Get New Zealand Ministry Training
Hello all. My name is Amanda Smith (nee Faulkner). I was originally born in Barry Island, Wales. My family and I moved to New Zealand when I was 5 years old.
I am studying anew here at Christian Leaders Institute, and at this stage have little experience as a leader, though I do keep good company with the lady who ran the Salvation Army Family Store that I previously worked in. She is the lovely lady who re-introduced me to Christianity and lit the flame in me here in New Zealand.
I didn’t have much of a spiritual upbringing. My parents said they were Christian, though I was sent to church with neighbors. My mother had a saying of “God pays debts without using any money” when I was being bullied at school. My father insisted I don’t wear white when I got married since I had already had children and was therefore “unpure.” These were the only indicators I had of any religion being present in my family (I was divorced two years after I was first married due to his infidelity).
At the age of 16, I was an attempted murder survivor. Wrong place, wrong time was what I was told. Possibly a drug deal happening down the road I was walking. To date, there is no suspect or motive, even though it happened back in 1985 here in New Zealand. The church chaplain said to me, “God has a plan for you. He is not done with you yet. He had his hand on you to make sure you survived this.” This was my first real connection with God. I then sought Him out and went to Youth Groups with friends. Somewhere along the way, I kept bad company and drifted from Him.
Then I started attending church again, as I stated above, after working at the Salvation Army store. I became a Salvation Army soldier. I heard that God has a plan for me to be a leader. I started studying even more. I met a man whom I grew to love. He attended church with me just to be near me, and he came to know the Lord in the process. God works in mysterious ways. He had a stroke, that caused him to become very violent and aggressive with me whenever he had an alcoholic drink. Being an alcoholic, this was a regular occurrence. I prayed repeatedly for healing for him, because I knew it was an illness, and that he was acting against his own morals when he hurt me. He went through a residential rehabilitation program and hasn’t raised his hand to me in 7 years.
During his time in the rehabilitation program, he was diagnosed with cancer. It was a definite diagnosis and tests were being done to find out whether it was aggressive cancer or not. Weeks passed waiting for results of the last test. During these weeks, all those at the program and myself prayed for him daily. When the results came back, it was to say that the cancer cells had shrunk! Cancer doesn’t shrink on its own. Praise God! It is now non-existent in his body – it just left, with no treatment! These are only two events that convinced me of God’s power and His will for me to be His child. There were many other events where there is no doubt that God had His hand on the situation.
Free training is necessary for me because, at this stage, our finances are very tight. We recently had a very intimate wedding, keeping it personal rather than showy, due to the tight budget. Although both of us work, we don’t have the money to spend on unnecessary costs. I have started a new job and hope this will change so that I can give back to this worthy cause that has given me so much, and undoubtedly, will continue to do so. I want to move forward in my learning, as to be worthy to spread God’s word and bring others to Him.
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You too can get New Zealand Ministry Training if you are from that country.
Mike Harper tells us in his testimony “I hope to use this Ireland ministry training to help give me more skills to reach our local community with the gospel.”
Ireland Ministry Training
Hi, my name is Mike Harper and I am from Ireland. This is my testimony. I grew up in Dublin city on the East coast but now I live in Abbeyleix, County Laois. My wife and I are hoping to reach our local community of about 2,000 people with the gospel, there is no church here. We don’t feel led to start a church but are going to open our home as a house of prayer. The majority of the local population are cultural Christians, who have been inoculated against the gospel, but with God, all things are possible.
I grew up in a Christian home. My parents were missionaries in Dublin and my father worked for over fifty years in family and youth ministry. I first gave my life to God as a young man but I was holding onto childhood issues and suffered from depression since the age of nine. Depression began to tear my life apart and I turned to alcohol and away from the church, although I still believed in God. I spent several years in the wilderness, living an ungodly life and eventually became a ‘prodigal’ son who returned to the Lord.
My dream is more than a dream, it is a calling, to intercede for my people and my nation, to be a speaker of truth, a missionary as the Lord leads me. The wind blows and you don’t know where it will blow, so it is like this for those who are of the Spirit of God, following His direction wherever He may lead. This Ireland ministry training at Christian Leaders Institue will help me answer this calling.
I have faced many challenges while growing to maturity in Christ. The most difficult to face are when God takes an opinion or thought process and turns it completely upside-down. This happened recently after completing one of my latest books which was highlighting areas where Christians need to be more discerning and protective of their families and churches. After finishing the book, God reminded me that now that work was completed, I was to forget and overlook how people are now, and instead look at people the way that Christ does – as the finished article. These instances also are a reminder of the importance of humility. Furthermore, Jeremiah spoke about how all our good works are like filthy rags. If I wrote a book and it sold a million copies and changed the lives of many people, that ‘work’ is like a filthy rag to the Lord because He is so holy, and our minds are so easily filled with motives and selfishness.
God became real for me when I finally accepted that He was speaking to me and quite often in dramatic ways. For example, I remember somewhere around 2009, during my wilderness years, I was drinking at a party when suddenly I felt the touch of the Holy Spirit and then felt an urge to go upstairs to my friend’s bedroom. I obeyed. There I found my friend’s cousin attempting to kill himself with a belt around his neck.
I did say the prayer of salvation in my youth as previously mentioned, but it was not until around 2011 that I finally gave all my life to Him, every inch of my life, everything I own, EVERYTHING!
I hope to use this Ireland ministry training to help give me more skills to reach our local community with the gospel. At the moment Christian Leaders Institute suits because of the distance study element and being free also helps. When I was much younger I yearned to go to Bible College, now I am finally there!
God Bless
Mike Harper
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