International Church Planter
Greetings from Malaysia in the precious name of our Lord Jesus. My name is Dinesh Sri Kumaran (my friends call me Daniel) and I feel God’s call to be an international church planter. I was born in April of 1978 in Malaysia into a Hindu family of five. I’m the middle child and the only son in the family, with two sisters.
In my childhood years, observing how my father lived a hypocritical life of alcoholism and unfaithfulness led me to question the Hindu faith and the meaning of life. I was exposed to Christianity at the age of 17 and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour at a Youth Camp. Today, I am happily married for 15 years to a wife who loves the Lord dearly and we have three wonderful children of our own.
When I was 19, I attended a one month Residental Bible School organized by the Brethren church where I was saved. It was there I first heard a call into ministry, but wasn’t really sure what it meant. Not having anyone to mentor me, I completed my college education in computers and have since built my career in the IT industry for 17 years now.
Having been a Christian for over 20 years, there has certainly been many tests that God has used to strengthen me as His child. My early years as a Christian were years where I fell under the bondage of legalism and this led me to struggle with the bondage of certain sins in my life. There was constant condemnation and the feeling of being a hypocrite led me to backslide. This affected my personal and family life.
In 2009, I was led to a church, BethanyLife, which I still attend today. It was here that the journey to recovery and healing began. A period of studying God’s Word and growing in my understanding of the fullness of His grace and love for me helped me grow in my personal desire in pursuing a deeper walk with God.
It was here in BethanyLife that I was convinced of the need for the baptism of the Holy Spirit for me to live a purposeful life. Since receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit, my passion for the things of God has continued to increase, while the issues of sin I used to struggle with have diminished. Over these years in BethanyLife, I have been serving the Lord in various ministries and capacities, and today I am an ordained (bi-vocational) pastor in BethanyLife.
In the past two years, I’ve been sensing a very strong call towards full-time ministry. I have a specific vision of raising young leaders, mobilizing missions in nations and being an international church planter. My calling which I received from the Lord in my personal devotion time has also been confirmed through a number of prophetic words received from a few different ministers over this period.
The call of God on me was something I initially struggled with. Embracing His call would require a big change in the lifestyle of our family. For me, it had to be something which required the full support of my spouse and kids, and this was something I asked the Lord to do. In the past two years, as I’ve prayed through this, I’ve seen how God has worked in my wife’s heart. From someone who was full of fear and skepticism, today I can sense the excitement in her when we talk about the wonderful possibilities of the years ahead in ministry and serving God together.
In the past year, I’ve heard God tell me to start using the gifts I’ve already been blessed with and He will start to open more doors for ministry. I’ve seen doors open both locally in Malaysia and in other countries in my international church planter ministry. I’ve just returned from a week of missions in Odisha, India where we ran a series of revival meetings in the villages and saw a great move of God with many being saved, healed and delivered. I’ll be going back to India again in December to one of our church planter training centers to conduct a series of training with some other pastors for a new batch of church planters.
While I’m being faithful in using my gifts where He opens the doors, I’ve also sensed a strong call for me to equip myself with a solid biblical grounding for the season ahead. With my extremely hectic schedule, with my day job, my family and ministry responsibilities as an international church planter, the only option that works for me would be via an online channel of learning.
I have gone through the getting started course offered by Christian Leaders Institute. I sense the passions and values which are shared by Rev Henry Reyenga and team resonate within my spirit. I believe that being given the opportunity to pursue a bachelors degree with CLI would help me equip myself with the necessary knowledge and tools I would need to be more effective in fulfilling God’s call on my life. May His Kingdom come and His will be done in my life as it is in Heaven!
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Youth Leader Ministry
I am currently living in the UK and serving in Children & Youth Ministry at my church. Being brought up in a Catholic home, I had always believed in God and Jesus. I attended church regularly and served as a Young Christian Worker. Over the last few years, my relationship with Jesus and walk with the Lord has strengthened. Being baptized by the Holy Spirit has resulted in not only reading the words in the Bible but actually understanding the meaning and how to apply the principles in my day to day life. It has also fueled my call to a youth leader ministry.
