Hello, everyone! My name is Evelyn Jacks, and I am taking educational Christian classes at the Christian Leaders Institute for free (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).! I am a fifteen-year-old girl, born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I live in a log cabin on 85 acres with my parents and seven siblings. As one can imagine, my siblings and I made many wonderful memories on our property. We enjoy our tree forts, rope swings, airsoft battles, volleyball, hunting, hiking, tent camping, and ice skating on our pond! All eight of us kids have been homeschooled since the beginning, which allows us to spend quite a bit of time together!
When not with siblings, I work hard on our family business and school. My family and I run a small business. We provide fully registered English Labrador Retrievers for families, sports enthusiasts, and therapy trainers. Currently, we have a puppy serving as the first onsite therapy dog for our firefighters in California. I am a high school student pursuing a college degree from Liberty University through dual enrollment in terms of school.
My Walk with God and Finding CLI
When I was eight years old, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Since then, I have assisted at our small local country church. I volunteer at our AWANA program, help my mom teach her Women’s Bible Study, and lead a monthly Bible study for girls. I enjoy learning and memorizing the Bible. This past month I finished memorizing the book of James with my eleven-year-old sister.
I found out about the Christian Leaders Institute through Teenpact, a government program for high schoolers. I was excited to hear I could take educational Christian classes for free! So, I am thrilled to see what I will learn from these courses at CLI!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Hi, my name is Stewart Kitchen. I’m 47 and from Sheffield, England. I was saved on April the 5th, 2020, at the beginning of the UK lockdown. I came to Christ through finding an online church service run by Soul Church of Norwich, England. Then, on August 9th, 2020, I found a local church, Hope City Church of Sheffield, that was also doing online services. They asked me if I wanted to do an Alpha course. I didn’t know what it was, but out of curiosity, I said yes. Now I am 8 weeks into the course. After a couple of weeks of the course, I realized I wanted to know more. That is when I searched for free online Bible classes. I found the Christian Leaders Institute and took the Getting Started course (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Journey: From a Child of Satan to a Child of God
About myself, I wasn’t born into a religious family. In fact, my dad hated anything at all to do with religion. My parents divorced before my third birthday due to alcohol and violence on both parts. So my dad moved into my grandparent’s house with my younger brother and me. My dad still struggled with alcohol while holding three jobs down and suffering from depression. Therefore, care of me and my brother Chris fell to my grandparents, Edna and Bill. I was a very rebellious child and even worse when I became a teenager. My dad once called me Satan’s second. I was not too fond of school, and arguments between my dad and me got more and more regular.
At the age of 15, I moved out and was taken into a hostel for homeless teens. While there, I got into drugs. Amphetamines and cocaine were my choices of party drugs. What I used every day were cannabis and alcohol. Soon, I was heavily addicted to cannabis. I dropped out of school, so I never received any GCSE grades and couldn’t get a job. I took to burglary or muggings to feed my habit.
Struggles
While in the hostel, I got into more and more fights. Therefore, at the age of about 19, they asked me to leave. Then, I was back on the streets. I went to the benefits office to see if they could help. They said they could, but there was a catch. I had to do a training course on care for the elderly. It was ironic since, first, I didn’t care about anybody but myself, and second, these were the type of people I robbed not a week earlier.
However, I started the course run by two church leaders, Ken and Christine Tooze. While there, I met a young woman, who gave me a place to stay. After a while, we started a relationship. She got pregnant, but sadly, he was stillborn. This event started me on a downward spiral into heavier drinking and daily use of cannabis. I wasn’t eating and was on a self-destructive path. On May 5, 1993, I attempted to take my own life. I woke up in a psychiatric hospital and stayed there for a while.
More Struggles
After my release, I married the young woman I lived with. However, we could not get over losing our son. Later, we had two daughters. Sadly, it was too late as the rot had set in. After five years, we divorced. Later, I married another woman, and we had three more children. However, my selfish attitudes, drug and alcohol addictions, and the fact that she liked using her fists to solve problems soon led to a second divorce.
At this point, I was deeply into witchcraft and the occult. It would take me down a path of pagan worship, sexual deviancy, and more. But I didn’t care. The further I got in, the harder it was to get out.
