My name is Eirin Cox, and I am continuing my education free at CLI. I am from San Antonio, Texas, USA, but currently live in Austin. Recently, I returned from Norway, where I took classes and staffed a Discipleship Training School with Youth With a Mission. Before that, I graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, and an emphasis on Youth Development. I have a heart for the youth/young adults and helping them see, plan for, and reach their potential.
My Start
I grew up in a Christian home but started making my faith my own in high school. My assurance took on a more profound role when I studied at the university and started doubting not only God’s character and my identity but also His existence at all. During that season, an unshakable foundation for my faith was built. God taught me more about how I hear His voice, vulnerability, the value of community, and the importance of choosing truth regardless of current circumstances. Here I fell in love with the Bible.
Continuing Education Free at CLI
In recent years, I’ve realized how much I love to learn and to study. God gifted me academically and placed this desire within me. I look forward to seeing more ways God will use it in the future. Last year, I was considering going back to school, but I didn’t have a specific direction I wanted to go with more studies. I knew I didn’t want to accumulate more and more student debt, but that didn’t quench my desire to learn.
Then a friend introduced me to the Christian Leaders Institute, and I thought this institute must be the solution I’ve been seeking. I can continue to learn with the accountability of structured classes. Furthermore, I can apply these things to the ministries I will be involved in and the people with whom I find myself in a relationship. Also, it will not break the bank to do it.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Mr. Bean’s Thorn
I am John Bean, from Kingman, Arizona, USA, and free education at CLI is a Godsend for me. Just like the Apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, so I have had this thorn. Some say this thorn was epilepsy, and this is what I had for 20 years. I have not had a seizure in over five years. However, I live with the stigma that people hold when they hear of my struggles and victories with the Lord.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies degree, along with two other college degrees. Sadly, they practically became framed toilet paper when I lost much of my memory after a temporal lobectomy (brain surgery) in 2011.
Grampa’s Witness
One thing I remember from my youth is Grampa John Bean persistently taking my brothers and me to church for the AWANAS children’s program every week for a few years. I never wanted to go back after I turned 12, though. But then I felt that “thorn” protrude when I was 14 in high school, and I had a seizure about once a week (Complex Partial – mostly just a blank stare).
In Grampa John Bean’s gracious spirit, he sold both of my brothers a vehicle just before they were legally able to drive. I wouldn’t be able to drive until I was seizure-free for a time, which came at age 18. But Gramps had something else for me, and the Kingdom of God too.
New Life Community Church was a church plant started by my Grandpa for the Filipino community of Paradise Hills in San Diego, CA. The church needed a worship team, and he offered me a nice Sonor drumset if I played with them every Sunday. At age 14, I felt far away from God. However, an opportunity to play in front of a perpetual crowd enticed my brother (bass guitar) and me.
God’s Grace
The Lord did not let me be on that stage as an instrument for my pride, but as an instrument for the people of God to come closer in praise to Him. Saved by God’s grace, I wanted to teach the youth around me about the change that occurred in me through the Word. So I also became the youth minister.
I got involved in Campus Crusade for Christ at my community college, where I met my wife, Lori. I traveled the USA as a “musicianary” drummer in a swing band. It was with Bill Bright sharing the four spiritual laws. I felt called into ministry and soon enrolled at Southern California Seminary, graduating with a BABS in 2008.
The seizures worsened, and I needed more medication. It got to the point it was toxic, so brain surgery was necessary. I was able to continue in ministry as a drummer. However, I was in and out of work although able to get a driver’s license. Through all this time, Lori and I had four beautiful children.
Ministry Dream
My dream has always been in ministry in some capacity. My constant prayer to God is to do so in a teaching compacity, but right now I hear Him say “wait” to me. I know I can teach the Word because my family can see the fruit. But my health delayed progress in the church.
Therefore, I became proactive in educating myself on my health since my doctors couldn’t show any progress for 20 years. I learned about other treatments besides the prescribed medications I was on that could help me. I learned restorative therapy through my mind (Christian meditation), body (Daniel Fast losing 90 lbs.), and spirit (prayer, praise, study). It has been what I needed these last few years.
I went from 25 pills/day to 6 pills/day and have a part-time job. I wrote a book about the relationship of the human body (the temple of God) and the Worship of God through the upkeep of His temple (mind, body, spirit). It is called “One Body in Christ, Many Souls in Praise” (on Amazon).
Free Education at CLI
As Paul was given his thorn, Barnabas helped him by taking him to the apostles in Jerusalem. Barnabas explained how Paul had evangelized courageously in the name of Jesus. This once stigmatized opponent of the church was able to associate freely with Jesus’ disciples and proclaim salvation to the unsaved. My hope is that the Christian Leaders Institute can be that Barnabas figure that will show that I can be like Paul and not stigmatized for the thorn.
