God Given Ministry Call
My life started as a tiny baby, two months premature, to a mother who was still a child of 15. I began life as Melissa Ann Doolittle. I was born in the state of Pennsylvania in the United States of America in a Quaker town where religion was a ritual. At 14 months old, I was abandoned in an apartment and found three days later. This horrific action led to my adoption. I became Heather Nicole Kaltreider, and I have a God given ministry call on my life.
A childhood of parental divorce, childhood abuse from sexual to physical and wrapped up with emotional torture, led me to a place of suicide. Life was of no value. I was of no value. I wondered, “God, where are you?” The razor blade left scars that remind me today that He bled with me. This spiral of low self-esteem took me on a journey of two abusive marriages and wondering why that tiny baby lived.
One day, a small church presented the opportunity of a door that I choose to walk through. I found Christ in a way I never knew. I would love to say that life became easy and blissful, but that would not be true. While this church shared the love of Christ, it lacked personal discipleship of what this new relationship is. It took a few years of falling down. Then one day, my art was discovered. I learned how painting could be a form of worship. Tears of healing and brokenness began to come out with the brushes and paint. I found my voice with colors on a canvas. I started a business, and that has developed into an opening to minister to women and children.
God Given Ministry Call and Gifts
I am gifted in small group leadership and evangelism. God has used me to form a nonprofit ministry, 4 Christ Thru Christ. This ministry materialized after I started at Christian Leaders Institute. In fact, we filed a nonprofit EIN this week. These courses at CLI are teaching me not only how to be a better leader, but a better person and in a better relationship with my God.
The challenges in my area are the very legalistic and conservative culture. There is not a lot of room for the gifts of the Spirit. People are not growing because churches have bound them with many rules created by those wanting a powerful platform instead of a powerful Kingdom.
This study opportunity at CLI is vital because it allows an abandoned little girl, abused by the system of man, to learn her value as a daughter of the King. It takes my life from being written as a third person view, to me, Heather, a woman of worth. Finishing these courses will allow me to grow and use my gifts from God to take other women from a third party view of themselves to look at their reflection and see the daughter of the King.
Learn about ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Educated Servant Leader
Hi, my name is Patrick Kelly, and I want to be an educated servant leader for the Lord. My wife and I live in East Tennessee, but the road God sent me on to get here was winding. I was born in Liberty, New York in 1964. Even though I grew up poor, for the most part, I had a loving family. I was baptized Catholic but not raised in the church. However, I have believed in Jesus for as long as I can remember. But for most of my life, I walked in the world and not with the Lord.
I dropped out of school at age 17 and joined the Marine Corps. During those four years, I deployed twice; one time was to Beruit, Lebanon in 1984. That same year I married my soul mate, Natalie. We were young, me 20 and her 17. Other than surrendering to Christ, marrying Natalie was the greatest thing that’s happened to me. In 1987, we had the first of five children the youngest being born in 2005.
After I got out of the Corps in 1986, I became a New York State Corrections Officer working in the state prisons. When the first Gulf War started in 1991, I went back into the Marine Corps for two plus years. During that tour, I deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia in 1992-93. I got out of the Corps again in 1993, and both my wife and I found employment with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department which we retired from in 2012.
Life Changes and Bible Education with CLI
Growing up poor and spending my adult life under challenging environments, it was easy for me to live in the world and not see God everywhere. Those experiences may have been obstacles at the time, but now God uses them in my maturation as a follower of Christ.
After we retired from Metro, my wife and I and our two children still at home traveled the country in an RV while we homeschooled the kids. We were looking for a place to settle down. God brought us to the mountains of East Tennessee, where we bought a home in 2012. Ending up where we did had to be a God thing since our nearest relative is over 800 miles away. We have a beautiful place on the mountain overlooking the valley. I am 47 years old, retired and not needing to work.
You would think I had everything needed to be happy and content. But no, something was missing. There was a void. We found a small church to attend, and the Pastor took a group to see “God’s Not Dead.” God used that occasion to open my eyes. I opened my heart and surrendered, and everything changed. God filled the void. So for me, my prayer is that Christian Leaders Institute helps me become a more competent follower of Christ so I can be an educated servant leader. I don’t need a degree or a document telling everyone what I’ve done. I want to be a better and educated servant leader.
Learn about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Disciple Training Call
My name is Carly Pinch, and I have a disciple training call on my life. I’m a 17-year-old American and grew up in the church. I made a profession of faith when I was very young. In 2015, I listened to a podcast called The Christian Artist. Over the past years, I became close friends with the hosts, two brothers in Janesville, Wisconsin. Their names are Caleb and Connor, and there is another brother Chase. I went to visit them in the summer of 2018. They encouraged my love for theology and the desire to know more about God’s Word and what it commands of me as a Christian. I’ve been a Calvinist since the beginning of 2018.
I draw and do spoken word as well as enjoy playing RPGs with my friends from the other side of the country. I’m a co-host on the podcast now, and my dream is to be able to continue to do that and ministry evangelism with them after college.
Free Ministry Training at CLI
This class at Christian Leaders Institute reminded me that we as Christians still need to hear the gospel ourselves, for it is the power of God for salvation. I would identify most with the title of a disciple. I have a disciple training call on me at this time. I desire to help others come to Christ, but I know I can not do it alone.
I live in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Washougal, Washington. This area is plagued by depression, anxiety, and suicide even more than other regions of the country. So, that fact makes it difficult to receive any responsiveness to the gospel. There’s much hopelessness. My local church has cared for me in spurring on my interest in right theology and embracing me in fellowship. My dream is more of being uplifted by the local church and being significantly involved in more ministry opportunities.
Learn about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.