This man’s pastor call journey from darkness “into God’s Hands” tells a compelling story:
My name is Robert Daniel Kelly and I have been on a pastor call journey. I live in the United States of America. I believed in Jesus Christ when I was just a child of about four. I remember Jesus as a loving and kind man. Jesus loves all the children, right? And I remember the song Jesus loves me from when I was a child too. I was not raised in the church, though. I remember going to church a few times. We didn’t really pray or read the Bible that I can remember.
I never knew my biological dad, and the man I called dad when I was small was my little brother’s father. He relapsed on drugs and stole my little brother away to Alaska, so my mom took the rest of us (my older brother, my twin brother and me) to Alaska to get him back. We got back together with him for a short time, then he left and it was my mom and us 4 boys. There were alcohol and drug usage in the home, but we older three brothers would go exploring and playing a lot and had a lot of fun and adventures. We really didn’t have any discipline in our lives and were left to ourselves most of the time, so we started getting into trouble. We got older and also got into drugs and more trouble. All 3 of us older boys were in juvenile detention and institutionalized. I was sent to a bunch of rehab places and institutionalized twice.
When I was 18, I was going the opposite way from seeking God. I was even reading a witchcraft book. Then the book said Jesus was just an adept wizard and I was offended. I think I even spoke out loud and said: “No, He wasn’t! He was the Son of God.” God heard that and started to change my life and start me on my pastor call journey. My twin brother said he talked to God on an acid trip and started reading the Bible some, so I opened it randomly to see what it had to say. I opened to Acts 1:9 and it was telling how Jesus was lifted up from the earth and hidden by a cloud. I actually went through the trailer we were living in telling people that Jesus is alive and He’s out there somewhere. I also started finding tracts about Jesus and salvation. So I know the reality can bear fruit.
Now I was a believer, not just in a loving and kind man from the Bible that was the Son of God, but also in the risen Lord. I still didn’t know how to live as a Christian and was still living in sin. I was doing drugs and going through some interesting things. When I was 19, I was reading the Bible and saw that it was telling me to be baptized. I still wasn’t going to church but God was teaching me to repent of my sins, and I wanted to obey what He was telling me to do. I made an agreement with God that I would go to the church that baptized me. When I went in and asked about it, instead of saying we can do that at some later time, I was baptized right then on a Thursday, January 23, and I went to that same church for about 3 years.
God changed my life from a rebellious and foolish young man to a Christian man that wants to do God’s will. I wish I could say that since I became a Christian I have been perfect ever since. Unfortunately, I have made many mistakes along the way. I’m 40 now and have worked a lot of different jobs.
Now I believe God wants me to preach and I want to preach. So I plan on getting my bachelor’s degree in ministry, and I hope that will help me to get a position as a preacher somewhere. I believe God is blessing me in this direction and I have a lot of support at the church here where I attend. I think being a minister in the USA will have challenges. There is a lot of worldly thinking. I think there are also a lot of Christians that still want to walk the fence. I’d like to help people to remember God in all the aspects of their lives.
This class at Christian Leaders Institute has had a lot of good stuff to teach me. One point is that this is a commitment and I’m not going to be able to get through it in one month. It is going to take a lot of time studying and taking quizzes. The mentor exercises were very helpful and encouraging. I wrote down those 13 questions and my mentor (the preacher here) was kind enough to write down 13 responses, they were encouraging and I can look back at that in the future. I learned a lot about leading too. I want to be a good follower of Jesus and I want to be able to lead others in a close walk with Jesus for themselves.
A pastor is probably the word/role I most identify with because I believe God has called me to preach. I know there is a lot more to pastoring a church and I would want to have good elders to help with that. I took counseling in college when I was younger and think that could be very helpful as well. I think the experience of being saved and brought into the light out of such horrible darkness and deception is the main reason I want to be a minister. I don’t want anyone to remain deceived and I want them to come to God’s love and marvelous light. A big part of my pastor call journey is that I love to preach God’s word. I love Psalms 119, which about how awesome and good God’s word is.
