My name is Greg Sullivan. I live in San Antonio, Texas, USA, and am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute for deacon minister training (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Beginnings
I was born in New York State in 1949, the youngest of three children. My father had me late in life due to health problems. My mother was confined to a wheelchair well before I was born due to polio. She was a good person but also a chronic alcoholic. I later found out that she drank all through her pregnancy with me but not my older sister and brother. That knowledge brought me much peace. It explains many things about myself that I never understood.
Growing up Catholic, I had no conception of a loving God who cared about me. I didn’t fit in well growing up and started drinking as a teenager. Before I finished high school, I was a chronic alcoholic. I was led to the Lord in my early 20s by a godly cousin. However, by then, I was too far gone into my drinking. I accepted Christ as my Savior, but it was a difficult struggle for the next 35 years. I ended up living on skid rows all around the country.
Hit Bottom and God Saved Me
Today, I praise God for every rescue mission and Salvation Army that took me in when I got too sick to stay on the streets. I started going to AA in 1983, but it was a revolving door relationship. I wanted to get sober but couldn’t. In 2005, I hit the lowest point in my life. I knew without a doubt that I would soon be dead on the streets in Morgan City, LA. There seemed to be nothing I could do about it. How dark it is before the dawn!
I made arrangements to come back to San Antonio, though I had no idea why. Through the kindness of a friend, I had a place to stay. I returned to AA, not expecting anything to change. A man spoke who made me realize for the first time that I had no understanding of “surrender.” My journey from there started with baby steps. However, I soon realized that God was truly doing for me what no one on earth could do.
Deacon Minister Training at CLI
The friend who gave me a place to stay is my loving wife of fifteen years, Karen. We married in 2006, and what a journey it has been! Several years ago, we both felt that we needed a local church. We went to several. But, as soon as we walked into SE Baptist Church in San Antonio, we knew we were home. I have been nurtured and mentored by the godly men in my church, including Pastor Jerry Cosper. I was invited to pray about becoming a deacon, and I do not doubt that God called me.
God placed it in my heart that I needed ministry training to be an effective servant. I had no idea how that could happen. I am still working full time as I have no pension and very little social security because of how I lived. Out of nowhere, I saw an ad for the Christian Leaders Institute. I thought, “This is too good to be true! What an awesome God we serve!”
I am not sure what else the Lord has planned for us, but I am as excited as any man half my age. Literally, I laugh out loud when I think how God is using this old sinner. I am taking deacon minister training courses to be an effective, ordained deacon. I hope to continue as long as God allows. Thank you, CLI!
My professional name is Patricia Renard Scholes, but please call me Pat. My husband of over 50 years and I live in a rural community north of Durango, Colorado. We live in a national forest between the Animas River and the Durango-Silverton Railroad. I am excited to take the ordination classes at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Ministry Journey Begins
I majored in “Mommy” for ten years before I decided to return to school. It took me a while because life kept happening. Two examples are: a tornado took our house, leaving us temporarily homeless, and my husband became disabled halfway through his working years.
Finally, I graduated from Denver Seminary with a Master of Divinity and a Certificate of Completion in Evangelical Spiritual Guidance. I intended to become a Presbyterian pastor, but I realized I wasn’t Presbyterian after all by the time I graduated. As a result, I never became ordained as a pastor.
However, that didn’t stop my ministry. For several years we opened our home to street people in a halfway house ministry. This was life-changing, not only for our “congregation” but also for us. We watched in amazement while God changed the lives of the people in our home. One young man, who previously led a very violent life, was challenged as he drove his truck down a mountainside. He got behind someone who not only drove very slowly but also prevented him from passing. The young man reached for his rifle, fulling intending to blow away the other driver. When I asked him why he didn’t do it, the young man replied, “Because God didn’t want me to.”
My Childhood
I didn’t enter this world to minister to anyone. My parents blamed me for “having to get married” when Mom became pregnant with me. Anger and violence filled our home. I refused to remain quiet, even when it looked like Dad might kill me for speaking out. I spoke out anyway. Although they went to church every Sunday, there was no Jesus in that home. I never remember one quiet family dinner. One of us kids either became the recipient of Dad’s verbal assaults or the physical victim of his terrible temper. I used to rush through my meal and run to my room to escape the next war to break out. I buried myself in a novel to shut out the noise downstairs.
