Servant Ministry Calling
My name is Angela Thompson, but most people call me Angie. I am excited about the free ministry training at CLI. It will equip me for my servant ministry calling. I was born, raised, and still live in a small town in Northwest, Florida called Milton. In our entire county, there are close to 175K people and 71 churches. Since there are no mega churches in our area, it’s unfortunate to acknowledge that we have many unchurched citizens.
Church leaders in our area are generally well-respected, and some are very outspoken on political issues. We see significant involvement at the high schools, where bi-vocational youth pastors are working as football coaches and serving on staff as paraprofessionals. My Christian journey started with an active youth leader, so I am well aware of their value.
Saved by Grace
My youth pastor was the one who introduced me to Jesus and Christianity. His name is Rev. Richard Crisco from Milton First Assembly of God. When I aged out of the youth program, “Bro. Richard” had also left. He continued his ministry at the acclaimed Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola best known for the Brownsville Revival that lasted five years. Under Bro. Richard, I learned the importance of servant ministry, church loyalty, true faith in God, and being a Christian example through action. He is now the Senior Pastor at a church in Rochester, Michigan. I am still connected to him and his ministry via a YouTube channel and Facebook Live. God’s Word propagated through technology is fascinating to me.
Brother Richard took our youth group to Camp Grace just a few weeks after I turned 14. During that retreat, I gave my heart to God. I knew right then I was changed. I was on fire for God and even joined a study group at the church called Youth on Fire for Christ. Getting enough Biblical knowledge into my mind was essential to me. I was hungry for His Word. There were obstacles, though. At 16, my family was struggling financially. Therefore, my little part-time job expanded to five days a week even though I was still in school and band. My availability to attend classes became less and less until finally, I was too far behind to catch up. I stopped attending the group and had to rely on my studies.
Life Challenges
In 1990, I graduated from high school and met an older man. He was an evangelist, who I quickly fell for. I had always wanted to be in service for God, and I felt that being his wife would fulfill that role. I was naïve in believing this surreal new opportunity was God’s chosen direction for me. It wasn’t until after we married that I discovered he was fraudulent in his profession of faith. The ministry I thought was sincere was more of a performance for him.
Our relationship was tumultuous at best and escalated to physical abuse by the third year. I didn’t believe in divorce, so I tried to make things better. Staying in that situation for a total of seven years, I struggled. I questioned why God allowed me to sit in reverence to Jesus at church and then be dragged by my hair through our home that night. We had two daughters, and I thought that they would need to be from a Christian home, so I stayed.
Finally, after a very violent night, I heard a preacher on my car radio say that God did not call us to be abusers, and God did not call us to be abused. I was weeping and driving to my parents’ house when I heard this radio preacher on the phone with a caller. Her story was not very different from mine. When he told her that because they were unequally yoked, her husband might never stop abusing her, I felt free.
Further Struggles
I chose to leave my husband that day, and I have always felt guilty. The guilt is not for the divorce, but rather for choosing my husband on my understanding, rather than praying and receiving God’s counsel. I chose poorly, and the consequences were devastating for my children.
That guilt led to bondage that prevented me from serving God. I thought I had messed everything up, and I was angry at God for not protecting me. I quit church, didn’t raise my children with Christian values, and quit God. However, and that is the absolute biggest “however” in my lifetime… God didn’t quit or leave me. He chased me down and reminded me of His love. This part of the story is too sweet to miss.
God’s Redemption Plan
A couple of weeks before Valentine’s Day when I was 12 years old, Bro. Richard came to me and asked if I would go to the Valentine’s Banquet at our church with a boy from our youth group. I didn’t know the boy, and didn’t want to, but decided to anyway. That day, in the sanctuary of our church, I met Donald Thompson, who technically would take me on my very first “date.” That was in 1984.
Fast forward 30 years! In January of 2014, Donald sent me a friend request on Facebook. We met up again in February, and on March 23rd of that same year, we started dating. We were married three and a half years later in that church and in the same room where we were introduced. It’s the fellowship hall now, but the sentiment was too great not to do it that way.
In preparation for our wedding, Donald and I agreed that we should start attending church again. It seemed only right that we should regularly attend for a while if we were going to use the church for our wedding. Looking back, we can see God’s hand in every aspect of this time. We went to church regularly. We got married in September of 2017 and continued attending church, feeling a pull on our lives. Finally, during the summer of 2018, we both decided that we wanted to give God everything. In doing that, we would always be equally yoked and protected by God’s grace. We wanted to serve Him but did not know how.