Where I am living, I don’t have internet, so the church gave me a key and let me set up a computer in a room at the church. Now I can drive over there and take classes with Christian Leaders Institute! What a blessing in my life! I believe God is working things out to make this possible for me. I have a great amount of support here. I am very blessed on my pastor call journey.
Learn about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Ministering Vision
Read how CLI is helping Aariyana Green fulfill her ministering vision to be a vessel ready to be used by the Lord.
Greetings and Blessings To Everyone!
My name is Aariyana Green and I have a ministering vision of service for my Lord. I am a citizen of the United States. I grew up in a simple home where my parents worked to care for us. Growing up, I was exposed to the Lord at a very young age. Both sides of my family were Christian, so going to church was a given. However, I am grateful for the wisdom and knowledge I received as a child. I committed myself to the Lord, professed my soul salvation and was baptized at the tender age of 8.
From then on I loved going to church and singing my praises unto Him. The church was my comfort…until I stopped going. My parents started working more and none of my siblings were of age to drive, so we often stayed home on Sundays. I remember feeling so lost, sad, and deeply depressed by the age of 14. I felt so much conviction in my spirit because I thought I was neglecting God. I was battling loneliness and it seemed that anything the enemy spoke, I began to believe. I was in a dark place, but I thank God I didn’t get so lost that I couldn’t find my way back to Him.
By age 18, I was in high school and stumbled across an organization known as FCS (Fellowship of Christian Students). I joined and had a deep joy that something like that existed in a public school. We would meet to pray during lunch, have weekly testimonies, and even reserved a day during the month for praise and worship. I became back in tune with the Lord and more intentional in my pursuit of Him, overcoming the darkness that had once overtaken me. I knew what the Lord wanted me to do and through the training at Christian Leaders Institute, I am one step closer to bringing that ministering vision into existence!
Thank you for sharing in my ministering vision journey! Pray that the Lord will equip me with the knowledge, meekness, and faith to fulfill the divine calling He has placed on life.
Learn about minister ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.
Spirit-filled Mind Renewal
My name is Ryno van Heerden and I have been on a journey of Spirit-filled mind renewal in Christ. I was born in Gauteng, South Africa on the 10th of October 1992. I have lived in Gauteng all my life. I grew up in a “religious” setting, where I went to church on Sundays and did the Christian thing but I never really knew God.
After school, I went to the University of Pretoria where my lack of intimacy with the Father took its toll. I engaged in a typical student life of drinking, partying, etc. I grew into that lifestyle to a point where I had ruined every relationship I had and was on the verge of being kicked out of university. I hit rock bottom when my high school sweetheart finally couldn’t put up with me anymore. I was down and out, depressed and completely alone, or so I thought.
Not long after hitting my all-time low, a friend invited me to attend a six-week conference on learning to hear God’s voice. With much skepticism and expecting a “God” that would condemn all my mistakes, I had the shock of my life when He supernaturally revealed His heart to me. I experienced the goodness of God that drove me to repentance. Jesus became real to me. After this conference that radically changed my life, The Spirit started patching up my broken life. He restored my broken relationships, gave me the resilience to finish my degree and even gave me a second chance with my girlfriend.
I once was moved by “religion” into church activities, now it was this new relationship that got me involved in church and ministry. After about 2 years of ministering where I taught on the prophetic and hearing God’s voice, I came across a certain Professor who taught on Biblical psychology and counseling. At first, I thought that the topic of the “soul” and Spirit-filled mind renewal was automatic and up to God. I started a 3-year course that soon made me realize how broken I still was on the inside and that mind renewal was my part as Jesus already did His part on the cross.
Although I still have many flaws and areas that need transformation, God has really helped me heal in the dimensions of the soul and renewed my mind to the reality of the finished work of Christ.
My vision is to be used by God wherever He requires. I have seen the lack of intimacy in the body of Christ and also the necessity of Spirit-filled mind renewal and healing in the soul of man. Therefore, I would like to enrich myself with as much knowledge as possible so that through His Spirit I can touch as many lives as possible and reciprocate the grace that I have received. The courses here at Christian Leaders Institute can help me do this.
Learn about minister ordination with Christian Leaders Alliance.