CLI’s Higher Education Courses for Free
Hello, everyone! My name is Benjamin Muniz, and I am taking CLI’s higher education courses. I was born and raised in a small city in New Jersey called Camden. Currently, I reside in San Jose, CA. My wife, Cindy, is a wonderful, virtuous woman. We just celebrated our second Wedding Anniversary on March 30, 2020. Cindy and I are the Children’s Directors at our church, Catedral De Fe (Cathedral of Faith).
Cindy and I both have children. I have three children that range from the ages of 14-17. My wife has a daughter named Priscilla, who is 20 years of age. We both regularly travel back to my hometown in New Jersey to visit my sister and some of my family members. Living in California for these past three years has been an enjoyable experience. I have seen the hand of God incredibly move since I have been here and anticipate an even more excellent experience to come.
Bible Training and CLI’s Higher Education Courses
I have some basic formal Bible training and graduated from the Assemblies of God back in 2008. Also, I attended World Harvest’s Bible Training Center from 2010 to 2011 with a certificate in Biblical Studies. I also participated in a community college back in Jersey and was able to accrue 27 credits in Human Services and transferred them to Regent University and added nine credits in Biblical and Theological studies for a total of 36 credits overall. I have not graduated with either an Associate’s or Bachelors, but intend to do so with CLI’s new program that I have enrolled in. My plan is to continue my education and work my way to a Bachelor’s degree in Divinity.
Being a Christian leader where I reside is not only a challenge but also a training ground. We live in a state where there is much liberty in terms of various and diverse beliefs and lifestyles. Therefore, it makes it a challenge to stand for your faith and what you believe. We know that the standard is the infallible Word of God.
However, the proper education and training and taking full advantage of CLI’s Higher Education Courses on the Bible make it easier to share your faith in a manner that is equipping. Taking the courses here at CLI builds biblical confidence and assurance that one can defend what we believe and why we believe it. It is the training ground for applying what I learn in small bite sizes. Beginning first in the connection that I have with my walk with God, then with my wife, my children, my family, etc.
God Has a Plan for My Life
Growing up in the Foster Care system, I experienced injustice and abuse. I had no mother or father and was tossed to and fro from one house to the next, not knowing where I would end up today or tomorrow. I remember many times lying down and crying myself to sleep as I was stripped away from my sister and my brother and living in a total stranger’s home.
However, little did I know that God had a plan for me and my life. As the Word clearly states in Psalms 27:10 (KJV), “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” That has been my story since day one. No matter where my feet landed and what my hands touched and what my heart felt, God raised me and continues to preserve me because HE has a plan. Being a student at CLI is helping to bring those realities to mind again. God is in control, and He is Faithful and will never leave me nor forsake me!
On the Solid Rock
In 1992, I landed at Momma Rosa’s house at nine years of age. At this home, I spent the next nine years of my life. I experienced hardship and abuse, but there God called me. He took my feet from the miry clay and placed them on the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ. Here, I received my foundational teaching, training, and doctrine at Solid Rock Baptist Church, under the tutelage of Bro. Charlie. I remember the place where I called upon the name of the Lord for the first time. It is when I moved in with Momma Rosa, and she took us to the church. There, I confessed with my mouth and believed in my heart that Jesus Christ is Lord of my Life. It was here where my life really began.
My Spiritual Dream: Minister of God, Servant to All!
My spiritual dream is to take that calling that God made towards my life and use it to develop, grow, mature and perfect the gift that God has given me in teaching and expounding on His Word through expository teaching. I want to bring knowledge and understanding to the church, the Body of Christ, through the gift(s) of the Spirit. Taking that special calling and submitting it to my heavenly Father through careful application of the proper training and teaching is my goal.
For he who teaches must first be prepared. I am constantly reminded of what 1 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) states, “Study to shew thyself approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” My dream is to be adequately trained as a life long student of the scriptures. Then, one day, I rightly divide the Truth in equipping and raising up other believers to know God and to know His Truth as it is written in His Word. It is my dream!
Obstacles
One of the biggest obstacles that hindered me in fulfilling this dream is the expense of proper and accredited training. Thank the Lord for the Christian Leaders Institute! CLI’s free higher education courses are ideal!
Another barrier is how difficult it is to find suitable teaching and excellent teachers. There is a lack of spiritual mentors and spiritual fathers. Many leaders are afraid to pass down the wisdom and knowledge they have acquired for fear of losing acknowledgment or notoriety. These are some of the barriers that prevent the next generation of eager students who want to grow and develop in the calling God has for them.
