My name is Heather Boonstra, and I am excited about the free ministry education at CLI. I am a single mother from Ontario, Canada. Growing up in a Christian home with two saved parents and one younger sister, most people would say that my life was relatively normal.
Every Sunday, my parents would take us to church. As we got older, we participated in the Jr. High and Youth programs that our local church offered. So there, we grew in our knowledge of Jesus, and the classic Bible stories that most kids learn.
When I was around 13 years old, I received baptism. That’s when my story began. The Christian life was beautiful to me. At a young age, I sought to be a godly person and do unto others as I would have them do to me. I stuck up for the “nerds” in school and befriended everyone. I even had the opportunity to lead a few people to Jesus in high school!
Growth in the Lord
The summer after graduation, I went to Lakeshore Pentecostal Camp, where I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues. It was quite as the disciples felt in Acts. I wanted more of God. I cried out for Him to use me and take me where He alone could. This event is when I grew in my relationship with God. I was different, and I craved more and more of Him.
In 2006, I took a year of college. During that year, I met a friend who took me to a wonderful church in Pickering, Ontario, called Church Without Limits (CWL). There I grew in passion for the Lord. My spirit stirred for the incredible things that God could do in my life and those around me. God used this time to speak to me and help me grow even more rooted in wisdom.
Challenges
In 2006, I also met my son’s father, and after six months of dating, we got pregnant. In 2007, I got married for the first time, followed by the birth of our son in 2008. After almost seven years, my husband and I separated and divorced in 2013.
Following the divorce, I lived what I would call a “lukewarm” faith life. I went to church periodically and prayed when I needed God’s help. I had no idea how I could come back to God after going through something so sinful and shameful.
After a few years, I decided to go back to church. Life without God was futile and stagnant. Once you get a taste of life with God, you can’t live without Him.
Back to God
Thanks to God that he never gave up pursuing me and inviting me into His grace. I worked through guilt and shame in these years. I struggled in my heart but finally gave up the fight. The Holy Spirit took control, healing, and changing me from the inside out. During this time, I attended church faithfully and spent more and more time with Jesus. I met up with mentors and dug deep into God. I learned so much about grace, forgiveness, and the power of God. Finally, I fell in love with Him all over again.
Youth Ministry
In 2018, I felt a stirring in my heart for worship and the youth. I began to desire to see people in love with Jesus and an active relationship with Him. Dreaming of people praising God, I saw myself playing keyboard and singing. It wasn’t too long after that that the worship leader from my church asked if I wanted to sing in the band on Sunday mornings. I was very insecure and unsure of myself and the calling on my life. However, I dove in anyway. I figured that if God was calling me, His will was all that mattered. To this day, I enjoy participating in worship leadership most Sunday mornings at my church.
Later that year, I was hanging out with God in the youth room of my church. I sat down, feeling an overwhelming sense of urgency to influence the youth. There was an excitement stirring in my spirit to connect and mentor the youth. So right then and there, I expressed my desire to be in that room with them on youth nights. I asked God to give me access to them if it was His will.
I remember looking around the room with tears in my eyes, barely getting “I want to be here, God” through my lips. Then, a wave of joy poured over me as if God said, “I hear you.” He was waiting for me to ask because the next day, I received a call from the Youth Pastor, asking me if I wanted to get involved with the youth as a volunteer. I am still blown away by the way God has worked in my life. He shows no favorites! I love His grace and how He takes the least likely of people and uses them.
Called to the Ministry
Without the Lord’s hand on my life, I would not be where I am or who I am. I am so thankful that He sees me so much better than I see myself. He takes us as we are – baggage and all – heals us, and catapults us into a crazy wild ride. Thank you, Lord!
In the past year or so, I the Lord’s been leading in my life to be in ministry. I pondered other options for career paths, but the ministry was always a passion of mine. It’s the most obvious choice for me and those around me. When I used to pray about my future, it was a question mark. With my son living with me and working to sustain my rent, etc., I didn’t know how I could move forward on the path God was leading to follow.
Free Ministry Education at CLI
Through the Christian Leaders Institute, I hope to become more equipped to teach and answer the hard questions that my son, the youth, and others in my life ask. To grow in my walk with God through these courses so I can influence those around me is my desire.
Therefore, being enrolled in the free ministry education at CLI is a testimony of my “yes” to God’s calling on my life. I can’t wait to see what He does with it!
Please pray that God’s will and plan for my life will be the desire of my heart, as I seek Him first!
Thank you for taking the time to read my story!
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 Quintin Bekker, and I am receiving minister training for free at the Christian Leaders Institute. I am from South Africa. However, I currently live in Bali, Indonesia.
All my life, I have been in pursuit of walking with God. Time and again, I experienced failure in doing so. I made many promises that I could not keep. After more broken promises, I felt like a fake man who doesn’t know God. Praise God, I found His grace. God is not looking for perfection. He is looking for a heart that will say YES to Him in all of life. So, I repented and began anew to walk with God. If I forget, I don’t blame myself and get discouraged anymore. Now, I simply continue my walk with God.
