Traveling Evangelist
My name is Jessie Rines and I have a traveling evangelist call on my life. I have always lived in a small town in the state of Maine in the USA. I actually live only two miles from the home I grew up in. My parents still live there. I now live with my husband of almost 14 years and our three children. My husband and I are anxiously awaiting God’s next move in terms of children. We are in our final steps of being licensed to do foster care and adoption. Pray for us if you feel led.
My mother always shared the Lord with me from a young age. When I was 8 years old and at a Vacation Bible School, I went into a room with my pastor’s wife and asked her to help me get saved. I knew then that I needed God. I just didn’t realize at that young age, how badly I would need him. I got baptized that same year.
I went to a public school. I was kind of an outcast since I didn’t want to go to parties or do drugs. I kept to myself and stayed pure for Christ throughout high school. I remember one time, a few of my friends and I gathered around the flagpole in front of the school, locked hands and started praying. The principal came out and asked us to go into a classroom and shut the door because that is not what our school needed. I decided to graduate early, for multiple reasons and did graduate just two weeks after turning 17. I then went to a local community college. I was going for business management.
My husband and I met right before college. I worked at a chiropractor’s office, and he was a patient. We ended up going to the same college. We met and decided to get married. I stopped taking classes to become a wife, and became a mother rather quickly. Over the last years, our walk with God has had ups and downs. We have had many struggles and trials, including almost losing our son at 11 months old to a peanut allergy.
During our marriage, we had a family bluegrass band and enjoyed playing at the local bluegrass festivals. We are pretty musically inclined and really enjoy playing and singing. We stopped the band after our last show where I was in labor with our second child. Yes, you heard right, I was in labor and trying to play an upright bass on stage. It was truly quite a sight. Since then, we have wondered what God wants for us to do with our musical abilities. We have seen many families go from church to church playing gospel music and preaching. Our traveling evangelist hearts are tugged every time we see a family come.
We have been trying to conceive baby number four but so far that door is closed. We have been working on getting licensed for foster care for over a year and are almost done. We are praying God brings us the right children that will want to worship him and travel with us. Children are a blessing from God and we want to bless others with our music and teachings of the Bible. My husband is also thinking of taking classes from Christian Leaders Institue so he can preach at churches on our traveling evangelist journeys. Our 13-year-old son is also saying he would like to take classes and be a youth pastor so when we travel, he could teach the teens.
We have had many people come up to us from our church and say we should travel and minister to others. Our hearts are in it and we truly would love to do this for the Lord. The church sold us one of their buses and we are in the process of converting it into a camper. We are excited about these next few years to see what God does for us to be able to accomplish this dream.
I am excited to take more of the ministry training classes at CLI to broaden my knowledge of the Bible. I homeschool my children, so I am also hoping I have some things I can share with them as well. Thank you, CLI, for this opportunity to learn and become a church leader for free. It is such a great blessing.
Learn about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Evangelist Heart
Read below how Candice Thomas, having gone astray from the faith while searching for stardom, was brought back to the Lord and now with an evangelist heart seeks to bring revival fire to the church:
My name is Candice Thomas, and I live in the USA. As a little black girl growing up in a small town in Ohio, my world was comfortably compact. Our little Baptist church was within walking distance. I really liked singing in the choir and going to Sunday school. Our humble home was very similar to everyone else’s in our ethnically diverse neighborhood. We played in the streets together and attended integrated schools. As far as I knew, that was exactly how it was in neighborhoods everywhere else in the country. I was isolated and unaware of the racial turbulence that was raging during the late 50’s and 60’s.
After graduating high school, I was expected to immediately get a job to help support the needs of our family, but by the age of 19, I decided that I wanted more. I made the decision to quit my banking job and explore the challenges of city life. After much debate, my mother agreed to let me leave provided I moved in under the supervision of an elder sibling living in Detroit, Michigan. When I arrived there in the early 70’s I was shocked at the racial bickering and how generally angry people were there. There was such easy access to every vice. Temptation pulled me out of my church-girl naivety to experiment with all the sins I had been warned against by my mother.
The sinful excitement of Michigan played out quickly. So at 22, with big city life experience under my belt, I thought I was ready to handle even more. I had always loved to sing, so I fearlessly relocated to Hollywood. I enrolled in college drama classes and discovered I had some acting talents as well. When audition after audition failed to bring me stardom, I became discouraged. My new found freedom to sin and my lust for fame had not accomplished anything but make me feel more and more empty and depressed.
Late one night after an evening of bar hopping, I was sitting alone and dejected in my Hollywood apartment. Bored and unhappy, I began realizing just how empty my life actually had become. I turned on the television in search of a distraction. The 700 Club appeared on the screen and the host was talking about a subject I couldn’t recall anyone mentioning back home in Sunday School. He said Christ was coming back soon, asked if I was ready, then said, if my answer was “No”, I could invite Jesus into my life right then. I instantly recalled the faith and peace of my mother through all her struggles, bowed on my knees in front of the TV and repeated a prayer with him. I asked the God who gave my mother strength to take control of my life and I was changed.
The walk I began with God that night carried me through intense marital conflicts that led to a separation and relocation to Northern California. During a 12 year period of single parenting, God drew me close and sustained me by filling me with a passion for His Holy Word and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. He taught me how to use my gifts to build up other hurting people, and in time He reconciled my marriage. He opened doors of ministry for me in my local church and in other churches in my community, all the while beginning to plant seeds of an evangelist heart in my spirit.
