmu’s (block) and brick up these wooden planks. I was in no way gonna do this. Preacher Ray and Bro Allen would be singing, “Amazing Grace” and I’d be singing “Another One Bites The Dust.” Only equipment we had was a mixer. No saws, no forklifts. It was all manual labor. January came. Frigid cold! 55 gallon barrels with the top cut out and wood scraps burning in them. I did this for a couple yrs.
It was January ‘87. I was dirt poor. I’d sleep in an old beat up white ‘73 Cadillac I’d bought somewhere. Couldn’t get over 45 mph. It’d throw you out of the rd. Soon I’d move to the Bryant House on King Street. I paid something like $45 a week to live in a room in the back house. I remember having little money and wasted what I did have. I wrote a bad check for a $1.95 steerburger at Western Steer where the car wash is now. I also remember eating jelly and crackers for supper. It’s all I had.
After a couple yrs, I went to work building Norms Minit Mart gas stations. All across WNC and upstate SC. I did this for about 18 months.
I then went back to help Allen and Phillip.
It’s Friday Sept 30, 1988- My brother Eric and I were living in a mobile home on Connestee Trail. That Friday night we went to Madison High School to watch Brevard vs Madison. After the game we went somewhere in Madison County. There was drinking and drugs. A drug that I’d never seen before. You had to have money to do this kind. I tried some and I was so scared. By the mercy of God that drug did nothing! We stayed out til the early morning hrs. I’ll never forget that Saturday. I was so scared. The drugs did nothing but I was afraid of where I was headed. I literally laid in the bed all day! I’d reached the lowest point of my life. It was about 7:00 pm or so. I called Bryan Galloway, the Youth Director at Rosman Baptist Tabernacle. I told him I needed someone to talk to. He told me he’d meet me at the church. It was about 9:00 pm. October 1, 1988 I got saved on a Saturday night. I’ll never forget that night. There was no service. I remember calling on God that night in Preacher Ray’s study. I told the Lord, “God, if I’m not saved save me.” For the first time in my life, I left there that night with love, joy and peace in my heart. I was born again that night!
It was now December 1989 and I’m 22 yrs old. I was still working with Allen and Phillip. Times were tough. No work and was frigid cold! I heard that Fluor Daniel was hiring at DuPont and so I went out there and applied as a laborer. I’d laid a few block but not many. I could handle a trowel pretty good though. I got the job! I started and this work was totally different. We were 3-4 stories high laying block up on scaffolding. It was tented in and heated. Safety like crazy!! I work my rear off! Everyone would say, “Slow down, you’re gonna work yourself out of a job.” It was all knew. I had to work hard. After 30 days, they told me I should apply for a Mason position. I did but failed the written test. There was stuff on the test I’d never seen. Fluor Daniel policy was you could test again in 30 days. I kept working, laying block, pouring concrete. The month passed and I retook the test. I passed! I was making the most money I’d ever made. Although I was making good money I wasted every dime I had. It doesn’t matter how much you make if you don’t take care of it, you’ll have nothing. After several months, we finished this project. Men were getting laid off but I wanted to keep working there. I literally begged to keep my job. Finally, everyone on the Mason crew was gone except Rocky Ayers and I. They kept us. I got moved over to a carpentry crew. I had no idea what I was doing but I worked hard. I wanted to learn. I had to keep this job. It was the best in the area. I then got moved to a concrete crew. They let me test and I advanced to “Multi-Skill.” It paid as much as welders and electricians. I still wasted everything I had.
Here I was, working on this massive job. I’d see people come and go. At one point there was almost 400 people working on the 3B project. I kept learning. I took a voluntary blueprint reading class out there. It was after hrs and not required but I was so eager to gain knowledge. I wanted more. I wanted to be more. We worked 4 10 hr days. Got paid on Thursday and off on Friday- Sunday. Lots of times we could work on Friday’s. Overtime was great. Still wasted everything I was making except just a little I’d have taken out of my check to invest in Fluor stock.
