My name is Damien Gagne, and I am learning the Bible free at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I am from Manitoba, Canada. My parents grew up during the cultural upheaval of the 60s and 70s. WW2 and its impacts were still affecting a generation of men and women, and the cold war was in full swing. Even in Canada, we were heavily influenced by the more affluent, stronger, and more influential American superpower. Culturally, my parents joined most of their peers and were leaving the church on mass. A new age was here. An era of freedom, rock, free love, long hair, and resistance to established social norms.
My Troubled Youth
My parents married young before they were ready, and before long, they split up. It traumatized my sister and me. Mom got full custody. However, she lived wildly and partied. We saw too much and were exposed to too much. Dealing with these things in my childhood taught me that too much freedom, selfishness, and disrespect of family history negatively impact the family. My parents also spoke of the oppression from the strict French Catholic church that they grew up with. There were the fear of a vengeful God and the rigidity of priests and nuns who made them resent the church and God. These lessons taught me that excessive, rigid dogma was also harmful to society and the family.
With these lessons, I grew up a troubled youth. I had addiction issues and prone to anger and violent outbursts. By the time I was 16, I had hurt my brain and left God behind. How could God allow me to suffer in this way?
Finding New Direction
One day, I read a story of someone’s near-death experience. It led me to believe in God again, but I still was skeptical about Jesus. When I was in my mid-20s, I was laid off from another dead-end job. Depressed and confused, I wondered what my future held. I volunteered at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg. Within a month, I was hooked! I found one of my callings in life to help others. I used my life experience to help kids who were worse off than I was when I was young. So, I tried to teach them good from evil and help them grow into good people.
For the next 12 years, I worked at various non-profit organizations helping others. It is what I needed to feel whole. But, of course, something was missing. I still didn’t know God the way that I wanted to. I always thought of him as a vengeful God who punishes severely. Still traumatized from my youth, I was a sick sinner.
The Truth and Learning the Bible Free Online at CLI
One day, after I had just lost my job due to stupid mistakes, I was sitting across from my wife. I told her, “Babe, I feel like Jesus is real, but I can’t understand how.” Then, I asked Jesus, “Jesus, if you are real, please show me.” As soon as the words left my mouth, Jesus showed us a sign that he was genuine! I accepted him in my heart. After 20 years of running from Jesus, searching for God in other places and other religions, I thank God he opened my eyes to the truth.
My life has since stabilized. I still have hard times, but I can face them with Christ. I feel so loved and so forgiven for my imperfections. Now, I am hopeful for the future. The classes with the Christian Leaders Institute will help me reach all my educational and spiritual goals. Learning the Bible and ministry skills free at CLI will aid me in my ministry calling.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
My name is Heather Christina Tuttle, and I am excited to study God’s Word online at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I am in Pinellas Park, Florida (Tampa Bay area), USA. I am 35 years old and married to my best friend, Billy, for almost 14 years. Together we have three daughters, Kacey-Jo Ashton (13), Rebekka Lynn (12), and Jordan Nicole (11). I also have two stepchildren, Riley Alexander (15) and Destiny Rose (14).
My Youth and Early Challenges
I was born in Tampa, Florida, but spent most of my early childhood (ages 4-12) in a small town in Western PA called Slippery Rock (yes, it is okay to laugh). It was a small college town with a population of around 3,000 people. It also had more churches than restaurants. At one of these, a large Presbyterian church, I was introduced to Jesus for the first time. I attended Sunday school there for several years with my best friend and her family.
I was not a regular attendee, and my parents were not big churchgoers. My mother was raised in a strict Italian Catholic household and shied away from faith as an adult. My dad was never a regular church attendee. When I was 12, my parents went through a terrible separation, which resulted in my mother leaving. My father moved my younger sister and me to Tampa, Florida, to live with my paternal grandmother. I went to church a few times when I first moved there. However, I did not stay going for long. I spent a lot of time in my teenage years angry with God for my mother leaving and for many other injustices I felt were done to me as I struggled through my teenage years.
My Marriage and Challenges
My husband and I both started going to church early in our relationship. However, there was always a reason that we did not stick with going. We had to work on Sundays, or it was too much once we had kids, etc. I would not say there was ever a time in my life that I was not a believer. But, I can say that I have not spent most of my life walking with the Lord or in the study of God’s Word.
Last year, we experienced what was by far the most challenging year we have been through in all our years together. Two of our daughters were victims of sexual assault. That led to many months of investigations and challenging conversations. Then, in late Sept, my husband and I were both driven to confess our indiscretions during our marriage to each other. After everything we had already been through that year, it felt like the nail in the coffin for both of us. We had hit the lowest point of our marriage.
