Teacher Ministry Training
My name is Charlie Foster and I am receiving teacher ministry training at Christian Leaders Institute. I live in the USA and for the most part, we are free to share our faith in Jesus, although it is getting harder with the way society is going here in America and abroad.
I was born in a Bible-believing family and never really knew any other way. I first accepted Jesus into my heart at about 7 years of age when we had a missionary come to our church. Later I rededicated my life when I was about 13 during youth group.
Growing up, I wanted to be a youth pastor and then a pastor (because I wanted to be Dr. Charles Foster). Later, I discovered I really do like to teach and I wanted to work in missions. Now, I believe I have been called to a mixture of all those things. What that looks like, I am not sure yet. This is one of the reasons I am pursuing education to help me with learning to teach and learn the Bible better.
Geographically, it is pretty easy to go to a school and learn the same stuff as here but that is exponentially harder when you are supporting a family and work over 40 hours a week. So this ministry training with Christian Leaders Institute will be more convenient because I can listen to lessons while I work and do homework at night or on my lunches.
I have talked to my local church leaders and, when I mention that I have a heart for teaching and that I’d like to teach, I’m told that maybe in the future there will be something. The scholarship would help me get my education and grow as a Christian leader in knowledge and my walk with God. I have the desire in my heart to teach and I hope my church comes alongside me. This would also be my prayer request.
Learn about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Ministry Education Journey
My name is Flor and I am on a ministry education journey at Christian Leaders Institute. I’m a 26-year-old wife and mother. I was born in Argentina but moved to the United States when I was 9 years old. My parents divorced shortly after that. I grew up going to a Catholic church but after my parents divorced we stopped going. While I went to the Catholic church, I never heard the gospel. I learned their traditions and prayers to the saints, and that’s all I knew about God. When I was 13 years old, a neighbor invited me to her church and introduced the gospel to me. This was something I had never heard about before, salvation through Jesus sacrifice on the cross. I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior.
Ever since then, I have been trying to grow in my knowledge of Christ and His word. At the beginning of my walk, I didn’t really understand about being saved by grace. So I never felt like a “good Christian”. It was hard because I had set this high expectation of how I was to walk, and of course, I always failed. It wasn’t until I became a mother that God used my own motherhood experience to show me how much He loved me and that I was saved by Grace, His Grace alone.
My ministry dreams are to share the gospel with everyone I can and to model a strong Christan walk to my children. I would also love to return to my hometown and spread the gospel since there are only a few churches there. There are a few key experiences in my life that make me want to pursue ministry, but the one that made the strongest impact on my life was my brother’s death last year. His life ending so unexpectedly when he was just 22 years old made me realize that the gospel must be shared because a lot of people are dying without knowing Christ and His saving Grace. I want to use my life to bring the gospel to everyone I meet.
Some of the challenges that are present where I live here in Austin, Texas is being busy all the time. We all have something going on and it is easy to get caught in doing too much in life so that you don’t make God a priority and it just becomes a tradition of going to church on Sunday.
The Bible connection class at Christian Leaders Institute really helped to strengthen my relationship with God. It gave me really good tips on how to further my personal study of His word. It also made me aware of what He may be speaking to me by making devotional time a huge priority in my life. The method for studying God’s word more in-depth helped me to grow in my personal walk with Him through this ministry education journey. A scholarship at CLI is important to me because I would love to do what God has put in my heart and fulfill my calling to sharing the Gospel with others. I want to be doing it right with the proper understanding of His word and doctrine.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Is Evangelism Outlawed In Bolivia?
Earlier this month, several weeks after Bolivia’s Constitutional Court lifted term limits allowing Morales (their President) to run for office indefinitely, a law was made to make evangelism outlawed in Bolivia! This was going to be punishable by up to 12 years in prison for our dear brothers and sisters in Christ if they shared their faith in Jesus Christ. When this happened, we here at CLI wondered what it would mean for our mission to raise up revival leaders in the area.
There are approximately 2 million evangelical Christians in Bolivia who have been told to stop telling others about their faith. In the past year, we have already had almost 9,000 students sign up for courses at CLI from Bolivia wanting to be revival leaders in their country.
Students like Lizzeth Mendoza who was saved at 15 years old, and is now a CLI graduate at 20. She serves as a Chaplain at her local college and states,”God showed me the need in this college,… I saw the opportunity to prepare myself with these online classes at CLI that are a blessing to me and necessary to learn the steps I must follow to serve effectively in the work of the Lord.”
You can read her entire story here in Spanish: http://es.christianleadersinstitute.org/seminario-gratis-en-bolivia/
Without CLI what would Lizzeth do? It seemed all hope was lost. But…
The same day Bolivia’s evangelical leaders led a national day of prayer and fasting to protest their socialist government making evangelism a crime, the nation’s president, Evo Morales Ayma announced that he will tell the South American nation’s Legislative Assembly to change the law.
Morales tweeted, “We have decided to repeal the Criminal Code to avoid confusion and so the Right stops conspiring and doesn’t have arguments to generate destabilization in the country, with disinformation and lies. We are going to listen to the proposals of all the sectors that observe the code. The National Government will never approve norms against the Bolivian people.” The LORD answered prayer!
So there’s hope! Please join us in praying for our fellow students, brothers and sisters in Christ and their government!