Read how Annabelle has been gracefully broken by betrayal, confusion, and ill-health into a Spirit-driven dream to become a Christian counselor, motivational speaker, outreach server, and author.
Gracefully Broken
Blessings, my name is Annabelle Ortiz, and I have been gracefully broken. I reside in New Hampshire where I am seeking to follow the call of God. I moved from Rhode Island a year ago, after being relocated due to domestic violence.
I came to the Lord in 2007 but did not fully understand what I was really seeking until 2009. Since childhood, I always felt drawn to seek God’s presence. I read the Bible and it would come to life in my mind. Every event and story became real. I was always praying and letting others know that I believed deeply in Jesus. I was not walking at all in the Spirit but felt this dependency and faith in Him. Even though I was in the world, God would always bring me to Himself.
I have endured many hardships and allowed the enemy to succeed in his attacks, but God’s grace and mercy always rescued and sustained me. I began going to church in Rhode Island where I was able to understand I have a calling and a purpose. I asked for a mentor and began serving in my calling as an outreach leader and server to our community. My purpose was presenting Jesus to those who are forgotten, such as the homeless, abused, and those from broken homes. I started “Alcance 911 “(Outreach Evangelist Ministry) through my church. It impacted many lives and God gave me this place where He wanted me to serve.
I then had a downfall health-wise and emotionally. I found myself in a spiritual warfare. I married an elder from the church that became my abuser. You can imagine the betrayal and confusion I felt. However, God has used this experience to equip me, strengthen me, and teach me discernment. He taught me that I must really seek His truth and choose to want to walk in righteousness and address the issues that separate us from His light. I then decided to educate myself spiritually and heal before I could be a leader within my calling.
I came to Christian Leaders Institute while asking God to show me how to grow in my walk. I started searching the internet and found CLI. I read it’s mission and purpose and understood that this was of God. Seeing that I could not afford to pay for school and still have complications from my tumor removal and being homeless, I embraced the challenge and promised myself to get started. Christian Leaders Institute has given me the opportunity to grow spiritually and have a better understanding of how to reach my spiritual dream to become a Christian counselor, motivational speaker, author, and outreach server.
My goal is to write books on how to be “gracefully broken” in the struggles and the conflict. I want to write and publish books about God’s grace and mercy. I also want to open a safe haven building for broken souls; a place where one can inject hope and restoration. A place to receive a breakthrough in order to have an opportunity to become who they were created to be!
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I’m Andrea Carlomusto, but many know me as “trainer Ande” here in the suburbs of Detroit, MI in the United States.
I did not really grow up with faith in Christ as any real type of focus. Sure, I knew His name…but that was about it. My entire life, I never felt like I fit in. What people liked and valued, just wasn’t my “thing”. I developed feelings of inadequacy which led me to OCD, eating disorder and harmful addictive behaviors. I hurt many people and faced death more than a handful of times.
It wasn’t until I hit 27 years old before I started praying. I had no clue what I was doing, but I was desperate. After 3 years of praying for God to either “take me out or transform me”, came the night where I got on my knees in prayer and cried until morning. When morning came, I felt scared but had a weird freedom too. It’s hard to explain. In literally one night, Jesus came into me and God took over everything. He put me on a path to recovery. He directed me to have a purpose and let me know I was valued. I was saved to serve Him!
Since then, I would like to say things were easy, but they weren’t. After the honeymoon period of being born again, the real work started. Now, I felt like I had a responsibility to be the best representative of Christ Jesus as I possibly could, had to say goodbye to many worldly possessions, ideas, and people; and it was time to let Him do what He will with me. Deciding to be a real Christian was the hardest and best decision of my life. I can’t wait to see where He takes me and what His plan is!
Professional bull rider Josiah Carpenter’s dream is to minister on the rodeo circuit as a bull riding Chaplain.
Bull Riding Chaplain
Hello everyone! My name is Josiah Carpenter from New Ulm, Minnesota and I feel called to be a bull riding Chaplain. I am 28 years old and was adopted from Belize Central America when I was a newborn. I grew up on a small farm all my life with 4 sisters and 2 other brothers and mom and dad. I was raised in a Christian home and was homeschooled most of my life because my family had a traveling music group called the “Carpenter Family.” We traveled all over the U.S. performing at churches, RV resorts and much more. I grew up on the road with my family in a big bus. By the time I was 13 we had stopped doing music on the road and all my older siblings moved on and got married. My two younger brothers, my sister and I stayed home with mom and dad on the farm.
As I was growing up, I took on a different journey and became a bull rider in rodeos and started traveling all over the U.S., going from rodeo to rodeo. I am now a professional bull rider and spend a lot of time on the road with guys who do the same thing as I do but they have different backgrounds. As I have gotten older, I have seen my faith grow in my relationship with Christ. I have the desire to encourage and help other cowboys see there is a God who loves them and wants a relationship with them as well. I have always felt a calling to minister to people and share how awesome a God I have. But with bull riding it’s a hit or miss kind of lifestyle if you’re going to make any money to pay the bill’s, so you must always try to ride your bulls if you are going to make any money. I love the sport so much I have had a hard time getting myself to take any schooling because of cost or time as I am always on the road. But when I searched the internet and found Christian Leaders Institute, I knew it was meant to be! I want to be a Chaplain and work with athletes and I feel as though my prayers have been answered to get the training I need! I am super thankful to God for putting you guys in my life and I am excited to start my journey with CLI. Thank you and God bless.
Learn about minister ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.