God’s Servant Ministry Calling
We needed to get plugged in, so we attended a pastor-led Growth Track series in a small group setting. It helped us find our place. We were back in tune with God, loving Jesus, and changing our lives. On December 2, 2018, just as worship was ending, the pastor started talking. I audibly heard God say to me, “I am going to use you. Start preparing yourself.” I wept.
I spent the next couple of weeks trying to figure out how to prepare myself. I asked Donald for a new Bible for Christmas. As soon as I tore the wrapping paper from it on Christmas morning, I started reading and found great peace with this decision. I needed to immerse myself in His Word. Then, one day, I was looking up something on my phone’s Bible App. I switched over to Facebook. I saw an ad for Christian Leaders Institute and decided to investigate further.
Servant Ministry Training at CLI
Like many, we work 40+ hours a week and live paycheck to paycheck. So, there was no extra money for tuition. The scholarship class allowed me the opportunity to check out CLI more intentionally. I was excited to learn that my beliefs correlated with the teachings. The depth of servant ministry training I was getting was impressive. I have decided to continue through to Ordination. Then, I will be able to help others understand God, get to know Jesus and be blessed as I have been.
My spiritual dream is to use all of my business knowledge to run a servant ministry that will meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the women in my community. This scripture replays in my head almost every day, “15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15 – KJV). CLI is a critical piece of making that happen. Nobody should follow someone without training, regardless of their passion.
My husband shares my love and passion for service to God, and we desire to help grow His kingdom. We look forward to whatever God has in store for us, and we are prayerful for His revealing that path soon.
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Bible College Education
My name is Abner Chavez. I am grateful for the free Bible college education I receive at Christian Leaders Institute. I currently live in the state of Texas in the USA, in a border town to be exact. Ministry here is pretty special. Most of the residents of our town, like most border towns, are mixed in their culture since the highest percentage of them are Hispanic. This allows us to minister bilingual, in English or in Spanish. However, many speak a mixture of both languages. We call that Spanglish.
I grew up in a Christian home but did not accept Jesus in my heart until I was 16 years old. My decision to follow the Lord came with a little deal I proposed to Him. I remember saying, “If I follow you, please give me a way to at least play the guitar, and I promise to serve you with that all my life.” And it happened! I first served Him as a musician for many years.
Serving The Lord
Thirty years have passed since then and I have been serving the Lord in only a handful of churches. I have served as a musician, as a youth pastor, as an elder, as a board member, and now, as a pastor. My dream is to reach out to those that don’t know Jesus, especially in my area, and to also reach those that are hurt and disillusioned by Christianity. This class at Christian Leaders Institute has woken up my interest in being more devoted to serving my community better. It has also reminded me to be more disciplined with prayer and study of the Bible in my personal walk.
I identify myself more with a bi-vocational pastor. I have just planted my first church in January of 2019 and so far we have been growing on a weekly basis. This is a calling that I have had since I was young. In fact, the way my father brought me up did not help in pursuing that route. Instead, he convinced me that going to college to study something other than anything that had to do with the Bible or Theology was far better for me. He went on to say one day, “If you are still thinking of pursuing a Bible College, don’t do it. I have seen many preachers with hunger and struggling. That’s not what I want for you.” At that point, I had never told anyone that this calling was in me. I guess he figured it out when he saw me serving as a kid. As the years went by, the calling never left and the desire to pursue ministry got stronger and stronger.
Finally! Free Bible College Education at CLI
One of the most challenging things for me and my ministry team here is the high percentage of the non-Biblical religious practices in our community. Therefore, we find ourselves going against the “common belief” or against the flow. My church has been super supportive. I have no complaints. We are believers in pursuing higher studies and getting educated. My wife and family have also been very supportive. I represent the first generation in my family to pursue Biblical studies and a ministry. That is why this free Bible College education at Christian Leaders Institute is a dream fulfilled of a calling that was suppressed for over 30 years ago. Thank you, CLI!
