My Ministry Mission Journey
I am Francis Igbru from Rivers State, Nigeria, and I have a ministry mission. Although Nigeria is a multi-religious country where 50% are Christians dominating the southern region where am from, up north Christians are being persecuted and murdered for their faith.
My Youth and Conversion
I grew up in a Catholic background, where I spent my early life. I stopped going to a formal church setting for many years in my teenage and young adult years. While in college, I met my wife, Dafiri, who came from a good Christian upbringing. After meeting her, a change started that took some time to manifest. I became more committed to attending church services on campus, which was a missing piece in the puzzle of my life. However, in all this new commitment, I was also a member of a dreaded secret cult on my campus.
Something happened one day when I went for a joint campus fellowship meeting on another campus. I knew we had rival cult groups there that might want to harm or even kill me if someone identified me. That day, I sat in between windows using the brick wall as a shield to prevent passersby from seeing me while the meeting was going on. I heard a voice in my heart asking where is the protection I thought I had in being a member of a cult group. I saw how empty my life was without Christ. That day, I made up my mind to give my life to Christ without an altar call. In the service, I sensed the call of God Almighty.
Thank God, I responded! I told myself if I should die, let me die knowing the Lord. After that encounter, there was this boldness I received. I was free to fellowship with other brethren in that meeting.
Ministry Mission Training at CLI
My dream is to communicate the very life of God to believers and unbelievers so that they will know of the love of God in Christ Jesus. I am still pondering on how I stumbled on the Christian Leaders Institute. For me, it brought a new light to my journey in ministry mission. After finishing the first course, I long for another. Thank you guys for making us fulfill our calling as able ministers of the Gospel through quality teachings, study materials, and practical experience from various facilitators and writers of the materials and classes.
Learn about ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Free Bible Education Opportunity
My name is Tracy, and I am excited about the free Bible education opportunity at CLI. I am from Tennessee. I live in the “Bible Belt” of the United States of America with a church on every corner. Growing up in a Christian household meant going to church three times a week and following set rules and standards to reflect our beliefs. My parents were involved in a gospel singing group, so we were traveling to different churches sharing the gospel.
At the age of eight, I accepted Christ as my Savior in our church after the Sunday evening service. I felt like that was what I was supposed to do. I always learned about the ABC’s of salvation as if it is expected of me to do. So, I still went to church every week, prayed, and read my Bible.
As I got older and we came off the road, we settled into our home church. During my teen years, I stayed true to my beliefs and did not stray from them even when temptation came around. It was during that time I was close to the Lord. I dedicated myself to be true to myself and the Lord.
Wandering and Restoration
After high school, I started college which came with all new challenges. Temptations were more present than ever. During those few years, I drifted from the Lord. I found myself skipping church every now and then, praying less, and rarely spending time in the Bible. I allowed the world to take a part of me I had dedicated to the Lord and my Christian walk. Even surrounded by so many people, I never felt so alone. The problem was I surrounded myself with the wrong people.
Then I met my husband, and he was my saving grace. He grew up the complete opposite of me. He did not grow up in a very Christian home. They went to church on holidays and that was about it. He decided to go to the Christian college where we connected. He found the Lord, then me, and he helped restore a part of me I thought was gone forever. I felt like God would never love me the same or have a relationship with me after turning away from him a little bit.
Then it all came together. One night, the Lord spoke to me and said: “My love for you will never fail.” As I cried, I realized I may have turned away, but God never did. He never left my side. I felt completely renewed. Since then, I attend church regularly, I spend more time in prayer, and I set aside time to work on my spiritual walk.
Free Bible Education Opportunity at CLI
Now, studying at Christian Leaders Institute gives me the opportunity to grow even more in my walk with Christ. Also, education at CLI helps me discover what works in my community and my church. I am so thankful Jesus loved me even when I did not love myself. His love never fails. Now, He has led me to this free Bible education opportunity at CLI.
