This Ministry Award graduate believes in home discipleship and women’s ministry. She is applying her Christian Leaders Institute education to her community, church, and family. Here is her story.
My Mess; God’s Masterpiece
My name is Heather, and God is calling me to home discipleship and women’s ministry. Born in 1982, I was raised by my parents in a small country town in New Jersey, USA. Now, I live in Middleburg, FL. I have only one sister, and we are not super close, but God is working on that. We were raised Catholic, and while I felt a certain peace at church and out in nature, I did not have a relationship with God until later on in my adult life. My mom strongly believed in God, but my father strongly questioned.
First Step with God
As I went off to college to study psychology, I was not concerned with God. I never thought to ask him what his plan for my life was, and I started to make some bad decisions.
However, these bad decisions brought me to my knees one dark and lonely night in my living room. As I begged for forgiveness from a God I was not sure I believed in, I heard him speak to me, saying, “Heather, I have already forgiven you. You must forgive yourself.” As I type this, the magnitude of what God said to me hits me harder now as I truly understand what God meant by that.
After that, my life started to change. I went back to church and started to get to know God. But I still did not fully understand and had not given my life to Jesus.
Further Growth
At this point, I had moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where my spiritual life began to blossom. I met many believers. I started reading the word and writing in a prayer journal. Life threw more challenges my way, but God renewed my heart and mind, and I overcame them. I met my husband, gave my life to Christ, and then the enemy really attacked and continues to do so. But God is so good, and every attack is a lesson learned. Every day he renews me and strengthens me.
Home Discipleship and Women’s Ministry
Currently, I am a homeschool mom of three beautiful blessings. I take my role as their spiritual advisor very seriously. My first ministry dream is to pour into my children. I pray they have a lifelong relationship with Christ and that he is their guide in all they do. I pray they then turn around and pour that love into others.
My other ministry dream is to help women understand abortion awareness, prevention, and healing. I want to build up the women of this country to stand firm in who they are in Christ. I would love to take over the pro-choice slogan and relate it to women’s choices before getting pregnant. Pregnancy is a consequence of an action. As someone who has been down this road, I would love to share Christ with other women. I want them to know he does love them, they can heal, and they can let go of the past.
Home Discipleship and Women’s Ministry
This class at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about Studying the Bible, Click Here) has strengthened my walk with God in a few ways. First, it gives me more time with him. I have my Bible study time and class time. God has been revealing to me my heart, which allows me to make some big changes! It has gotten my husband back involved in our home discipleship time and convicted me. My walk with God needs to be a daily priority.
A small group leader is what I identify with. I am naturally a leader. Throughout my life, I have been captain of my teams, team mom for my son’s soccer team, and co-leader of a small group. Somehow I end up in a leadership role without even trying. Now, I am focusing on being a leader amongst the people in my world and being intentional about it.
God Working in My Life
God has done so many amazing things in my life. If I had to narrow it down to one, it would be when I went through counseling and abortion healing. It was at First Coast Women’s Services while I was pregnant with my second child. My mentor at the time and the entire experience was such a blessing. It showed me how others could be the hands and feet of God. I personally experienced God’s healing, and I want to share and help others like myself.
I started reading my Bible before I gave my life to Christ while my firstborn napped. At first, I had no idea what I was doing, but I just started reading. Amazingly, as I started to read the Bible, God started to reveal himself to me. I will never forget the first time I read God is love. Wow! That revelation opened my eyes wide. And from that moment on, I just wanted to know more.
Seven years later, the Bible still is so exciting to read! Reading the Bible has transformed my life. It has helped me to get to know God, to understand I am a sinner, to understand who Jesus is and what he did. It has helped me renew my mind, heal my heart, and give me faith in the Lord. I would not be where I am today if I never opened that book.
Support from Church and My Family
My local church has helped by providing opportunities to lead and be a part of small groups. It also provides some leadership training, support, and prayer.
My family’s role in ministry training is important. I pray to share what I learn with my family to minister and serve others individually and as a family.
Free ministry training at the Christian Leaders Institute is important to me for many reasons. I am passionate about sharing the Love of Jesus with others, but I want to be fully equipped and prepared. Having a biblically sound foundation helps me I know that what I am sharing is correct. I also want God to continue to mold me into who He has created me to be. Sharing God’s Word and my experiences, I want to have confidence when so his Glory can shine through me.
I would love prayer for my marriage and family life as I continue to study that we would strengthen as a Christian family. Please, pray for opportunities to share and minister, for wisdom and discernment. Also, pray for the women God wants to bring into my life, and that I would grow closer and stronger in Christ. Thank you!
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 Emelda, and I am receiving free training for my marketplace calling at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about Studying the Bible, Click Here). I am from South Africa and a graduate in Social Sciences. Being a Christian leader where I live takes a lot of commitment. While people believe in Jesus, and many of them are Christians, there is still a number who mix Christianity with ancestral worship. They do not understand why this practice is wrong because Christianity is deemed an “imported” western religion.
Gifts and Challenges in Life
I had a great childhood and grew up in a Christian environment. Both my mother and father took Christianity seriously for all their children. We children attended church even though my father would not. I started having prophetic dreams when I was five years old but did not recognize them as such at that time. My failure to understand what God was communicating with me led me to make mistakes in life. I grew bitter against my father for deserting my whole family. So, I lived a life in rebellion to him and also to God.