My ministry dream is to reach the unreached and win souls for Jesus. Sharing the Gospel, living the principles of the Bible, and loving others as Jesus taught us to do is something I strive to do. The Bible Connection walk with God section has helped renew and strengthen my own walk with the Lord.
I am currently working in small groups as a Youth Leader and Small Group Leader. Serving with young people and experiencing their Salvation to the Lord has been the main motivation for seeking to pursue a life in youth leader ministry. Studying the Bible and applying it to my own life has brought a transformation in my life in my connections with others and serving in the church. My local church has supported my ministry calling with weekly ministry Bible study sessions, group sessions, and opportunities to serve in the church.
A scholarship at Christian Leaders Institute is important to my ministry dream as it enables me to train in key areas of ministry at my own pace without the barrier of course fees. Please pray that the Holy Spirit guides me in all I say and do. Please pray that I am obedient to God´s word and that I never grow weary of serving Him and loving Him.
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Recovery Ministry
Hello, my name is Carey Gorski and I am called to lead in recovery ministry. My family lives in the state of Illinois in the USA. My family consists of my wife Jessica and our three children. We live in a more rural area where Christianity is acceptable. In our exact area, many do not attend church, due to previous corruption in local churches.
When I was a child my mother took us to church weekly. We attended regularly until I began high school. Once in high school, I began to attend a youth group weekly. With this youth group, we would meet multiple times per week and we also went on mission trips every summer. This dedication to Christ only lasted through high school though. When I left for college I chose to turn away from Christ. I had nothing to do with him during this period of time in my life. I began to drink alcohol regularly while in college. The alcohol is what I slowly began to worship in college. While in school, I began to miss classes and not do well in the classes that I did attend. After my third year of school, I was kicked out of the school. Since I didn’t know what I was going to do I went into the family business.
My family owned a tavern in the town we lived in. So I proceeded to go into the bar business. While in this business, I continued to drink regularly. Then one day, I found out I was going to have a child. At first, I denied the child. Later in the pregnancy, I chose to try to have a relationship with the mother. We married a year after our daughter was born. This relationship was not healthy. I continued to drink and really did not care about her feelings at all. After a few years of marriage, she started to see someone else and decided to leave me. At this time my dependence on alcohol increased to the worse it had ever been. I was devastated to lose my daughter and wife. After a short time, I realized I needed help. I chose to attend a 12 step program. While attending this program I began to work on my alcoholism. My wife chose to give me a second chance once I was in recovery. After a period of time, we got back together, but we were already divorced at this time.
While in recovery, I started to rely on Christ to help me with my recovery. After my wife and I where back together, we moved to a small town 60 miles south of Chicago, IL. While living in this town, we started to attend church regularly. My wife and I became extremely involved in the church. My wife wanted to help with children, but the church would not let her since we were living together and not married. So we decided to get remarried. Recovery from alcohol brought me back to Christ.
My ministry dream is to help others with recovery from chemical addiction. I currently am the ministry leader for my church’s recovery ministry program. The hope is that one day this program will grow into something that could really help our community and those with addictions in our area.
This class has helped me to realize my dedication to become a ministry leader within our church. I most identify with a Pastor. The reason being is that I will be leading sermons to help those individuals in need of recovery. A Pastor is a teacher and I hope to teach others there is hope and that no matter what you have done, Christ sacrificed Himself for all of us.
The challenge in our area that we have been having is that many do not trust the church. Many in our area also feel they do not need help. They are still in denial and not willing to get help. Those who are willing to get help do not want to do it with the church’s help. They feel they do not need the church to recover.
This scholarship is important for my education since I currently have many student loans and cannot take on any more debt. Also, Christian Leaders Institute allows me to take classes on my time since I have a family and also work 50 hours per week. My church is very supportive of my ministry in recovery. They try to help in every way possible to expand the recovery ministry to everyone that needs it. This schooling will help me to be a better teacher to teach others about Christ, this education, along with my personal experience of Christ’s true love. Please pray for our current recovery ministry, since it has been a slow-moving program. My wife and I try not to get discouraged with the low attendance and continue on. We know this is a program that our church and community needs.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.