Extraordinary Love of God
My name is Christine Vogt and the extraordinary love of God is calling me to serve. I reside in Georgia, USA. I grew up in a home where faith was not a high priority. The prevailing Catholic rituals for a young person were upheld, so I learned a small amount of scripture during catechism and the occasional Christmas Eve Mass. I lived a young life of searching for approval, acceptance, and love through all of the earthly things that seem to satisfy a soul but leave it emptier than ever before.
It wasn’t until I was 16 years old that I was invited to an Assembly of God church by my manager. She, bless her heart, had to invite me several more times before I surrendered my preconceived notions of church and allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to my vulnerable heart. The events of the night are a bit of a blur when I wish they were as vivid as a Minnesota sunset. But alas, I specifically remember hearing the pastor extend a call to those who were in midst of a struggle, and that wasn’t me. Then an offer to those bound by the chains of addictions, nope, not me. An invitation to those at rock bottom. Still. Not. Me. And then a gentle tug for those that simply had never asked Jesus in to fill that God-shaped hole in their heart. ME! That was me! I stood and seemingly floated to the altar because I don’t recall walking and asked Jesus to take over ownership of my life. It was a whirl, a buzz, a soft crescendo that ushered in a new way of life for me.
Since faith was a non-topic in my family, it also wasn’t taboo and I openly shared my new found Savior with everyone. I even made my sweet but resistant Grandma listen to Carmen, DC Talk, and Steven Curtis Chapman. I met with what I would call “good for you, but not for me” responses from my family. But I don’t think I knew until years later, the gravity of holding the answer to a question they refused to ask.
Shortly after my acceptance to the offer of salvation, I began volunteering at the church’s social club where I met my future husband when he visited for a Battle of the Bands. That love story is one for the ages, but the greatest love story, the one between God and humanity, is the reason I’m here today and studying at Christian Leaders Institute. I didn’t know the extent of my brokenness and the glorious way He would, with expert precision, expose and then suture my fragmented heart. But He did and has been weaving the tapestry of my life for 28 years. Our journey has been treacherous at times and at others a magnificent expedition, but through it all, I have come to know there is no beginning and surely no end to God’s very own approval, acceptance, and extraordinary love for me. And I am grateful.
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Ministry Calling Gift Of Time For Jim Fleurent
Hello fellow CLI students! I am Jim Fleurent from the United States. I am a Christian that has received the ministry calling gift of time!
My coming to the Lord started in 2011. The two years prior to that were challenging due to my body wearing out with bad hips and knees, but the biggest challenge was to come. I was brought up Catholic but strayed away in my teens. Believing more in science than God, I referred to faith as a myth. I have been blessed with a wonderful family with life’s usual issues. Then, I was struck with MCL, mantle cell lymphoma, a bone and blood cancer which was diagnosed as stage 4 with three to six months to live. We were blessed with good insurance and great doctors who got me into the City of Hope, a national cancer center. My belief in science was not able to save me, but our great God, who gives the science knowledge to us, was!
I endured a regimen of four chemo sessions a day for a week then resting for two weeks then repeating the schedule until six months later I received a stem cell transplant. Now in 2018, I am alive and glorifying Jesus.
Here is how God revealed faith to me: Seven days before my stem cell transplant, I awoke at about four in the morning with a terrifying dream, little did I know it was an epiphany. I was on the edge of a vortex, dark and spinning downward, and as I peered in, it dragged me to the bottom. It was ice cold and dark and I could not see, but I could feel souls there, empty and agonized, full of hate, despair, and pain. I screamed out and no one heard me there. In the hospital room, my wife, who spent every day with me in the hospital (sleeping in a chair) heard me and held me. As I awoke I cried. This dream continued for six nights with the same vision, me waking terrified, and my wife Lori consoling me. Then on the morning of my stem cell transplant, the seventh day, at four in the morning, I dreamed again. But this time it was a white vortex spiraling upwards and as I peered in it drew me up to a warm, blinding white place. I could feel it was full of love, hope, beauty, and peace. The first thing that came to me was to call out for my mother and then a friend of my wife who had recently passed away. They could not hear me because I was not to be among them at this time. I sat up as my wife was stirring, and I saw, as clearly as I could see her, Jesus at the foot of my bed in robes and, oddly enough, short hair, and I knew he was God. He spoke two words, “You’re alright.” My wife came to me, and I told her of this vision. She held me and I prayed. At nine that morning, the doctors came in my negative pressure room and injected my Hickman valve with two million stem cells.
I have received a ministry calling gift of time and now training at CLI. I have gotten better and my cancer is in remission. I was baptized at Harvest Church in California. I found Christian Leaders Institute online and I am working on my degree. Life is good, and I try each day to be the best for Christ that I can be. Thank you, CLI, Henry, and all your staff for leading me to help others in Christ. There is much more to this story and much more of it to come, God willing.
Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Bible Education Free
I am a Canadian and am excited to receive CLI’s Bible education free. I was born in Sarnia, Ontario. I am the fourth of five children (my older brother died of heart complications at about a month old). My parents were divorced by the time I was 4 years old. My 2 older sisters (aged 6 and 8 at the time) went to live with my dad as he felt they were old enough to care for themselves and therefore less work for him. As my younger sister and I were so young and unable to care for ourselves, my dad didn’t want us and so we went to live with my mom. We tended to move around a lot as my father changed jobs a lot and my mother moved as well in order to stay close to my older sisters. Shortly, after my parents’ divorce, my mother met my step-father.
As a means of childcare, my mother took us every Sunday to the local Baptist church. It was there that I found a different kind of love and support than that which I received at home. I became a Christian at a young age (grade 2) in Sunday school and was baptized and sought church membership at the age of 13. I felt God’s calling at a young age and as a teenager dedicated my life to do what God led me to do.
As life tends to happen, I grew away from the Lord in my teen years and early adult life. I moved into a group home and was introduced to a different lifestyle than I was used to of smoking, drugs, and alcohol, but God never gave up on me or left me. He eventually pulled me back to him and with acceptance and love for me. At the age of 20, I met my husband (who at the time was not a Christian). We married shortly afterward and had 2 children. My daughter Madison (who passed away December 19, 2017, at 18 years old from complications of epilepsy) was special needs (she had high functioning autism and epilepsy). My son Derek is 22 years old and has numerous learning and physical special needs.
Currently, I serve within my church in various capacities: as a greeter, an usher, on the finance committee and as a teller (counting the weekly offerings). However, I feel God is calling me to one of two ministries, either ministering to special needs adults or with parents who have lost children. I have experience in both these areas being a parent of special needs children and also losing a daughter at such a young age. I feel God allowed these experiences in my life so that I can minister to and be a blessing to other people who have had similar experiences. At this time, my church is working towards starting a grief support program. Along with one of our pastors, my husband and I are looking to facilitate this program to support people within our church as well as others in the community.
I believe that learning more about God and his word will be a good foundation to be able to support either ministry that God calls me to. So I searched and found Christian Leaders Institute offering online Bible education free. As I prepared to take courses with CLI, my church has been an encouragement and has also committed to being available to answer any questions I might have. CLI’s Bible education free is important to me as I cannot afford at this time to be able to pay for Bible College. We have to support our adult special needs son. Bible education free at CLI allows me to concentrate on my studies without having to worry about how I will pay for it. God always provides a way for his plans!
Learn about being ordained with Christian Leaders Alliance.