God My Comforter
One humbling experience that I had helped me realize how much I needed Christ in my life. It was when my Biological mother passed away in an abandoned house when I was 13 years of age. She died, diagnosed with AIDS, and was found hours later in the cold. After that incident happened, I could not explain why God allowed it to happen. I gladly and willingly shared the gospel and disclosed to others why God sent His Son to this earth. However, I could not explain why my mother passed away or where God was in all of it. It was then that I realized that I knew God as my Savior but not as my comforter. I knew that I only had an understanding of God in my head but not in my heart.
When I was comforted by God through His Word and His people is when God became real to me. I struggled with not knowing and not being able to provide an answer to skeptics or to others who questioned my beliefs. But then, God used others to surround me in my darkest moments, even one of my Special Ed teachers, Mr. Sheldon Benjamin Morris. They came alongside me, cried with me, and reminded me that everything was going to be okay. Then, I felt the tangible love of God, and it was so comforting. I opened up and let my pride go. I accepted the love of God through Mr. Morris and others He brought into my life to surround me with care. It was a comforting experience in learning the deep love of God on a horizontal level.
Thankful for CLI’s Higher Education Courses
In closing, my constant hope and desire are to be able to utilize and exhaust the Christians Leaders Institute training. I want God to mold me, sift me, purge me, and perfect all that which concerns me. As in Jeremiah 18, where the clay has to stay within the hands of the potter, it applies to me.
With CLI’s higher education courses that I will complete, I know in my heart that I am approved of God to continue to move closer to my dream. One day, I will be accepted by others for Vocational Ministry. Galatians 6:4 (KJV). “Learning is humiliating,” Mike Murdock said. For me, it will be humiliating not to take advantage of CLI’s training and use this tool to properly learn.
Learn about credible online ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Further Leadership Development at CLI
Greetings, my name is Kimberly Hannah, and I am receiving further leadership development at CLI. Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, I now live in Norristown, Pennsylvania. My family and I have lived in Pennsylvania for the past nine years. I am married to my good and godly husband, Curtis, for over 25 years. We have three beautiful children: Rachael, Jenae, and Danaek.
Schooling and Ministry
In 1994, I completed my 2-year nursing diploma at the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science & Technology (SIAST). So, I became a Registered Nurse (RN) after my exams in August of that year. I obtained a Poetry Laureate from The International Library of Poetry in 2008. I continue to love to commune with the Lord through poetry. This passion for writing poetry began in childhood.
From 2008 – 2009, I completed a distance learning course with Light University “Breaking Free” in the area of Christian counseling. From 2015 – 2017, I completed two years of training and received my Inner Healing and Prayer Ministry Certificate through Elijah House.
I also participated in and, at times, led within a small group arena. This arena includes Celebrate Recovery, Keys to Loving Relationships Marriage Group Study (Smalley Institute), Women’s Leadership Network (WLN), and Freedom in Christ Ministries (Neil Anderson). I also had the honor of working with the “Love Lives Here” Bus Ministry, an outreach to those trapped in prostitution and street life. Multiple mission trips to Guatemala and one to Mexico were also done.
Struggles in my Youth
My heart had much inner turmoil as a child with the divorce of my parents at age three. Until I was about ten years old, I kept secret the years of emotional abuse from an unwell adult. That abuse allowed the enemy to tempt me to believe many lies about God, myself, my parents, and other vital relationships.
Through many years of godly counseling, Elijah House’s inner healing ministry, and renewing of my mind through Freedom in Christ ministries, I have had much healing – praise be to God! I continue to pursue that ongoing call to surrender to the Lord’s sanctification work within me. I am very thankful for my Comforter, the Holy Spirit. He leads me into all truth, lovingly convicts me, encourages me, and never leaves me.
I have a blended family. After my parent’s divorce, my mom remarried, and I grew up with her and my stepfather. They had one daughter, my baby sister, whom I love dearly. My father lived with a woman for many years, and they had my two brothers, who I infrequently saw as we grew up. The disconnect from my biological father and his side of the family has had a significant impact on my life.
Salvation at a Young Age
At nine years old, my mother and I went to an evening church service, and that night both gave our hearts and lives to our Lord Jesus Christ. The love of Christ flooded my heart and began breaking through all the trauma and lies of my childhood. My life has never been the same. I am always aware of the reality of the Lord, no matter what season of life I find myself in. Mountaintop or valley, He’s my ever-present reality. I have the complete joy of walking with our Lord since that time.