After a while, I discovered my father had cancer. God had shown me that this would happen so many times years before, yet I ignored it. I realized God also warned me about my father leaving us his family, yet I had not done anything about it. I prayed that God would heal my father and forgive me for the bitterness I had carried in my heart for so long. It had stifled the plans of God to use me as a spiritual watchman over my family.
Free Training for My Marketplace Calling at CLI
Sadly, my father passed on while he was away before we could see him. I blamed myself for a long time and could not forgive myself. Yet God forgave me and continued to communicate with me prophetically. To honor my late father’s life and make up for my rebellious past, I made a vow to God. I would honor what God wanted to establish in my life and obey whatever His Word commanded. As I sought the Lord more, He impressed upon me the great commission verse in Mathew 28 as well as a call to leadership in Isaiah 55:4. As God dropped these scriptures in my heart, I shook under God’s anointing call. I remembered Saul’s experience on his way to Damascus, and I knew I could not rebel against God’s will anymore.
My dream is to effectively share the gospel through evangelism and transform the marketplace by reforming it with Christian values. I had no idea about the marketplace calling. However, I knew I would be equipped to be effective both in ministry and in entrepreneurship when I came across the Christian Leaders Institute. Free training for my marketplace calling was essential for me. I have small kids, and I need the convenience and affordability that the Christian Leaders Institute provides.
I use my training to preach the gospel effectively and drive towards my goal of impacting the marketplace.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Greetings to you! My name is Patrick Robson. My friends call me Pat, but to those closest to me, I am Patrick. God sent me the free Bible college study opportunity at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about Studying the Bible, Click Here). As 1 Timothy 1:17a says, “All honor and glory to God forever and ever!”
I am the eighth and youngest child to my surviving parents, and I am 54 years old. I was raised in the city of Windsor within the province of Ontario in the country of Canada. Windsor is the most southern city in Canada and shares a border with the USA by Detroit, Michigan. With a population of around 220k, Windsor has a diverse culture and a significant manufacturing industry. I am college educated in mechanical engineering technology and designated a Certified Engineering Technologist in Ontario.
My wife Hanan and I met in 2005 and were married in 2008. Hanan is an Iraqi born and raised woman who immigrated to Canada with her first husband in 1996. Together, we have five children ranging in age from 18 to 26. Hanan came to a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus in 2002 while embroiled in a bitter separation. She has walked faithfully in humble submission to Him since then.
Days of My Youth
My upbringing was quite typical of middle-class America in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. My mother and father were faithful to Roman Catholicism and intent on raising us in their beliefs, manners, and traditions. At 16 years of age, we began to study vocational directions in our RC youth group, and I felt the Call of God into ministry. With an elder sibling enrolled in our RC diocese seminary and exposure to ministry within RC’s example, I quickly suppressed that Call. The demand for chastity was also not a sacrifice that I could accept.
A few years later, while dating a Pentecostal girl in college, I was invited to a Christian concert at a nearby venue in Detroit. There the Spirit of God convicted me of my sin and my need for Him. I responded to His call at the altar. I’ve come to refer to this event as my near-birth experience as the next day, the enemy came and snatched away the Word that had been planted in my heart. Without further mentoring, discipline, or direction, I abruptly erected my walls of pride and independence. So, I wandered in darkness for the next 18 years. During this time, I succeeded in my career but was an abject failure in relationships. Even so, the LORD blessed me during this time with three children from two women. My eldest son, Zachary, my daughter, Victoria, and my youngest son, David,
Saved By God’s Grace
At 39 years old, standing before the wasteland of my second marriage, I came to the end of myself. I had planned and strategized for six months on how I would take my own life, and now the time had come. As I lay in a motel in July of 2005, feeling alone, abandoned, and betrayed, I was ready to execute my plan. BUT GOD intervened and whispered in my spirit, “That life is over, now I will live in you!” I cannot explain all that happened in a reasonable amount of time, but on August 10, 2005, in the sanctuary of Windsor Christian Fellowship (WCF), the Father met me, the Son forgave me, and the Spirit of God came to abide within me.
That’s more than 15 years ago now, and much has happened in my life and my walk. I could share testimonies of physical healing and deliverance. God continues to strengthen me and teach me through His Word daily. I enrolled and graduated from WCF’s School of Leaders and had hands laid upon me for ministry. My wife and I have served faithfully in WCF as baptism leaders and mentor group leaders for twelve years, with a group of nearly 20 hungry believers joining us to grow in the Word weekly.
Free Bible College Study Opportunity at CLI
All the while, I study giants in our faith like RC Sproul, John MacArthur, Ravi Zacharias, and Robert Morris. There has come a shift in me. The burden the LORD placed upon me years ago to attend Bible college to study and to grow in the knowledge of Him has become heavier. It has drawn me out from the ministries I was involved in to spend time with Him through His Word.
I could go on and on. But, it comes as no surprise to me that I have stumbled upon the offerings of Christian Leaders Ministries (CLM) at this time. CLM includes the Christian Leaders Institute, CLI’s Leadership Excellence School, and Christian Leaders Alliance. This free Bible college study opportunity is another of God’s vast provisions. I am looking forward to growing in awe and wonder of our blessed Holy Trinity. I thank the people behind CLM for responding to the Call of God on your lives to make it all possible.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.