Learn about ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Continued Ministry Training at CLI
My name is John Thomas, and I receive continued ministry training at Christian Leaders Institute. I am currently living in the USA right outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, in a little town called Chickamauga in the state of Georgia. I grew up in the center of apple country in Edneyville, NC. Our family consisted of my father Richard (Rio) Thomas, my mother Joyce, and my sister Julie, and me. My father and mother had a modest farm in comparison to most but provided for all of us, and we were a small happy family. My father worked multiple jobs regularly. Besides operating the home farm, the most consistent position he held was as a police officer.
Untimely Death and Great Change
Early on the morning of February 8, 1974, my father woke up to make coffee before he headed off to work just as he always did. However, that morning, I awoke to a commotion in the house. When I walked into the kitchen, I saw my father lying on the floor from his third heart attack. He was pronounced dead that morning at the age of 45.
All of our lives changed suddenly that morning. My mom was only 43 years old and found herself a widow raising two young teenagers alone. The pressure from that loss began to be too much for her to bear. So, she admitted herself into a retreat center in Wildwood, Georgia. She sent my sister and me to stay with various family and friends over the next year.
Through this experience and working through my hurts and wounds, I looked for replacement mentors in those families. I processed the pain through my mindsets that eventually grew into spiritual strongholds. Those spiritual strongholds led me into a life of rebellion. I set myself up against any authority while finding multiple ways of meeting the desires of my flesh. I wanted to hide the hurt and insecurities with my calloused reasoning and decisions.
Reached Bottom and Remembered Jesus
After living a life of rebellion, drugs, alcohol, and immorality for the next 14 years, I found myself at the bottom of the grave I dug for my illusionary shell of a man. I was living in a share cropper’s house out in the middle of nowhere. It was freezing because the floorboards of the shack were a half inch apart in places and the carpet rolled across the floor when the wind blew. I broke furniture and burned it in the fireplace to stay warm as I contemplated this life I had built crumbling before my eyes.
I betrayed everyone that had ever cared about me and turned my back on everything that resembled hope. Then all of a sudden, when I was at the depths of despair, I remembered Jesus. I had heard others speak of Jesus like my mom, grandmother, and preachers that visited them. This Jesus that brought hope to the hopeless, life to the dead, and light to those trapped in the dark prison cell of self.
In March of 1988, I cried out to Jesus. He reached down into the depths of hopelessness and rescued me. I committed to Him that if He saved me from myself, I would live for Him from that day forward with everything that was within me. Since that time, God has done a miraculous thing in me. He has allowed me to fulfill that commitment I made to Him in so many different ways.
New Life in Christ
On April 22, 1989, I married the love of my life, Sheila Thomas. I have been serving the Lord alongside her for the past 30 years.
Since that glorious day in March of 1988, I have had the privilege of serving as a Recreation Director/Youth Pastor at the Brevard Church of God. Having been previously married, I was never eligible to be ordained under the denomination of the Church of God. I also served as the manager /bass singer for the Gospel Quartet (Pure Heart) from 1991 to the present.
I came on staff at Teen Challenge of the Mid South in July of 2002 in Chattanooga as a counselor /teacher. In 2014, I was asked to serve as the Director of the Men’s Program and am still serving there. I am the Lead Pastor of The Portal Church Fellowship (a Non-Denominational Pentecostal Church) since 2008.
Ordination and Further Ministry Training at CLI
I was also recommended and accepted for ordination by some minister friends (Pastors/leaders) that recognized my life and ministries as fruitful kingdom work in November of 2011. This ordination was under the covering and banner of my non-denominational church – again because of my previous marriage.
The ministry life goal for me is still incomplete, so I felt I needed continued ministry training. I already have over 20 years of Christian study while on staff at Teen Challenge. My ministry goal in continued ministry training with Christian Leaders Institute is to have a student/servant heart. Then, I will be able to serve those that God places in my life to the best of my ability.
Learn more about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.