In 2006, I moved to Norwich, where I found Lorna a regular churchgoer. The second I met her, I fell in love. However, she believed in everything I was against. So, I threw questions at her: “If God cares so much, why did my son die?” and “If God is really the creator, why did he create us with so much evil in our hearts?” The big question was, “Why doesn’t God do something about the suffering in the world?” I slowly introduced her to my beliefs. Eventually, I convinced her to quit church.
God Stepped In
Not long after that, we married. For the next ten years, we lived in a kind of haze. I got Lorna addicted to cannabis, and nothing seemed to go right. In 2014, we moved back to my hometown of Sheffield and carried on our fogged existence. Then the Covid 19 pandemic hit the world. We locked down, and the only thing to do was troll the internet.
While looking online, I came across an online church service that ironically was being broadcast from Norwich and was the church that Lorna’s family attended. A pastor by the name of Jon Norman was preaching the gospel. In particular, he talked about it never being too late to be saved. So I carried on watching, and halfway through for the first time in my life, I started crying. Even when my son died, I didn’t cry. But this skinny preacher man caused me to sob uncontrollably. He ended the service with the salvation prayer, which I repeated over and over again.
A New Direction and Free Online Bible Classes at CLI
At the time, I didn’t know why I cried or why I felt about ten stone lighter. Drugs were still an issue, but I felt somehow different. I carried on watching every service every week. While looking in my own community, I came across Hope City Church Sheffield. They invited me to do the Alpha course with them. They taught me about prayer and the Holy Spirit. In fact, they prayed recently that I would be filled with the Holy Spirit and cleansed of all addictions. It was as if someone had plugged me into the national grid. I couldn’t stop shaking and had to hold my seat in fear of floating off. I talked in a sort of babble that made no sense and thought I was losing my mind.
The next morning, my craving for drugs was gone! God had truly done as he had promised! Through Jesus Christ, God saved me. Three weeks later, after a crazy dream, I woke up and told my wife that I think God is calling me to the ministry. She said, “You know, so do I.” That is when I found the Christian Leaders Institute for free online Bible classes.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Greetings! My name is Dawna Brennan, and I am receiving free training for a Chaplain Minister at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about Studying the Bible, Click Here). I am 51 and live in St. Louis, Missouri, with my husband, Joe, our youngest son, and my former father-in-law. Joe and I have 7 children between us, 5 girls and 2 boys, ranging in age from 18 to 38, and 2 grandchildren.
My Youth
My parents divorced when I was five years old. Due to my mother’s lifestyle choice, she and her partner had difficulty finding an apartment. As a result, we moved around a lot and were unable to attend church. Thankfully, I had a wonderful, God-fearing, Great Grandmother who saw to it that my sister and I attended Sunday school every week. She was always singing hymns, telling us Bible stories, and making sure we knew that God loved us!
We finally settled in a little apartment in a small suburb outside the city when I was in 4th grade. By the time I was 15, that sweet Great Grandma of ours had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and came to live with us. Thus began my foray into training for a Chaplain minister and caregiving!
My First Marriage and Turning to Alcohol
I dropped out of high school and married my first husband when I was 17. He had a 3-year-old daughter, and by the time I was 22, we added 2 more daughters to our young family. I was able to get my GED during this time. However, we were young, inexperienced, and had no idea what a healthy marriage was. Therefore, when we started having difficulty, we bailed out rather than fight. We both ended up regretting this choice. Sadly, he died in a car crash about a year later, leaving our girls and I devastated.
Grieving and miserable, I retreated into the bottle. I soon found myself trapped in an unhealthy, abusive relationship, forced into a marriage I didn’t want. With 3 fatherless daughters and no escape in sight, I set out to make the best life possible for my girls. So, I did what any codependent, alcoholic wife does. I decided to stick it out, honor my vows, have a couple more babies, and try to change him. It didn’t work.
I loved my children and tried to instill Christian values in them. I even tried to take them to church, but my husband was mad at God and took every opportunity to interfere and undermine what I did. When his job took him out of town, I was grateful. It was during those peaceful weeks I managed to teach them compassion, gratitude, and generosity. They also learned about Christ.
