Faithful God
My name is Lancelot Okocha and I serve a faithful God. I was born on the 2nd of October 1980 in Nigeria, Lagos Island. I am the ninth child of my parents. I attended Satellite Town Primary School and Navy Town Secondary School. I concluded my education at AA College in Lagos Nigeria.
Due to an intense strike and no payment of lecturers at the time in Nigeria, people were unable to finish an education at the time. So I decided to travel to pursue further education. I spoke to my late father about my plans to further my education. I wanted to eventually work and see how to get my family out of the bad situation we were facing as at that time. My father and my mother took all they had and made it possible for me.
So I embarked on a journey to South Africa to study with a later move to Canada as my final destination. However, things did not work out as I planned. I spent many years in South Africa unable to get the education I desired due to the fact that I met the wrong people who duped me and I got stranded. I had no place to go, no family relatives or friends to call on for help. My dream for school was there but began to fade away.
My faithful God had other plans. In 2012, I met a woman called Decent at church. Both of us served in the choir (She later became my wife and the mother of our two boys). I was a worker at my local church LifeGate Assembly International where I was the Praise and Worship leader. Gospel music was the only thing that consoled me and connected me deeply to God. Though all the challenges, my faithful God provided for my every need. Then I met Decent, broken in her own way, seeking to know the Lord. I remember vividly encouraging her to follow the Path of the Lord, which she did, not knowing she would someday be my wife.
In 2013, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, I began to pursue my wife. At the same time, the Lord began to reveal to her through revelation in dreams and the Word that He had put her in the season of marriage. It wasn’t an easy road because of what she went through in her previous relationships.
Eventually, our faithful God spoke through a guest pastor that was ministering at our church during an anointing service. She heard that “your husband is standing next to you.” On that day, I was standing next to her singing. And the Lord opened her heart. We began to prepare for the wedding not knowing where the money would come from. We held on to God, and the Lord, our faithful God, began to provide for us in the best way. My wife’s wedding clothes, the venue, my clothes and all we needed were provided. We got married in 2014.
Then, not only did the Lord do that for us, but our faithful God provided the things we needed for our house. We have still not opened all the wedding gifts. The Lord has provided for our children as well. They lack nothing. God has never failed us ever since. My family and I give God the glory and praise for what He has done, is doing, and is going to do. Praise the Lord!
I also thank our faithful God for the opportunity to study with Christian Leaders Institute. What I have learned so far has given me hope again. Now I am receiving the education I always desired. Free online ministry training at CLI is the answer to my prayers for further education.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Christ Ambassador
My name is Jaime Denton and I am a Christ ambassador. I’ve come to realize how being a follower of God innately means to be a leader among people. I grew up in a Navy family, moving every year or two and traveling often. My upbringing was strongly Christian, as my father was a Chaplain and my mother was devotedly active in the church. Believing in God was effortless. I became a Christian at age five and thought I was joining a worldwide “cult of kindness” that existed as an after-effect of God’s love (1 John 4:19). The theme of Christian leadership was central to my life, always being coached to think of myself as a Christ ambassador for both God and country.
The older I grew, the more disappointed and embittered I became with any system that allowed for duplicity. At age eleven, I announced to my family that I still believed in God but would no longer call myself a Christian. At age fourteen, I read a book that changed the trajectory of my whole life: “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola and George Barna. The book examined how paganism influenced the early church and had developed many damaging traditions still being carried today. I was heartbroken yet wildly ecstatic: God was being misrepresented! Then, at age sixteen, my mother gave me the book “Memoir of a Misfit: Finding My Place in the Family of God” by Marcia Ford. Maybe there was a place for me, too, in the family after all.
Years later, I’m now being led to study biblical hermeneutics, ecclesiology, and other subjects at CLI that will help me better recognize misinformation and live with greater purpose. I have a Bachelor’s in Psychology, so cannot financially continue higher education. I’m deeply grateful for this opportunity with Christian Leaders Institute that will be pivotal in my personal journey and will, in turn, help others. As a Christ ambassador, I’ve worked as a social worker for the homeless, an advocate for refugee immigrants, and a handyman “foot-washer” doing home repairs for impoverished widows, single moms, and other vulnerable people. While I may never preach from a pulpit, there’s nowhere I could go that wouldn’t benefit from what I’ll learn here at Christian Leaders Institute.
Learn about minister ordinations with Christian Leaders Alliance.