October 1991- I met Connie and we started seeing one another. Wasn’t long, we knew we wanted to get married. In February 1992, I sold my stock and had $700 to buy a ring. We got married on February 28, 1992. Took a 2 day honeymoon to Gatlinburg and was back to work on Monday morning.
We rented a 2 br mobile home from Tommy and Gaye Willix. Paid $220 per month. May of 1992, we committed, as a young newlywed couple, our lives to the Lord and church. We began tithing, being faithful to God’s house. The Lord began to bless us. I had bad credit and Connie had no credit. We needed a car. I was still making good money but we needed a co-signer to buy the Ford Thunderbird we wanted. We paid 14% interest to get this car so we didn’t have to use a co-signer. I was buying credit but it helped build credit, for both of us.
November 1992- my supervisor at Fluor Daniel started talking to me about going overseas to work in Saudi Arabia for the company. He promised we’d make over $100,000 a year. I didn’t know what to do. It was an opportunity of a lifetime but I was still a newlywed having been married less than a year. I began to pray about what to do. I talked to Preacher Ray. Still no answer. It was one Sunday morning at Rosman Baptist Tabernacle. The Spirit of God moved in a mighty way in that service. I was in the altar praying for guidance. My answer had come! I would NOT go to Saudi Arabia to work. I didn’t want to leave my wife and I didn’t want to leave my church! It was obvious to me what to do. My wife and church was the most important thing in my life and I made the decision based on that alone.
March 8, 1993! I lost my job! It was a safety violation. I had to go home and tell my wife that I’d gotten fired. She, on the same day, got her days cut as a hairdresser. Here we were. I’d just turned down a job for the same company making 6 figures a year, we were faithful to church, we were tithing, we were as close to the Lord as we’d ever been. Why? What are we going to do? I’ve got a wife to support! I looked for work all that week. Couldn’t get a job.
March 13, 1993- 5 days later. The blizzard of ‘93! Snowed in, no work, no job. What we do! But God. As I watched WLOS News, I saw the devastation in Tryon, NC. I looked like a hurricane came through that place. I had a pickup truck that I’d bought from my brother in law, Doug Baker. I borrowed a chain saw from my father in law and went to Tryon with Jeremy Scruggs. God provided me work! Hallelujah! For 1 month I’d go door to door asking people if they needed the trees cleaned up out of their yards. Where God was guiding He was providing. I now bought my own saw! After a month, the work was gone. I went to Merrill Masonry in Brevard and talked to Steve Stout about getting a job. I was honest with him and told him I was a block mason but couldn’t lay brick. I’d never laid a brick in my life. I told him what I’d been making at Fluor Daniel. He said he couldn’t hire me at that rate especially if I couldn’t lay brick. Back to square one. I put on a couple roofs for the fellowship hall at Glady Branch Baptist Church and then another one in town but that ran out.
Before internet, before marketplace, before cell phones, I called Bro Mark Morgan- the best stone mason ever to hold a trowel in his hand. I called Bro Mark one night and told him I was gonna try to start a business and ask him if he knew of a mixer for sale. The providence of God, Bro Mark had one he wanted to sale for $400. Michael J. Rogers Masonry, Inc was born!!
Connie, a pickup truck, $400 and God! And a heart of determination! It’s all I had! 26 yrs old, no college education but determined to not let my family eat crackers and jelly and to never sleep in a car. God has been so good to me!!