Right before I found CLI, He told me to pull back from church leadership. When I obeyed His voice and resigned, some questioned the rationale of my decision. I didn’t really understand it all myself. It appeared as if I was turning my back on my evangelist heart passion to minister His word of hope to the hurting. A couple days later, curious about the possibility of getting ordained, I began searching the web. That is when the Spirit led me to the Christian Leaders Institute website. It was as if every word spoken in each Connection class session was full of the Spirit’s holy power and anointing. When the Getting Started classes helped confirm His calling to be an evangelist, the events of the last 48 years of my life suddenly began to make perfect sense.
I am overcome with thanksgiving for God’s grace towards me. I give Him all the glory! Pursuing an online Divinity Degree through the CLI scholarship and pursuing ordination is a huge miracle for me. I lacked the financial resources to attend a traditional college and couldn’t leave my business. But now, as a bi-vocational student, I can get a great Biblical education online while still running my business. My husband is wholeheartedly supporting and encouraging me to press on to the high calling in Christ Jesus. He has opened doors for me in recent years, encouraging me to reach beyond racial and denominational barriers to take His message of spiritual healing and unity to His hurting church. My evangelist heart is bubbling over with excitement about what my future holds.
I ask for the prayers of CLI and their ministry teams as I obey His call as an evangelist, bringing revival fire to His body by promoting love for Him, love for one another, and a renewed passion to heal broken hearts and reach the unsaved. I look forward to joining the ranks of the esteemed graduates of CLI and the CLA community.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Pastor Calling
I am eager to follow my pastor calling with classes at Christian Leaders Institute. I grew up in New Albany, IN, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY. My parents raised my four brothers and me in a Church of Christ. We attended the same denominationally affiliated high school and were third generation graduates – my grandad, my mom, and an aunt all are alumni. In addition to this, we attended a Bible camp during the summer that also has the Church of Christ affiliation. I kept myself busy with my studies and with the numerous extracurricular activities I was involved in; namely, sports, choir, and National Honor Society. Because of this, I hardly ever was in “big trouble” with my parents. I worked hard in many areas of my life, but never as hard on my spiritual life. I was baptized when I was 13, and do truly believe that God used that moment to bring me into the fold, despite not always looking like it. I definitively noticed a difference in how I behaved and how I treated others. However, I was just doing good because of what I knew to be right, I was not cultivating belief along with action, nor was I doing it out of love for God or others. I displayed works, but not faith.
After graduation, I went out on my own as a college athlete about two hours away from home at a general Baptist university. I did not have a license, so going home was out of the question and my parents did not visit often. This created an atmosphere of loneliness, almost as if I was in exile. My teammates always tried getting me to go to strip clubs, parties, and the like, despite my young age. I can thankfully say that not once did I ever violate my morals and party with them. I did, however, not have a firm foundation of faith on which to place my beliefs. My beliefs started to become more fluid, and with them, my actions. Almost as soon as I got to college I started viewing porn.
One night, early in my sophomore year of college, a girl I had become friends with during my freshmen year approached me and expressed her affections for me and desire to date me. I proceeded to “friend zone” her. Several months later I was in a traumatic car wreck on my way back to college. I should have died, but by God’s wondrous grace I am still here today. As soon as my car came to a stop I knew that I should have died. I knew that God was getting my attention. I knew that he wanted me to take my faith more seriously. Along with that, a few weeks later I also knew that I made a mistake in not dating that girl who had asked me out. Several months later we were dating, and have now been married for almost a year and a half. My wife was very influential in helping me mature and be the spiritual leader that I am supposed to be.
After my wreck, one of my older brothers sat me down and began to discuss with me the doctrines of grace. He had me open up to Romans 9. This new-found knowledge of God’s sovereignty and grace coupled with my near-death experience created a firm foundation of faith that I had never experienced before. That next summer I gave my first sermon at the congregation I was raised in, in front of many family and friends. At 19 years old, everyone was surprised at the evidence of my firm belief, my emphasis on God’s sovereignty and high standard of scripture. After the service, my grandad approached me and let me know that I may have a pastor calling. Before this, I had never really considered the idea of becoming a pastor.
The church my wife and I are members of has been incredibly instrumental in my pastor calling and in developing me as a teaching leader. My pastor has helped me learn how to prepare for sermons and the struggle of ministry. He even allowed me the opportunity to teach both in Sunday school and during our corporate worship. In addition, they have many ways in which we serve our community. Giving me the ability to live out my faith has been a blessing beyond compare.
Due to being married at a young age, I ended up dropping out of college during what would have been my junior year. Between working three jobs and trying to complete my coursework, I saw the potential of me being a negligent husband and so I took several priorities off my plate. Since I dropped out, I have had to start making student debt payments. The opportunity of obtaining a very cost-effective, quality education at Christian Leaders Institute to receive ministry training for my pastor calling is almost too good to be true. At the university I attended, I was accruing debt while not being taught sound doctrine. I know that with CLI, that is not something I will have to worry about.
I ask that you pray that I stay motivated. Taking classes again after having almost a year off makes the classes feel more daunting than they most likely are. In addition, I ask that you pray that while I pursue this endeavor, that I continue to be a good husband and spiritual leader for my wife. Grace and peace.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.