I have formal education to show that I can produce fruit, but much of the in-depth training has eluded me. I find that free education at CLI is crucial in relearning much of what was lost. My hope is to use this training for ministry in a chaplaincy position at the state prison or in my church. Praise God!
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 Brenda Antwi, and I am excited to study at CLI for their free ministry learning opportunity. I am a person with a passion and a deep reverence for God and His Word, with a heart flowing with love for God’s people. Born into a Catholic family in November of 1974, I am the third born out of five siblings. I have been married for 17 years and blessed with three beautiful children who are all currently in secondary school. We live in the Borough of Croydon, Surrey, UK.
During my secondary school education, I was quite active in sports, drama, and charismatic worship, coupled with my staunch Catholic upbringing. I was the one they asked to do church readings in the boarding school because I was articulate and an excellent reader. Having the zeal to study further, I went on to study a Degree in Management at the University of London. After that, I pursued and gained a Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Leicester.
Right before my tertiary school years, I met my husband. However, I had become quite stale in my spiritual walk with God at that time. My husband then took me to his church (Pentecostal), where I started improving upon my relationship with God. Being a businessman meant he traveled a lot. During his travels, he would call me, and we prayed together.
Testing for My Growth
My real tests began shortly after marriage over 16 years. It was continuous testing of my faith. It moved me to levels of deeper commune with God, fighting spiritual battles that I didn’t know I could. I had an encounter with the angelic hosts with the assurance that God was on my side. I call it the desert years. There was a Job kind of test at some point with an attack on my spiritual and physical – my body, marriage, children, finances, job, and my sibling’s families.
Furthermore, suddenly I gained this inexplicable hunger to study counseling, which helped me to work on myself. It also enabled me to counsel in schools and on an individual basis. During these trials, I had moments of weakness but grew spiritually healthy. The Holy Spirit used me to heal people with diseases, give competent counsel. I comforted those distressed and shared the Word. In the women’s group that I led, people felt the presence of God.
The beauty of these trials was that God showed me the length, breadth, and height of wickedness. I had to physically go through the trials to understand the severity of what God’s children were going through. Interestingly, for as long as I didn’t understand the point or meaning of the trial, I stayed in it. When I got the message, He moved me to the next phase.
Further Spiritual Understanding
God helped me also to understand the different “men of God” who came into my life. Some were greedy, false, or took Him for granted, and then some were for Him. I grew more durable in the Lord. I endured knowing nothing else but the Word and prayer. Through the countless cries to God in times when I felt He was not listening, He was there!
When I was coming to the end of the trials, God revealed His plan for me in Luke 4:18. I saw myself preaching, healing, and casting out demons. Alleluia! He took me through the refiner’s fire to season me for a purpose.
Shortly afterward, He sent a man of God to anoint and prepare me for ministry. That also came with challenges from the enemy. But God is faithful! He is God, not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). Whatever He says, He will do, and no one can stop Him.
Ministry Servant
Today, humbled by it all, I stand as His servant and minister to people wherever He leads me. I serve by leading women’s prayer groups, counseling, deliverance, and encouraging many through the Word of God with love. To fulfill God’s revelation in my life, I was ordained in the church as a Reverend Minister in April 2018. I continue with God’s work even though I work part-time as a sales manager in an Estate Agency.
Recently, I founded The Voice of Christ Ministry, which changes lives through prayer and an oasis for the oppressed, the sick, and those in bondage. I share the Gospel wherever the Lord leads me. We have prayer sessions every Thursday evening, and God is working awesomely in the lives of His people.
In following the call of God, I have learned that the task He has put me on is no child’s play. I am to let people know who He is and the great love He has for humankind. In summary, until I completed the school of the Holy Ghost, I wasn’t ready for His purpose.
The Learning Factor
Through these processes, I have realized that the learning factor is critical. God teaches us specific valuable lessons, strengthening us in areas of weakness, tightening all the bolts, and loose ends in our lives. By the time we are fully ready, we are seasoned for His use. Psalm 66:10: “For thou, O God, hast proved us. Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.” Also, Psalm 12:6: “…as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”
I trust God and lean, not on my understanding. All I want is for His will to be done in me. I have been humbled and matured by all the experiences. Learning to be patient, endure, persevere, look to Him alone, have a deeper commune with Him, be more prayerful, and continue to learn the Word, has been my desire. The task ahead of me is enormous and requires me to be firmly grounded in Him.
Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” I pray that God continues to strengthen me to fulfill His ministry calling. I know that He helps me to be obedient to my calling and His vision for my life.
Free Ministry Learning Opportunity at CLI
Finding the Christian Leaders Institute for free ministry learning online is a blessing for me. Since the learning factor is critical, as I mentioned above, I want to study and learn at CLI. Then I will be further prepared for the tasks before me. Thank you, CLI, for this free ministry learning opportunity!
Trust God in whatever comes your way, stay grounded, patient and focused, be unrelenting, and be true to yourself, to God and others. Be thou blessed!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.