I found a man in Williamson Creek that needed a crawl space put in. I called him and he hired me. I had no help! Making mortar, carrying block, laying them by myself. Connie would come out in the evening and carry 8” block for me. I’d work from daylight to dark. I had no choice. I finished this job and gave John Ollis, the homeowner, the bill. It was Wednesday. We went to church that evening and I felt like the Lord was leading me to give Preacher Ray a piece of money. As we walked out the door after Prayer Meeting I very discreetly slipped a piece of money into his hand. I hugged his neck and told him I loved him. But God! The next day John Ollis called me and said he had a check for me. I go to pick this check up and it was for $50 more than the bill. The exact same amount I’d given to Preacher Ray the night before! God is faithful! God was proving Himself to Connie and I. She never questioned me giving that to Preacher Ray. If God can’t trust you with little He won’t trust you with much. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t give that to Preacher Ray to receive it back. I gave it to him in obedience to the Holy Spirit! “Little is much when God is in it!�Labor not for wealth or fame;�There’s a crown, and you can win it,�If you go in Jesus’ name.”
““Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”
I finished this job, deposited the money and went and bought a tool I needed. Don’t even remember what tool it was. At Fluor Daniel, I saw all the countless number of tools the company owned. God had been preparing me and I didn’t know it. I’d finish a job, buy a tool. Finish a job, buy a tool. Connie would say, “Are you sure? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I’d tell her, “Lord no, I don’t know what I’m doing! But I have no choice!” I continued to work 12-16 hrs a day! Daylight to dark. I couldn’t stand the thought of Connie (we didn’t have children) going hungry and homeless. That was and always has been my drive. Not money!!
I’d been in business for about 6-9 months and I was building a garage slab for a man- B.J. Sprouse. It was a different kinda job on a very steep slope. It required a tall masonry wall, lots of rebar, backfill, concrete, etc. I build this wall exactly the way I thought it should be built. It was Sunday morning. I’m up getting ready to go to Sunday School and then rings. It’s Mr. Sprouse. The wall had fallen! I thought, “I’m outta business!” I called Bro Hub Powell. He came down and looked at it with me. He had the equipment to clean it up and the knowledge to tell me what I needed to do to build it back. I still use those same building principles and practices today! I learned a lesson right there. It’s not that you don’t have problems in business! It’s how you take care of them. Thank you Bro Hub Powell!
Still, I’d never laid a brick in my life. I had a builder I’d been working for and we’d put a few foundations and slabs in for him. His name was Jim Justice. We’d just put a foundation in for him and he wanted me to brick this house. I told Jim that I didn’t know how to lay brick and I couldn’t do it for him. It was Ronnie Reid’s mothers house on Elm Bend Rd. Anyway, Jim finally talked me into bricking this house and putting a fireplace in it. It was dead of winter and the worst time to be laying brick. Two story home, scaffolds, tents, space heaters. Hard work, determination and perseverance! God had helped me once again! I hired Clint Hall and he helped me! Thank you Jimmy Justice! Not sure if there’d be a Michael J.Rogers Masonry, Inc today had you not talked me into laying the brick on Mrs. Reid home! Preacher Ray, as much as he helped me over the years, actually tried to talk me out of laying brick. He told me I couldn’t make money laying brick. Lol. He was right. Lol.
I kept working but the tools got more expensive. In ‘97, I got my first business loan and bought our first forklift for $20,000. We started doing light commercial work. Preacher Ray told me to be careful because “those architects can be tough.” Again, he was right.
30 years later….. I’ve been blessed! Been some great years but also some most difficult times, too. Don’t get too high on the highs or too low on the lows!
I’m blessed to have some great employees over the years! I’m blessed to have 3 of my sons and Connie working in the business! I said earlier the key to business is hard work, determination and perseverance but as I’ve thought about the past 30 yrs, it’s more than that. Much of our success has been and will continue to be investing. We’ve tried to invest in our employees, in equipment, in technology, in training and education. Last but not least, invest in Gods Work! One day I’ll be gone and the boys will own and operate the company but I pray they’ll always invest back into the important things! God bless! Onward and upward! (No, this is not a retirement letter. I don’t ever plan on retiring! Sorry. Lol)
Always remember, though I’ve failed Him miserably, the Lord first! Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart!
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