My escape into fiction became my vocation. I write dystopian science fiction to encourage others that there is a way out of the tragic events people must face in this world. I am far too familiar with abuse. Too often, I was my father’s “chosen” child. I didn’t believe in a God who would allow any of this to happen to children. I remember being alone in my bed, crying from yet another beating, praying, not praying, then praying again. Finally, I said, “God, if you’re real, I just need someone to love me.” “I love you, Patty,” God said, not in an audible voice but inside. Then He filled me with more love than anyone could contain. Since then, I’ve told people that no one is an accident. God loves us specially and has made each one of us unique, with a fulfilling plan for each of us.
My Ministry Journey Continues: Ordination Classes at CLI
Another thing I learned in the seminary is that I’m not designed to be a pastor. I work best in small groups or one-on-one. As a result, I’ve never used my education as a minister. We attend church regularly, but I’m not one of the preachers, even though I am very qualified to do so and am not afraid of speaking to large groups. I do house church ministries or small group ministries. I would love to train people to become small group leaders.
Therefore, I am pursuing ordination for that purpose, not just to lead a group but to facilitate others to do the same. Denver Seminary cost me over $100,000. I can’t afford another major investment in my education, or I would have returned to school to acquire a doctorate. God is not taking me there. So, I am so thankful for the Christian Leaders Institute with its scholarship for free ordination classes.
My name is Cristobal Diego Williams, a father of seven born in Belfast. I am a servant of God, and my Lord and Saviour is Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the Christian education for free at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Younger Years
Since I was a young child, I always had a keen interest in Faith and Religion. Through this interest, I developed a strong and undeniable sense of faith and conviction. There is a spiritual essence to our world. The meaning of all life is, of course, found in the one and only true God.
The place I was born, Belfast, has historically been a troubled and conflicted island. Some would say that it is partly to do with religion mixed with politics. Due to this fact, it can be a sensitive subject to some people.
Personal Salvation and Ministry Calling
I received Catholic baptism as a baby. However, as I grew to more biblical knowledge in my adult years, I also grew to disagree with the Catholic Church and a lot of its doctrine. I preferred praying to God with my own thoughts. There was gratitude in me for studying the Bible myself under the Holy Spirit’s guidance and doing my own research on topics.
I extensively listened to hours of theological debates, sermons, and Christian theological knowledge that I could grasp to give me more knowledge of the truth. This study led me to join many congregations of different faiths and make new friends to learn from. I always wanted to find out God’s nature along with some evidence, and this desire led me down different paths in life.
As I got older, something changed inside me. As I read and studied the Word of God, I realized the Holy Bible was a testament of itself. I was touched by the Holy Spirit and washed in the Blood of The Lamb, for my clothes would not have been white in front of the presence of the Lord. I realized I was a sinner and needed a redeemer to pay the debt of sin, which is death. Christ did this through the cross and defeated death when he rose from the tomb (Romans 6:23; Romans 3:23; Revelation 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:17).
Spiritual Dream
2 Timothy 4:7 says, “I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” However, unlike the Apostle Paul, I have not finished my race. So I try my best each day to keep the faith. Yet, I know my Salvation is saved through no works of my own but by God’s Grace. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – so that no one can boast” Ephesians 2:8-9. “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land … it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess …” Deuteronomy 9:5-6.
This divine phraseology turned Jewish theology upside down. This was when I realized Jesus came to fulfill the Scriptures, not to change them. The old law was missing the Saviour, who freed them from the legalistic structure of laws. Faith fuelled by grace with an authentic and obedient seeking of Christ naturally produces good works.
I am proud and grateful to be a member of this institute to further my education and always a servant of Christ. Christian Leaders Institute has given me the chance to get an accredited Christian education for free. It is an opportunity to develop my call to ministry, and I am excited for what God has in store for me.
Thank you, and God Bless CLI, for this amazing opportunity!