Hello, my name is Amber Bowers. I grew up mostly in Indiana with a few years in Michigan. The youngest of two children raised in a Christ-loving family, I don’t remember a time when God was not a part of my life. God and I have been through many things together. I have let Him down many times in word or deed, but He never lets me go! Recently, I sought biblical ordination training online and found the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible courses, Click Here).
My Marriage
I didn’t stray far from the path in my teens but had my share of trials and temptations. I knew God loved me, but my actions didn’t always show my love for Him. Then, I met my husband, David, in 1991. I was a senior in high school. He was 4 years older than me. We tumultuously dated for 3 years. We were married in 1994 and had our first child a year later.
Married life was a struggle for many years. We both came with baggage that needed unpacking. For many years, we struggled. Finally, we sought God and worked intentionally toward sorting out our baggage together. It was a tough time for not only us but our four children as well. However, God’s promises to heal our family if we kept close to Him were true! Nearly 27 years together, and we are very happily married. We have turned a 180 in our relationship. We also have good relationships with all the children, which is an answer to prayer.
My Work and Church
I have worked as a substitute teacher, as a PreK teacher, and as a private tutor. Once my youngest child headed off to school, I returned full-time to the workforce. I recently worked as a Program Director for a nonprofit early learning center in the northern part of Indiana for 7.5 years. Unfortunately, due to COVID, my center location shut down, and I am now searching for where I will go next.
My family and I attend Granger Community Church at the Granger Campus. We have attended GCC for nearly 18 years. We have served within the church on and off for those years, taking rest when needed. My husband serves on the worship team, and I serve on the small group leadership team.
My husband, David, is an amazing man of God and works for Utilimaster as a Product Support Technician. Married for nearly 27 years, we have four children ranging in age from 25 to 12.
Further Education and Biblical Ordination
I am currently finishing a Master’s in Educational Leadership and will graduate in August 2021. I wanted to get ordained to officiate weddings, but I wanted my ordination to be built on a foundation of Biblical principles. So, I started googling “ordination” and found the Christian Leaders Institute. I know God led me here.
I have now started feeling a nudge further into the ministry. Although I am not completely clear on my path, I know God is leading me.
My name is Richard Marshall from Cheshire in the North-West of the United Kingdom. I am not married but am very close to my family, which I consider a great blessing from God. I am called to church planting and ministry training at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible courses, Click Here).
My Youth
I grew up in a Christian family. I attended the local Methodist church and was an active member of the church’s Sunday school. However, as I entered my teenage years, I allowed worldly influences to distract me from church attendance. At age 16, a close family member died suddenly, and this loss affected me greatly. She was a good, godly woman of faith. I could not understand how the God of love could take her away. As a result, I left the church and spent the next period living in the world.
Challenges and Salvation in Christ
I completed my university education and qualified as a High School teacher. This was a very stressful job, and all I was focused on was progressing my career. Further, I became very materialistic and judgmental in the process.
In 2013, my whole life came crashing down around me. First, someone made a serious accusation against me. Although later they found it to be a false accusation, the damage was done. Next, I had a severe mental breakdown which resulted in me suffering from acute depression and severe anxiety. I could not return to the job that I loved and felt I had lost my identity. Then, I entered a spiral of bad decision-making and an unhealthy lifestyle, the consequences of which were financial loss and ultimately homelessness.
At this point, I felt the only option available to me was to end my life. However, a phone call from a loved one when I was about to take my life changed everything. I realized that there must have been a reason why the phone call came at that exact moment. So I turned to God and asked Him if He was there. That was the moment that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes. I saw myself as I really was, a sinner who was broken, guilty, and in need of a Saviour. Then I saw the amazing power of God’s glory. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace, and I acknowledged Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
Called to Church Planting and Ministry Training at CLI
Since then, my life has been transformed. I moved to a new area and am financially stable once again with a permanent place to live. My faith has grown exponentially as I have studied God’s Word and turned to Him daily in prayer. I am a local church member and feel fulfilled when I lead Bible Studies and prayer meetings.
The Holy Spirit has given me the gift of teaching, and I feel called into a teaching ministry. I also feel called to church planting. Therefore, I am at Christian Leaders Institute for the ministry training I need to succeed in the church planting team. I have a real heart for sharing the Gospel with the people in my local community, in which there are a lot of social needs and a real urgent need for Jesus! I believe God has brought me to this place for a purpose, and I have surrendered my all to obey His sovereign will for my life.
Hello, I am Teri Geer from Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA. I have been married to my best friend Brock for 10 years. We own a ballroom dancing studio and are called to dance ministry. We have two adopted children, age 17 and 14, and two biological children, age 3 and 5. I have an Associate’s degree in business and am a certified Ballroom Dance Teacher. With being called to dance ministry, I am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible courses, Click Here).
Early Childhood
I grew up in a non-Christian home. My mother was a drug addict, and my father was an alcoholic. I had two much older half-sisters of the same age but two different mothers and a 3-year older full brother. Seeing my older siblings struggle with drugs and watching my brother put in shackles and shipped off to prison profoundly affected my childhood. I remember this overwhelming feeling of wanting to get out.