Struggles and Growth
My alcoholism progressed. When I was 37, I went to rehab and began attending a 12-step recovery program. Over the next several years, I struggled to maintain continuous sobriety. I had a pattern of building long periods of sobriety only to throw it away on a one day drunk and having to start over. I felt much shame about that, but I’ve realized that those relapses were a necessary part of my journey. So, I wouldn’t be where I am today had it happened any other way. During this time, I never stopped attending meetings. I made wonderful supportive friends and began depending on God like never before. Miraculous things happened in my life and the lives of those around me, and I knew without a doubt that God was real.
My husband was not supportive of my newfound sobriety. He was jealous and possessive and did whatever he could to interfere. Everything came to a head one night when, in a drunken rage, he hurt me in a way he never had before. Although traumatized, I got a protection order and finally filed for divorce.
I had a lot of amazing, supportive friends, but Joe was one of a kind. He was kind and generous with a strong faith in the Lord and the first man to treat me with genuine respect. We sat next to each other in meetings for 5 years and became best friends. He helped me a lot after I separated from my husband. Before long, our friendship caught fire, and we were very much in love!
The Power of Prayer
In 2015, smoking and lung disease caught up with me, and I almost lost my life. I quit smoking. After undergoing treatment for Hepatitis C, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 2016. I spent the next year heavily medicated and in extreme pain. One day, I recalled a scripture from a Bible study I attended a few years before. It said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours,” Mark 11:24. That was a game-changer. Six weeks later, I was pain-free. By January of 2018, my blood tests and x-rays showed no sign of RA, and I was officially cured.
This past summer, I got sick again. The lack of cardio from being cooped up caused my lungs to become congested. I also was depressed. Once again, I recalled that scripture and thought to myself that if God could remove RA from my body, He could remove the COPD as well. So, I gave it to Him. That very day, I began telling anyone who would listen that I was actively recovering from COPD, and by August of next year, I would be completely healed. Three weeks later, I felt like a kid again. It was amazing! On October 12, at my annual pulmonary function test, my results shocked everyone. My lung capacity had increased from 52% to 72%, allowing my doctor to change my COPD classification from severe to mild! Never underestimate the power of prayer!
Ministry to the Unloved
Dedicated to our sobriety, Joe and I are very active in the 12 Step community and our local community. Our motto is “Trust God, Help Others.” We do everything we can to live up to that. With the opiate epidemic raging and being personally affected, we do what we can. We use our own experience to reach as many as possible. In February 2011, we started a 12 Step program geared specifically to those seeking recovery from opiate (heroin) addiction.
A year later, we started a support group for parents, family members, and loved ones of addicts called H.O.P.E.: Help for the Opiate addicts Parents Exists. Drawing on our experience as parents of a recovering addict and our own experience with alcoholism/addiction, we support parents through the rollercoaster of their child’s addiction. We help them see how enabling behavior is harmful, provide them with resources to get their kids into treatment, and offer a safe, non-judgmental place to cry. Recovering addicts share their stories, often giving parents suggestions about what worked for them. Recovery is possible! We have seen miracles happen, and we are dedicated to helping as many people as possible get there.
People say we are “a ministry to the unloved and unlovely.” I’ve nursed addicts through detox and distributed drug tests and Narcan. I’ve spent hours in the ER, prayed at bedsides, and attended more funerals than I ever thought possible. God has shown me my calling.
Training for Chaplain Minister at CLI
After my first husband passed away, I remained close to his parents. His mother already went to be with the Lord. Then, in 2014, his father received a dementia diagnosis. He didn’t want to leave his home. So he asked if I would bring Joe and our boys and move in with him. What a blessing! This move also afforded me further training for a Chaplain minister.
I want to spread the good news about what the Lord has done for me by sharing my experience, strength, and hope. I also want to be able to bring comfort to people who are going through difficulties. With free ministry training at Christian Leaders Institute, I will be better equipped to do that. My goal is to become a Chaplain Minister. With the training for a Chaplain minister at Christian Leaders Institute, I can actually envision myself reaching that goal.
Dad’s dementia has progressed to the point where he can no longer be left alone. It gives me the time I need to reach my goal. I’m also very grateful to my Mom for bringing Great Grandma to live with us. She did an amazing job, and through her example, I was able to gain the experience I needed to care for Dad. God is good!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.