As a teen, the Lord told me that I would not spend my whole life in my home country of Canada. He had a call on my life for missions and ministry from a young age. I went on my first mission trip to Mexico at age 18. Since then, I have co-lead mission teams with my husband to Guatemala on many occasions in our earlier years of marriage. Since having children, I have been the one to remain home in this season, but have supported my husband to go on short-term missions to Guatemala and India.
Work Experience
I worked as an RN for many years in the areas of neurosurgery, general medical/surgical floors, geriatrics, and hospice care. I stayed home with our children during different seasons, as well as homeschooled our kids for almost seven years. Currently, I am the Church Life Administrator (CLA) at our home church. My husband and I lead the prayer team, have served as elders, as well as facilitated a Friday Night Fellowship every other week. We love seeing people maturing in Christ through inner healing and deliverance ministry, serving with the Body, as well as discipleship through missions.
Further Leadership Development at CLI
I am excited to join the Christian Leaders Institute! CLI presents a superb opportunity to further my leadership development and personal study of God’s Word! At present, we have our eldest daughter in university, and our two younger ones are in a private Christian school. With all the education costs as we invest in our children, I am unable to take ministry training studies without it being generosity-driven. My calling would be delayed many years until we could afford to pay for courses of this caliber. To say that I am grateful for this opportunity would be an understatement!
Some key ministry-calling scriptures the Lord has put on my heart that have driven my passion for seeing the Body come to fullness and maturity in Christ are Ephesians 3:14-21 and Isaiah 61:1-3. I am eager to mature in Christ and be transformed by His amazing love and grace. I want to see His Body do so as well. By His grace, I will grow ever deeper in intimacy with Him and grow in a deeper understanding of accurately handling the Word of Truth during this season at CLI.
Thank you for taking the time to read about my life and testimony. The Lord bless you and keep you.
Learn about credible online ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Wired for Ministry and Ministry Training at CLI
My name is Pastor Dominic Kinyua, I am wired for ministry training at CLI. I am born again, and Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. I have one wife and two blessed children.
My birth was on July 6, 1979, in Kimunye Village, which is about 150 km north of Nairobi City in the Republic of Kenya. I have one brother and three sisters and am the fourth born. My schooling began in 1985 in Mugumo Primary school. There I took my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam in 1993 and passed well. I proceeded to Mutige Boys High School in 1994 and took my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in 1997 and scored a B minus.
My Faith Journey Begins
At the age of 11 back in 1992, I accepted Jesus as my Savior and started my journey of faith. I received baptism through immersion. Later, in one of the youth camps, the Holy Ghost filled me. This filling gave me the desire and thirst for getting to know God deeper. I grew in Him and sought and served Him more.
Through my High School life, I got to read and be taught the things of the Kingdom. Reaching out to the souls I met, I became an influential youth winning many to Christ for His glory. I was exposed to Christian leadership both in school administration and in the Christian Union. These things all formed the very basis of my faith in God.
My Ministry and Career Journey
In September 1999, I joined The Kenya Polytechnic, presently named The Technical University of Kenya, for a 3-year course, Diploma in Catering and Accommodation course. I graduated in 2003. My graduation opened new horizons for me both in ministry and profession. I participated in the work of ministry evangelism, witnessing, pulpit ministry, as well as Hospital and Prison Ministry. Careerwise, I worked in different organizations, the recent one being, Dublin Safety Solutions as their sales manager.
I was wired for ministry from a very early age. My love for God was not the average kind. I spent much of my time in church and doing the things of God. As I grew, I served God in various capacities as they presented themselves.
I joined Deliverance Church International in 2002 as a youth leader. Later, I served as a Deacon, then as an Elder, and commissioned into the office of Pastor in November of 2017. Currently, I serve as an Associate Pastor at Deliverance Church International, Olepolos Church.
My Ministry Dream and Wired for Ministry Training at CLI
My dream is to grow and become a better minister and serve the flock the Lord entrusted to me to be able to present to Him a people who will inherit the Kingdom of God. I myself will work on my own salvation with fear and trembling. I desire that on that day, Jesus will look at me, welcome me, and say, “Welcome home, you diligent and faithful servant.” To know Him more and walk closely with Him is my goal. Therefore, even as I share Him with the lost souls of the world, I know Him on a personal level.
I have gotten to join the Christian Leaders Institute at a very opportune time. I never had the opportunity for much-needed training to equip me for the ministry. So, I am at that level where I feel getting relevant training will make me a better servant and an effective leader. With the free scholarship available at CLI, I can comfortably get the training that will help me further the Kingdom of God. In normal circumstances, it would be a challenge due to the economic situation. I hope to get my Degree in Divinity to the glory of God.
To learn about credible online ordination, check out the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in getting a low-cost college degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.