When I was 12, I went to a church with a family friend and decided to do an introductory class. On the first day I was to attend that class, my mother tried to kill herself. I remember the screams of pain coming from her bedroom. She had written a note and taken a bottle of pills the night before. My father found the note and decided to let her die. When I realized what was happening, my father screamed at me and said it was all my fault and just to let her die. I ran to a friend’s home and called 911.
The family friend that I attended church with came to take me to the introductory class. I said I did not want to go. I wanted to go to the hospital to see my mom. But I was made to go to the class anyways. As I sat in that class, I decided I would never set foot in a church again, but as you will see, God had different plans.
New Hope and Struggles
At the age of 16, I started dating my husband. He became my rock, and I became his. For the first time in both our lives, we felt hope for a future. We got a place together after my first year of college and started planning a wedding. Well, Brock proposed, and I started planning the wedding. I got a dress and found a venue. Everything was going great.
However, one day out of the blue, Brock said he did not want to get married. I tried to figure out what was wrong. He said it was not me. It was him. But, he did not want to talk about it and did not want to get married. I know now that he was scared because his mother had been married five times and marriage in his family always ends badly. He really was worried that marriage would ruin our relationship. But I did not know that then.
I decided to stay, hoping his feeling would pass and we would start planning our wedding soon. We moved into a home that Brock got a loan for and started building our lives, not married. As the years ticked on, I started to become a bitter and resentful woman. I would seize any opportunity to tell others of the man that called off our wedding and still would not marry me after six years. Although I was not nice, I thought our relationship was still great.
More Challenges
Then one day, Brock said he could not stand me and wanted to break up. I was devastated. He was my rock. I found myself without anywhere to live and nowhere to go. I decided to stay at “our” home until I could find another place. Then, I began to drink excessively and sank into a deep depression. I thought drunk people did things they wanted to do, but I did things I did not want to. Soon, I was a person I did not like, and I did not know how to stop.
Slowly, Brock and I started to heal our relationship little by little. Yet, deep scars were still there. Finally, we married. Two months after the wedding, our two nieces moved in since their parents lost all parental rights. We adopted our two nieces and became instant parents to an 8 and 5-year-old.
My Conversion Journey
A little after this time, odd things started to happen. One day, Christian music began playing in my car. I would get in my car and think this is dumb and change the station. Then one morning, I was lying in bed, and my alarm began to play a song called “I am Redeemed.” It was very odd as my alarm does not play music but beeps.
At that moment, something began to change in me. I got a Bible and began to read it. I started in the New Testament. The first thing I noticed was I did not know what many of the words meant. Then I learned that there are different translations. I would sit on my bed with multiple Bibles around me, learning about who Jesus is. I learned he was and is not at all what I thought. God started stirring my husband around the same time. So, we started to go to a church. I tried to learn to be a good Christina, but I still had depression. I remember reading Romans 7:19, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” I prayed that God would not give up on me.
My Conversion
Then one morning, I woke up and just wanted to die. So, 7 years ago, I got in my car and seriously debated running into a tree. I stopped at a store, and when I came out, there was a CD of a book called 30 Minutes in Heaven sitting on my driver’s seat. As I listened to the book in my car, I cried and cried. I knew that God was real and that He loved me. I could not keep thinking all the things that were happening to me were just a coincidence.
At the end of that book, there was a time to give your life to Jesus. Alone in my room, I fully surrendered my heart to Jesus and have never been the same. I no longer have any depression or drinking issues. I am complete and completely changed. My life has hope and a purpose. Jesus is my love and my everything. I still face troubles, but now I have the Holy Spirit as my rock.
Called to Dance Ministry and Further Kingdom Service
A few years back, I was at a local church and heard Lisa Bevere preach. At the time, I did know women could even do such a thing. Then just before the woman took the stage, I felt the Holy Spirt whisper, “You will do this.” I thought, “Hmm, what will I do?” Then I saw a woman preach.
I am not sure what my next step will be or the complete picture of what God is calling me to. But, I know part of it is I am called to Dance Ministry, where I help others know Christ better through dance. I wrote a marriage curriculum that my husband and I teach. In this group series, couples are introduced to biblical principles through learning to dance together. Our intention with the dance ministry program is to serve the body of Christ through unifying marriages using dance.
God is also calling us to further service for Him. Christian Leaders Institute can help prepare me for what God has for me in the future. I am also interested in the bachelor’s degree program as finishing school has been something I have wanted to do. But with four children, owning a business, and my finances, it has not been something that was accessible for me. I am very excited that Christian Leaders Institute and CLI’s Leadership Excellence School can help me fulfill a lifetime goal and equip me to serve Christ better.
About my Dancing
I started dancing when I was 13 and was not a natural. Most would have called me a “Klutz.” However, through hard work and determination, I began to excel. As a teenager, I was awarded the title of Miss Teen Dance. I started teaching others to pay for my dancing lessons. In teaching, I found a love for helping people realize their true potential and sharing the benefit of dance. I have enjoyed competing in both professional and pro-am dance events. In 2013, I was honored as one of the top ten ballroom dance teachers in the United States.
I am excited that God has called me to dance ministry and further kingdom service!