Faith Journey
Hi, my name is Johannes Hermanus Goosen and I am on a faith journey with the Lord. I am from South Africa Mpumalanga, Secunda. My journey with the Lord started from the day I was born. It might sound strange but I was blessed that my whole family is Christian. So I knew the Lord from a very young age, and I saw His working in my life as I grew up.
It has not always gone great in my life, but all the challenges are bearable because the Lord is always with me. For that, I can never say thanks enough. I lost my biological father at the age of 6 when he committed suicide. That was devastating to me and my family. Our lives changed in a lot of ways. My half brother and sister were taken away from me, but fortunately, we have close relationships today. I was bullied and teased a lot by my own family members; they didn’t always realize what they did to make me sad or more reserved towards people. I was robbed a few times in my life as well as hijacked. I was called many horrible things in my life, and through all of this, I thank the Lord for being by my side on my faith journey.
There was one point in my life where I lost all hope and tried to commit suicide. But the Lord had other plans for me and saved me from my own destructive ways. That is when I understood the most important lesson of all, no matter how you feel or how bad things are the Lord will never give up on you even if you give up. This is a lesson I take everywhere with me. Some may condemn me for this, but this is a testimony of God’s grace and love to me.
I am called to serve God and that is what I want to do. I just never knew how I would do this until the Lord brought me here to learn and grow with Christian Leaders Institute. I thank all of you for this opportunity and for your support.
Learn about minister ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Writing Ministry Dream
My name is Susan Thomas and I have a writing ministry dream. I am from Lolo, a small town in Montana. Though Lolo is small, we are just six miles south of Missoula, a fairly large town where my husband and I work and where our youngest son attends high school as there is no high school in Lolo. Being a Christian here is easy, but being a Christian leader as a woman is difficult wherever you live. That is a big reason why I decided to get some additional, formal training.
My parents were overseas missionaries, so I grew up in Central America (Nicaragua & Costa Rica) and Argentina. I accepted Jesus at a Vacation Bible School program in Bolivia when I was 5. I was baptized in a river in Argentina when I was 9. I strayed from the Lord in college and ended up unmarried and pregnant. However, despite great pressure to obtain an abortion, I chose to parent my daughter alone instead. I was kicked out of my Christian school for my choice, but I reconnected with God when I discovered that my daughter (though unplanned) was His gift to me, not a punishment. He gave her to me and rescued me from an abusive relationship because He loved me, despite how I had failed Him and my family. That is when things really turned around for me spiritually. I am now happily married to a Navajo man who adopted my daughter Yesenia (21) and together we have two sons, Dakota (18), and Novik (15).
I have been working at a pregnancy support center for over five years where I help young women and men who are experiencing unplanned pregnancies and unhealthy relationships. My “Spiritual Dream” is to use my writing and publishing abilities to engage in Christian education and ministry in a way that will help women (in particular, but all people) experience Christ in a real way free from the oppression of patriarchy. Though God has not yet given me a specific direction in regards to ministry. I already am an author and publisher, so this can help my future projects in my writing ministry dream. And, perhaps, I will start publishing podcasts.
Being able to study for free at Christian Leaders Institute is a Godsend because I have two kids in college right now. We’ve also had a lot of automobile trouble lately, and we have thousands of dollars in home repairs we need to make due to some water damage our insurance is refusing to cover. But, I’m not complaining. God has blessed us greatly. It’s just that this opportunity is pretty amazing and will allow me to do something I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. Thank you, CLI!
Learn about Ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Calling on my Life
My name is Sophia Gilliam and I have a calling on my life from God. I am from Wichita Fall, Texas. I was born on May 12, 1981. I grew up like many children with two working parents, and a grandmother who reared me in the things of the Lord. Proverbs 22:6 in the Bible says “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart.” I recently celebrated my 37th year of living on earth, and I am pleased to say that I still love Jesus. I am so passionate about the things and the people of God that I felt the calling on my life from a very young age. I could never really explain what that feeling was that kept overtaking me, but I knew that it was something that I did not want to lose.
