Ministry Leader Journey: My Journey into Ministry
My name is Osei Owusu-Ansah Emmanuel, and here is my ministry leader journey. I am from Ghana, West Africa. I was born into a Christian home. But at that time, the zeal in serving God and having reverence for God was not in me very much. I grew up almost abandoning a walk with God. I choose the path of the world from my high school days until I came to the University. Even during the first two years on campus, I was still living in the world. Thanks be to God! He showed me deep love and kindness. God placed a Christian brother in my life who never gave up on me. This brother kept encouraging me and drew me nearer to God.
I finally gave my life to Christ and began loving God all the more. I was involved in almost all the church activities my church offered. The church I joined gave me the best teaching and training to remain in the Lord and grow in Him. I began building a personal relationship with God. I was baptized by the Holy Spirit and received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God’s Call and Ministry Training at Christian Leaders Institute
On my ministry leader journey, I began hearing and sensing the call of God upon my life for the ministry. Since then I have walked in this call. I rose to become the President of my church fellowship group on the university campus. Now I am taking the free online ministry training classes at Christian Leaders Institute. I am eager to see where God will lead me in my ministry work for Him. Thank you, Christian Leaders Institute for this wonderful opportunity!
Learn about minister ordination options at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Training Opportunity at CLI
I am Sitanun Chatjirarut from Thailand, and I am excited about the free ministry training opportunity at CLI. Born to a Christian family, I was a stubborn kid. I never wanted to do what my parents told me to do. I believed that I had my way, my own life, and also my faith. God is my parent’s faith, not mine. However, I can’t go against my parents in everything, so I had to go to church every Sunday since I was young with a closed heart. I never read the Bible or listened to the sermon. But, I don’t know why sometimes I felt that God exists and he is with me and takes care of me.
When I wanted something, deep down, my heart told me to pray and ask God. So, I always prayed to God. Same as with everyone’s prayers, sometimes God said yes, sometimes nope, sometimes wait. I never realized his other answers, only yes. Many times, I blamed Him and lost my hope in Him over and over again because I didn’t understand.
Checked out Buddhism
One day at school, it was Buddhism Camping, and everyone needed to be involved. I was part of it, and somehow, I was touched by the monk’s teachings. I decided to turn myself to Buddhism and studied about Buddha’s teachings since I wanted to be a monk at that time. My mom was angry and stopped me on time.
Bad things kept going on in my life. I realized that Buddhism was not what I wanted and couldn’t fulfill my heart. I was still empty and broken as always. However, I didn’t open my heart to Jesus straight away. I just started going to church again, even though my life was up and down.
Struggles
I got bullied at the schools and university. I got beaten up and cheated on by my boyfriends. My last year at the university, my Grandfather passed away one month before I finished. A year later, my father passed away the day after I started the first job in my life. So, I missed my last chance to talk to him four hours before he passed away. Then, a year later, my grandmother passed away too.
I was exhausted with my life, and I wanted to give up many times. Eventually, I had a depression disorder and needed to go to a doctor every month. I asked God, “If you exist, why me? Why did all of this happen to me? Did you abandon me like this? Why leave me slowly dying?”
God Made a Way
Shortly after, I got to work with my friend. Her parent was a Korean missionary in my city when we were young. When we grew up, we worked together as Korean-Thai translators. So one day, we received some work from an English ministry in Korea to translate the sermon to Thai every week for a whole year! That was the first time I could focus on God’s word. I realized that God was speaking to me in every single word I translated. He was calling me to the mission at the same time. My heart was opened wide to accept Jesus into my life.
From that time, my life started changing a tiny bit every day. But my faith still was not stable, and I still lacked understanding of the Christian life. Therefore, my faith was still up and down because I didn’t surrender my life to Jesus.
Also, my depression was still going on. So, one day, everything became too much to handle for me anymore. I decided to commit suicide by taking pills. My mom found me and sent me to the hospital. I woke up in the ICU with all kinds of tubes in my nose, in my stomach, and my arms. It was too painful to breathe. I would rather die than handle this painfulness. The two nights in ICU was long-lasting. But, I felt God at that time and knew that he saved my life.
New Life and Ministry Training Opportunity
So from that, I was born again in Christ and gave up my life to him. Because I was dead and God gave me life again; it’s not my life anymore. I decided to live for him and to go out for a mission after that.
Almost a year later, I joined a ship’s ministry with OM International. I served on board Logos Hope for a year. I traveled with LH through 13 countries. I’ve been learning and growing so much in my relationship with God and also learning more about myself. I finished my commitment to the ship’s ministry after eight months.
I’m still seeking God’s direction in my life. I want to continue on the mission to help people in need. I want to share the love of God to unreachable humanity, especially to children in the Middle East area. The free ministry training opportunity at Christian Leaders Institute will help me to grow in Him and discover where God wants me.
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Itinerant Ministry
I am Rev. J. Patrick Bowman from the U.S.A. My calling in the Body of Christ has grown into that of an apostolic teacher in itinerant ministry. Over the past ten years, my wife, Janice, and I have been involved in planting a number of ministries within and outside the church. This included a college/career ministry, a mobile prayer chapel, a home church, as well as me writing several books. We have ministered in both mainline denominational churches and Pentecostal/charismatic churches as well as para-church groups. My wife spends a lot of her time counseling women in ministry and interceding for the church and world.
Currently, we are waiting on the Lord for further direction. He is refining our vision for an itinerant ministry. We have gone through an intense year of spiritual warfare and are taking some time to regroup. We want to prepare for whatever God has for us in the years to come. We are spending time praying for the vision and exercising faith in what we need to do on our end to see it happen.
Ministry Challenges
The greatest ministry challenge I currently face is developing ways to repackage a fairly conservative message of personal holiness for a generation that seems increasingly feelings based rather than Word based. Although my wife and I are charismatic, we reject the “charismaniac” within the Charismatic Movement. We also reject the legalism inherent within much of the holiness teaching. This leaves us in a position where we are too much for some groups and not enough for others. So our niche seems to be getting smaller as time goes on.
I am 65 this year and my wife is 61. We sometimes wonder if it’s too late for “Late Harvest Ministries.” But then we remember Abraham and Sarah and the doubts they had before their promised child came along. Our goal is not to birth an Ishmael while waiting for our Isaac. God help us.
Ministry Training at CLI
This class at Christian Leaders Institute came at a God-ordained time for me. It gave me the motivation and skills to be able to craft a personal values statement and vision statement for our ministry. I was surprised that of the nine items in my personal values statement, the ministry came in last in the ranking. That is a real change in my thinking and shows me that I am maturing in the Lord. Without the foundational values I placed before it, the ministry would not be possible in an engaging way. The class helped me in clarifying and expressing my values in a more balanced way.
We believe God is calling us to develop an apostolic, prophetic, itinerant ministry. It will encourage, challenge, and direct groups of believers toward a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ and His working in their lives.
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.