Children’s Ministry Dream
My name is Neale Bacon, and I have a children’s ministry dream. I live in Burnaby, British Columbia, in Canada (near Vancouver for the geographically challenged). I am happily married to a wonderful woman named Bev, and we just celebrated 37 years of marriage. We have two kids and four grandkids.
I called this “Testimony of a Dummy” because, for most of my life, I have been a professional ventriloquist and magician. Through this work, I have also had many opportunities to minister to different denominations with this unique gift. In between my performing, I also worked in Vancouver’s Down Town East Side, known as the poorest postal code in Canada. There I worked at shelters and ended up as director of The Salvation Army Crosswalk. It was a shelter as well as a drop-in center. It, unfortunately, closed in 2001 due to funding cuts.
Church Life Experience
As a child, I was SENT to Sunday School at a church across the street. Later as a teenager, I attended a Christian coffee house, and there I committed to the Lord. However, none of my family were Christians, so the flame quickly went out. It lay dormant until I came back to the Lord at the age of 19. After that, I spent a lot of years of church hopping.
The Lord brought me to The Salvation Army, where I did some volunteer work and eventually came on as staff. So, after my wife and I did a lot of church hopping, I asked her, “Why don’t we try the local Salvation Army?” This question led to the Army being our church home since 1993, although, I was around the Army since 1979. We are soldiers in the Salvation Army in New Westminster, BC. I am also the Corps Sergeant Major. This job is like a lay leader or lay pastor.
Semi-Retirement and More Ministry Service
As I mentioned, I am also a professional ventriloquist and have been doing this since 1977, both secular and church events. I am heading toward semi-retirement or at least slowing down (I just turned 60). I have gotten a bit tired of driving hundreds if not thousands of miles doing shows. While I am still able to, I want to serve the Lord more.
Therefore, to that end, I took a part-time job at my church as an outreach worker, ministering to families, youth, and children. It was a contract position that ended but hopefully will restart when they set the new budget. Our church has been working with a lot of new immigrant families to Canada and seniors; both areas are also part of my calling. I would say the umbrella of pastoral care covers a lot of what I do, though I often preach as well.
God has been encouraging me to come off the road and use my gifts for him. I am called to do that either in my church or elsewhere. Besides getting to preach regularly, I get to minister at a local nursing home once a month and may do some visitation as well. I hope to keep working with some of our immigrant and refugee families who are now part of the church. I think God has a lot for me to do yet.
Children’s Ministry Dream
My biggest spiritual dream is to be able to reach out to children with the gospel. The world tries so hard to drag the children away, and it breaks my heart. A motto I use for my ministry of ventriloquism and magic tricks is: “If we don’t teach the children to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to.” D.L.Moody once said, “If I had my life to live over, I would devote all of it to children’s ministry.” Another powerful testimony for a children’s ministry dream!
I was never able to go to college because, as they say, I was born with nothing and still have most of it. These ministry training courses at Christian Leaders Institute will help me as I enter these silver years and focus on more work for my Lord.
Learn more about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Christian Leaders Institute: Free Bible School Online
My name is Jean Robinson, and I am thankful for CLI’s free Bible school online. I live in Greensboro, North Carolina in the USA. I was born on July 19, 1982, to a middle-class family in Virginia. My parents had a small farm and garden. I have three brothers, and I am the youngest and the only girl. Being quite a few years behind them, when they left home, I was still young. I got baptized when I was eight, but the church was about an hour away from where we lived. So, we didn’t go to church every Sunday, but I prayed daily.
At 15, I became disabled, but it took the doctors years to officially figure out all that was really wrong with me. The state of Virginia had part of the puzzle solved. However, when Walter and I got married and moved to Greensboro, NC, is when they discovered some better treatments for me. Moses Cone Hospital saved my life. I had four major surgeries since we moved to North Carolina, which has great doctors. Greensboro is a great city for us to live in, and I thank God for bringing us here.
Called to Ministry and Study at CLI
I see a lot of homelessness and people with the same illness I have that are much worse off than me. I look around and see how blessed I am. That’s my calling to ministry. I have a degree in Medical Assisting, as well. I really enjoy helping others, from babies to older people. My ministry work has led me to teach Head Start for children, and I have done work in nursing homes. I volunteer at the local churches. I also volunteer at the homeless shelters and the food distribution places. Greensboro Urban Ministry is another one of the organizations where I serve.
The free Bible School online at Christian Leaders Institute is a blessing to me. Now, I can receive further education and training to work in ministry. I am excited to see where God will lead me in all of this! Thank you, CLI!
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Free Ministry Training Pathway at CLI
My name is Oyelade Oyeyemi, and I am thankful to be on the ministry training pathway at CLI. I was born into a family with a Christian father and a non-Christian mother in Lagos State, Nigeria. My birth and the challenges around raising me led my mother to get converted fully as a Christian. She needed a Saviour to protect herself and her son from evil. God used these things to get her to God’s destination.
Growing up in a Christian home made it easy for me to know my Creator from a young age. I was baptized at the age of 14 and christened as Matthew. The truth of the Lord and His word was so exciting to me. I became the best memorizer of Scripture verses in my church as I grew into a teenager.
My Ministry Dream and the Ministry Training Pathway at CLI
In 2011, I had a dream where God showed me to study His Word always. So, I attended church and the fellowship, but that was all I did at first. I did not understand what God was planning and where I was going. Then, I became a teacher to some of the youth and the choir. Suddenly, other members of these groups came to me for advice.
As I grew older and became a parent, the challenges of life pushed me to pray and study the word of God. While at this, my dream became more prophetic than before to me. Some years back, God called me to become a minister of the Word. Later, I received the ministry, First Happy and Moral Homes. We take care of homes, build them, and more to the glory of God. We have done several seminars for the glory of God.
I discovered Christian Leaders Institute while searching for a way to get more insight on God’s pathway for my life. Indeed, CLI has been excellent, enjoyable, and based on the Word of God. I wish other ministers would partake in this well-tailored ministry training program. I am grateful and happy to be a CLI student. God bless you all!
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.