As a youth, I stayed away from people. I kind of attempted to stay in the background and just enjoy my own company. I, like many other children, participated in the choir and Vacation Bible School. There was always something to do in the church. Although as a child I was raised Baptist I ended up changing over to Pentecostal at the age of 16. It was then that I began to get serious about the calling on my life. Not only that, I liked the way that they praised and worshipped God. It kept me excited and wanted to be around the people of God.
After I graduated high school, I joined the army to gain my independence and see the world in a different aspect. I only stayed in the military for one year. It was during that time that I strayed away from God. Everything that I thought I was big and bad enough to do I did. I went to clubs, I drank, I partied, and I was wild until I ended up pregnant on my birthday. It was then that I began to cry out to God for help. My son’s father was soon to ETS and what made it so bad was he was married. He wanted me to get an abortion, but I was never okay with that. I can remember lying in my bed that very night and praying to God telling him that if it was for me to terminate the pregnancy he needed to give me a sign. My son Jeremiah would not sleep that night he kept moving letting me know that even though I made a mistake things were gonna be okay, I asked God for forgiveness, and on September 18, I was honorably discharged from the military.
I relocated to Hinesville, Georgia where I married my husband. As I prepared to live my life I held in secret from my spouse that the baby that I carried was not his. Three babies later that secret was revealed. The marriage then ended in 2006. It was in 2006 when I decided that being a single mother was not work that I felt I was ready for, and I signed my kids over to my now ex-husband. I was living in and out of hotels and working two jobs to support myself. He filed for divorce, and I was ordered to pay child support making matters increasingly difficult. I can honestly say that period in my life was a challenge. It was through that pain, and betrayal that God began to minister to me in the spirit of brokenness. I felt so empty inside, and I kept looking for love in all the wrong places.
After many failed relationships I finally found one that I thought would help me to settle down. I was still living in sin though, so it was never really perfect. He was in college, and I worked at a Goodwill plant in Savannah, Georgia. I went from homeless shelter to homeless shelter trying so hard to get it together. It seemed like through the years I would surrender to God but not completely and wholeheartedly. This erratic behavior caused a lot of instability in my life, and it took several more years for me to finally get it together. I moved again in 2009 to Macon, Georgia where I got a job working at a Dairy Queen, and things seemed like they were starting to look up for me. I stayed at that job for a whole year before I left and went to work at a Walmart. Fast forward to 2010, I got a phone call from my mother that my granny was very very sick and that she probably would not make it through the night. In the wee hours of the morning, I received another phone call that she was gone. I was not close to her, so it hurt but not tremendously.
I think I was more affected by my mother’s hurt. I got the opportunity to go to the memorial service and see a lot of my family that I had not seen in years including my dad. My dad, all throughout my life was my hero. I looked up to him. I still do to this day. It was not until recently I experienced the soul-shaking news that my dad’s mother died. I was so angry and hurt, and I no longer wanted anything to do with anyone. I fell into a deep dark depression. I felt rejected and betrayed by God, and I became even more rebellious, but God continued to have mercy on me. He never gave up on me.
Fast Forward again to 2016, I was kidnapped and sexually trafficked. For the short period that I was in captivity, I was raped, sold, abused emotionally and tormented. It wasn’t until that year in July that I ran away from my abductor after many failed attempts. I was then sent to a safe house in Georgia. After three months in that program, I was sent to Cynthiana, Kentucky. It was here in the program for women that God allowed me to find healing and restoration. I received counseling for one year. It was through that counseling that I began to grow and blossom in the things of God uniquely. My spiritual goal in life is to minister to hurting women. I want women to realize that God loves them regardless of what mistakes they have made.
I want them to realize like I did that they no longer have to settle for ordinary superficial love. God’s love is sufficient to make them whole. I hope that through this training at Christian Leaders Institute that I will grow into maturity in the calling on my life and be able to evangelize and serve in any way that God desires of me. The scholarship is necessary because I am living at home with my dad and I am ineligible to receive student financial aid due to student loan debt.