Learn about ordination opportunities with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Christian Leadership Training: When I Met Jesus
My name is Lilian Abesamis and I am excited about the Christian leadership training at CLI. I am originally from Manila in the Philippines. I finished my college degree in 1977 and earned a Bachelors Degree in Nursing. There’s not a lot of opportunities to get a nursing job in the Philippines. Therefore, with the encouragement of my mother and sister who worked in a hospital in New Jersey as a nurse, I immigrated to the United States one year after my graduation. I stayed with a Filipino family who became my source of guidance in Michigan. It was my first time to live far from my family of 11 children: nine girls, and two boys.
It was difficult leaving my friends and leaving the security and love of my family to set out to the unknown. However, I see the hand of God even back then in my life. I see His faithfulness and His love guiding me, leading me, and sustaining me. I married in 1980, and we moved to California and have three wonderful children. Today, I am happily retired and want to pursue ministry studies. My dream to be a teacher, pastor, or leader in a Filipino church will one day come to pass before God calls me to be with Him.
Early Years Before I Met Jesus
I grew up in a Catholic family. My father was a strict adherent to the Catholic faith. My father made sure that we joined the catechisms classes. I praise the Lord for He opened my eyes to the truth of the Gospel. During my high school years, my desire to know God became stronger. Before going to school, I usually passed by our church to pray even if it was out of my way. The church became a place of quietness and peace for me.
In our school, there were young men and women who came from a church and told us about the Bible. They invited us to go to their youth gatherings in the church. I went to one of these events and won a trivia contest where the prize was a BIBLE. My first Bible of my own. I remember feeling so happy and excited. From then on, I remember telling myself that one of these days I would also tell people about God’s goodness. Many years would pass before I started the Christian leadership training I needed.
Questioning Time
I started asking questions of the priest during confessional. A lot of “WHY’s?” Why do we pray to a statue? Why do we need to do confessions? I had a lot of questions about the traditions that I had growing up. The priest just told me to leave them alone. If I don’t want to do it, then don’t do it. What a big let down for me. I didn’t get the answers that answered the questions in my heart. I became more prayerful and went to church more hoping that maybe God will answer me.
People who knew me thought I was “religious”. But, they didn’t know that I was still seeking for something I didn’t even know and couldn’t explain. I was not sure if I was going to heaven, and I definitely didn’t want to go to hell. I was scared just thinking of hell, so I did all I could to follow what they told me to do, UNTIL …..
God Sent “Angels”
My sisters immigrated from the Philippines and lived with us. It was eight years that we hadn’t seen each other. In that time, they became born again Christians on fire for the Lord. They looked for a Christian church close to our place, and, when they found one, we all went there. The singing was exciting, I understood what they were singing. They were swaying and some of them danced to the music. They raised their hands and clapped with the music. The preaching was different, too. It was understandable and quite clear. The pastor talked about Jesus and how he loves us so much and gave His life for us.
I didn’t give my life to Jesus and accept Him that first time, but I started asking the questions that bothered me for the longest time. Can you believe it? They had answers for me, and they were in the Bible all along. They directed me to Isaiah 44, for idolatry, and to Exodus 20 for the ten commandments where God is a jealous God. He is jealous that we love the statues and bow down to them more than we bow our lives to Him who gave His life for us on the cross.
Music Ministry
This is how I see it. I will be forever grateful to God for loving me and my family because He sent “angels” (my sisters) to live with us and showed us the Way, the Truth and the Life – Jesus Christ.
In 1986, my husband and I accepted the Lord Jesus in our hearts to be our Savior and Lord of our life. We have been serving as music ministers in our small way. We don’t have any formal music training but we have the capacity to carry a tune and play the guitar. God used us to assist beginning Filipino churches to develop their music ministries.
With my children growing up in the church, they also started to love music and learned to play instruments. For many years, m family and I have been tagged as the “worship family”. The Lord has been good to us. More than I can think or imagine. Now that my children are grown up, I pray that they will never forget to love the Lord and serve in His vineyard. I hope they pass on to their children the things that will bring them salvation, joy, and peace.
Time For Christian Leadership Training at CLI
God has been good to us. We are still helping out at church in the music ministry. I still want to make my dream come true that one of these days I will preach and teach. This Christian leadership training class at Christian Leaders Institute has given me the strength and the confidence that God brings it to pass. At my age, I’m still optimistic that God can use me. Perhaps I will not preach in a pulpit but preach to them by my life and my experiences of how to love, trust and serve the Lord. God is Faithful and He is true to His promises and has provided the Christian leadership training at CLI.. Especially the one in Matthew 6:33: “ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.