Coming to the Lord
Despite the heartache we both felt, we love each other deeply. So we determined to work on fixing our marriage. I will never forget the moment he looked at me after a long night of talking, trying to make sense of the mess we had put each other in. He said, “We can no longer carry this weight ourselves. We need to go to church.” I immediately felt a sense of peace and knew at that moment that we were going to be okay. One month after joining the Calvary St. Pete church family, my husband and I, along with our three daughters, gave our lives to the Lord. It was as if the Lord himself had wrapped his arms around us and said, “I got you, it is going to be okay. You are not alone in this.”
Study God’s Word at CLI
Since then, we have stopped trying to fit the Lord into our lives and begun to live our lives for the Lord. This change is what has driven me to where I am right now. I want to be able to help guide and lead people to Christ. I want to share the good news of a King that is beautiful and wonderful! He is worthy of all the glory!
I always had a heart for helping people and feel the Christian Leaders Institute is where the Lord wants me right now. I am unsure of what he has planned for me in the future. However, until God reveals that to me, I will continue to study and learn all that I can at CLI. Then, I will be ready when he does.
As a working mom of five, going back to school and being able to afford to was very far in my future. What CLI is offering me is a chance to study God’s Word in-depth and expand my education with God as the center. And it is without the added stress financially that it would put on my family. I am so blessed that the Lord has allowed this opportunity into my life. God is good, all the time!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Searching For God
My name is Brandon Pek from Singapore’s city-state, and I am at the Christian Leaders Institute for free study of the Bible online (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). While reading philosophy in the university, I was confronted with deeply spiritual issues that rekindled my search for God. I had the opportunity to study some aspects of Christianity and other theologies and theories.
Intellectually stimulating but yet torturous to have my mind looping ceaselessly with questions about God and His existence and more. During this period, He placed a few Christian friends in my life who introduced me to their faith.
It was a temporary relief from the mental torment.
Encountering God
The Gospel of John has special significance for me. It’s where I found the one True God whom I was searching for.
One day, I picked up a free copy of “The Gospel of John” from the train station on the way to campus. It was one in a stack of booklets left behind by a local church. After returning home, alone in my room that evening, tears started flowing unexplainedly as I read about Jesus. The Holy Spirit moved me that night.
Therefore, I decided to attend church on my own. The first visit was with some defiance, not standing or participating in the worship at all. That day, sitting in the cushioned seat, God shook my body gently with enough power that I knew it was Him.
The next Sunday, I visited again. This time, it was a different experience when He touched me with His love. I wept uncontrollably. That day in 1989, at age 22, I received Jesus as Savior and Lord. I cannot remember what was preached at that service except the warmth in my heart telling me that I was home.
Rescued By God
But it was not without resistance from the devil because I had switched sides. I was rescued from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Light. Time was perhaps running out, and the enemy thought he had me. However, God did not give up on me.
Following my salvation, three distinct supernatural experiences occurred.
The first incident was that of sleep paralysis as science would call it, or “Gui Ya Chuang” (translated as “ghost pressing in bed”) as it was commonly called in the Chinese circles. Just as I was almost out of breath and dying, I called out the name of Jesus with a burst, and the weight on my chest left me immediately. I regained my breath! It was a pure joy hearing my heart beating until it calmed down to the heartbeat of God.
Another time in my sleep, I saw myself struggling in bed (not my bedroom as I slept on the floor mat in those days) only to see some beings dressed in white appearing and then surrounding the bed. I felt calm and saw myself settling into a deep sleep. When I woke up that morning, I felt refreshed. These beings must have been angels sent by God to guard and protect me.
The third time, I dreamt that I was running along a trail of lighted candles in underground places, through tunnels and openings between different levels. Exhausted after the endless run, I saw myself sitting with my back against the earthen wall. I started singing “Glorify Thy Name,” which kept playing in my head when I awoke in the morning.
Belonging To God
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
The enemy wanted to seize my body, but he couldn’t because it had become the temple of the Holy Spirit. And he tried to ruffle and mess my mind. However, the new peace I received from Jesus cannot be taken away. Still, he attempted to imprison my spirit in the old religion, but I belonged to God when I received our Lord Jesus as Savior.
Free Study of the Bible at CLI
Therefore, I am at the Christian Leaders Institute for a deeper free study of the Bible and sound Biblical doctrine. The free classes online are a blessing for me. I am looking toward to what God has next for me!
Glory to God Alone!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.