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Michael Seewald's Spiritual Influences
Michael did lots of odd jobs after graduating San Diego State University in 1976, but all were photo-related. Years later, he
found he was stuck in a quagmire of running a photographic gallery he had opened in 1983 (too much time trying to sell his
older work, no time to create the new). So he took a positive thinking class a friend had told him about to help try to finance
a trip planned to China in 1986. His new 'guru', Robert J. Sturner of La Costa, explained how most of the top successful people
of the world trusted in a 'higher power', and would 'plug into it' by prayer! This rang strange to him at first. Michael was, after
all, an ex-catholic, and now an atheist.
But having paid big bucks for the class, he decided to 'think
positive', and try it. He was amazed that soon he saw dozens of 'small' prayers being answered. This 'peaked his interest', 'got
his attention', etc.. Now he wanted to learn more. He started listening to Christian radio stations, attending churches, reading
the bible and basically asking that God 'reveal' himself to him.
"Months later, and the same day I decided to follow 'the
carpenter from Nazareth', I went to visit my Grandmother in the hospital whom I heard was on her death-bed from a sudden
unknown illness, with three or four days given to live. The funeral was already being planned, and I was devastated. We
were close, and I had just heard about all of this. I had not
even known she had been sick, and now they were talking burial? But Jesus said we would be able to perform greater (in
number) miracles than he, in His name, if we just believed."
"At first, after looking at the two ladies in the hospital room where she was supposed to be, I thought that the name-tag
on the door was mis-labeled. I went and asked the nurse where my grandmother really was, and they said 'no, that's her
alright'! Wow, she already looked dead, was swollen twice her normal size, and was deaf, dumb and blind. I went back and
'laid hands' on her, something I'd just learned at church, and in the name of Jesus prayed for her healing. After my short
prayer I heard her mumble something! I couldn't understand her so I ran and got the nurse.
" 'She says to turn her', she said, 'she thinks you're a doctor'. I
would have broken down and cried over all of this but before I'd even seen her condition the Lord had 'put it on my heart' that
He absolutely would heal her, so I was nothing but ecstatic and full of faith."
"And, instead of being grief struck, like the rest of
my family and hospital staff, I was excited. I told the nurses to watch her, that she would heal quickly. In
fact, the very next day when I visited again they were surprised that she had started
to take liquids again. (I did not know she had not been able to)".
Three weeks later she WALKED OUT HEALED, and no one knew
why or how! "All the doctors, nurses and relatives could keep saying was 'IT'S A MIRACLE', and
it was!"
After this, he soon dug harder into prayer
(always thanking God in advance) and was sure the Lord would figure a way for him
to get the money for the trip to China. Sure enough, through a few weeks of prayer he was 'given' a unique sponsorship
program, in which collectors invested in his work sight-unseen.
Of course, this means he had built up quite a reputation for
himself.
He has now been on over 50 sponsored trips around the world,
each one lasting about a month. Satisfaction is so high, that
most of his two-hundred and fifty plus collectors have
sponsored more than once, and five have sponsored eight or
more!
Among his many sponsors/ collectors are: Roger Enrico,
(president of PepsiCo); Naomi Judd, (country western singer
extraordinaire); ex Charger kicker Rolf Benirschke and Valerie
Wong, now his lovely wife (she could not afford them after
awhile, so she married him!?).
Collectors now purchase up to two years in advance of
knowing what they will get, at a minimum of $1,500 per
sponsored image! His 'rejects', or 'un-sponsored' images from
the series, (Seewald loved them, but none of the sponsors
picked them), have won museum awards! (See Ghost of
Florence winner of all three competitions he has entered them
into, those being: "Best of Show, Color", Museum of
Photographic Arts, San Diego, 1991; "First Place-
Grumbacher Gold Award", San Dieguito Art Guild, and "Best of Show", San
Diego Art Institute', annual juried competition, Balboa Park.)
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Now
click her to to see Michael's accident miracle...
For exciting adventures on traveling with virtually no money
around the world see: Finding his Nitch |
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