Currently, I am a minister of God, preaching daily, and leading devotions each morning. However, I know it is the grace of God that made me the man that I need to be. Walking with God is the best way to live your life.
My Family
I am married to an Indonesian woman named is Harni Bekker. I met her in 2011. She was one of my leaders in a school for “DTS” Youth With A Mission (YWAM). After six months of training, I asked her to be my wife. She said yes, and we married on August 14, 2012. We have differences in culture. However, after two years of marriage, we understood each other better. In 2016, our daughter, Fay Putri Bekker, was born. We serve in YWAM in Bali.
Ministry and Minister Education for Free
I do service in Youth With A Mission with my family since 2011. I am also called to plant a church and do full-time preaching. In my 13 years in Indonesia (since 2007), I traveled all over. I preached the Gospel of Jesus in many churches in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. My heart is to touch Asia with the love of God and His passion for saving a dying world. All lives matter, and Jesus died for all.
I wanted more ministry training and found the Christian Leaders Institute online. This minister training for free is a blessing to me. There is no financial burden on me and my family while we serve here in Bali, Indonesia. Thank you, CLI!
Prayer
Please pray for my family and me that we can grow deeper in God. Also, pray for the ministries that we can touch many lives. Thank you, and God bless.
Learn about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Read Kelly’s story to hear how she is able to say: “God had not walked out on me,” even when she lost her faith through some of her darkest seasons. This portion of her testimony is a powerful picture of the Lord’s redemptive grace.
Struggles with Addiction & Identity
If someone would have asked me as a child what I wanted to be when I grow up, my answer would have been very different than what I became. If my parents were asked what they hoped for me to become their answer would never have been for me to become what I did. A Heroin Addict.
No parent wants to see their child suffer, and no person wants to be an addict. As I grew up, I became someone I am not proud of. I became a liar, a thief, someone I couldn’t even face in the mirror. Someone my family didn’t even want around. For ten long years, I struggled not only with the addiction but with my own identity.
Loss of Faith
I lost myself somewhere along the way, and I lost my faith too. In the past, I used to pray every night. I would kneel with my kids and pray with them as well. We went to church, and we lived accordingly. Yet somehow when my marriage took a turn and ended, I couldn’t handle the sorrow or the pain. I didn’t know what to do with all the guilt and shame. The hurt on the faces of my babies and parents was more than I could deal with. I found a way to make all the emotions that I didn’t want to feel anymore disappear. Or so I thought. Little did I know that those feelings and pain were still there lingering in the numbness, and would come out when the drugs were gone.
I finally woke up one day three years ago this past April, having a moment of clarity (a rare but amazing occurrence) and I begged for help. I realized I had stopped praying and I couldn’t remember the last time I spoke to God. So, I hit my knees and I prayed. Never had I prayed so hard in my life as I did at that moment. I begged forgiveness even though I felt in my heart I surely didn’t deserve for the Lord to even listen to me. I begged for his help just one last time, and I would never ask for anything for myself again.
God Had Not Walked Out on Me
The fog lifted inside me something shifted that day. I saw for the first time the person I used to be and the monster I had become. I felt in my bones and my soul that God had not walked out on me. He was simply waiting for me to see in myself what he had always seen in me. He never left my side all those years: he was there loving me until I could love myself.
There is a book called, ” The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery,” by David G. Benner. This book changed my life. I had to take a deep look inside of myself, and I realized so much of what I read has happened for me. Now any doubts that I may have had and any questions that I couldn’t find an answer to I found. It put my life, my experience, and my transformational growth into an amazing perspective. I know now without a doubt that my Lord has spoken to me in the depths of my darkest moments. He has walked beside me through the depths of hell, and helped me find my way out.
Purpose in Christ
Through my transformational knowing and finding of my hidden self in Christ, I know what my purpose in life is. I have seen in my everyday life what living for Christ is like. He has made it abundantly clear what my calling is. I was given this life because he knew that once I found myself in Him, I could let him in and fully accept the amazing things He has for me. I believe I am meant to be a Chaplain, and to counsel and help those who are suffering.
Also, to give back what I was so freely given, and to bring others to the amazing understanding and knowing of Christ and themselves. I am aiming to work in Hospice Care or as a Hospital Chaplain. However, I have also considered Life Coaching, because I want so badly to show others the way. I can’t wait for the next chapter in my life. Without my transformational knowing or finding my hidden self in Christ, I never would have known my true potential. I would still be lost, and still be trying to figure out why.
I thank God for Christian Leaders Institute and CLI’s Leadership Excellence School. With their guidance, I am now able to accomplish exactly what I know I am being called to do. I have loved every class I have taken thus far, and until I am able to pay CLI fees in full for Associates/Bachelors in Chaplaincy I am continuing to take classes with CLI. I have learned so much from the Counseling and Life Coaching classes, and I am so excited to continue to learn more on counseling those in need.