Spiritual Journey
I am Tammy Sasala and I am on a spiritual journey. I am a resident of Pennsylvania (USA) and have been since my birth in 1971. In view of global events and looking back on years past, I am forever grateful and feel so blessed to be able to shout at the top of my lungs, “I love Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and Savior!” To have this freedom is His true blessing. Many would love for Christians to just go away, to disappear. Though we live in different spiritual times (in comparison to decades past), I just do not see Christians going away. Not this one anyway!
Both of my parents had a Christian upbringing. Even after my parents divorced in 1973, my mother made it a point to read God’s word to my brother and me. She made it a point to attend church every Sunday. I thank God for blessing me with my mother, a woman that listened to God. God was there for all of us at this tough time. Especially for my mother, that was now a single mom. In 1974, my mother met a man. A man that sexually abused me until 1986. Through Jesus Christ, I prayed for my abuser and never blamed myself. God carried me all the way. He NEVER left me and I will NEVER leave Him.
For many years God has been calling to me and for many years I haven’t been listening. I didn’t realize it at the time but I do realize it now. As mentioned earlier, I have never blamed myself. I am one of a few survivors that can actually say this. I want this for others. Abuse of any kind truly puts a person off tilt (to put it lightly). One with an abusive background carries through life so much pain, suffering, and blame. Don’t get me wrong, I have suffered but not nearly as much as others. I would love to see a world void of abuse of any kind. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Satan is running around rampant doing his best to convert as many as possible over to his dark side. I want to be a part of stopping him dead in his tracks. To do this, I need as much Scriptural knowledge as possible. To do this, I need Jesus Christ.
The “Getting Started” course did enlighten me quite a bit. As we all do, I had my doubts in myself and expressed this to my husband. Then my husband reminded me of “Doubt Your Doubts” by Joseph Solomon. I had heard this many times before. This time was different. This time, God spoke to me. This time, I listened.
Over the years on my spiritual journey, I have connected and reconnected in His Word. His word is so much deeper and meaningful to me now at this stage of my life. I know how He completes me and how wonderful it feels. I want this for everyone! It is now my turn to reciprocate in kind and spread His Good News.
Regardless of if I had the support of my family or not, I will continue on my spiritual journey. Thankfully, through God’s loving grace, He has blessed me with a wonderful loving husband. A husband that took on extra hours of work and provided me the ability to go part-time with work. Through God’s grace, I am able to put full focus and much time towards my studies and my spiritual journey.
It was my husband that brought Christian Leaders Institute to my attention. For years he has been a witness to my spiritual call. In fact, I think he recognized God’s call before I did. I read a little bit about CLI and enrolled that very day. The scholarship is a bonus for me. My ultimate goal is to gain all the knowledge, strength and wisdom God has to offer. I need to do the same for others. I want to be a beacon for the lost. With CLI’s help, I will be able to attain this goal and know where God wants me.
Please pray for me to stay on track and to not be distracted. Pray that I continue to have the eyes to see and the ears to hear and to be where God wants me. May the loving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ guide and bless all of you.
Learn about local “ecuministry” ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Ministry Journey
My name is Festus Josef and I am on a ministry journey. I am a 29-year-old man married to Olivia Pomwene Mwoonde. We are living in Grootfontein in Namibia and we are blessed with one daughter. The government currently employs me and I am training on the job to be an aircraft maintenance technician. Soon I will finish this training and our graduation will take place early next year.
On my ministry journey as a Christian, my parents belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church so I attended there also. At the age of 17, after I completed the confirmation classes, I began to read my Bible. I discovered the light and the truth of the Gospel and I started comparing things mentioned in the Bible with what the church I attended does. This led me to question my parents because they are also members of the church council. One day, I asked my mother some questions: Why don’t the elders of our church lay their hand on sick people to pray for them to be healed as the Bible says? Why are others not allowed to share the word of God in front of the church? Simply, they say it is not in the church program. I went on to the pastor with the same questions, but the answer was, we are working according to our church laws.
One day when I was coming from school, I met a man who invited me to attend his church on Sunday. It was a Pentecostal/revival church and I agreed to come. The first day I sat in that church I saw how the people worship God freely, sharing and encouraging each other in the word of God openly. Then, I saw people praying for the sick to be healed. It moved my heart that they are working according to the Bible. Since then, I decided to join them. I asked them, they took me in way of a sinner repenting to God, and I received Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour. It was in 2009 that I became a Christian who can testify about Christ. That’s how I got born-again. Although I was the beloved son of my mother, when this news reached her, she rejected it and didn’t want to hear it. My colleagues, relatives, and family started to discourage me as if I have taken a wrong step, but by the grace of God I continued, and later they accepted that I am fully convinced about the Gospel.
After one year staying with my family in my father’s house, three of my siblings became attracted to the new life which they saw in me. They became born-again too and after three years another sibling joined as well. Today we are five children of mum and dad and children of God. We all lived together until I moved to Grootfontein with work. This is where I met my beautiful wife. I met her when she came to Grootfontein with a mission to do evangelism. We worked together happily as brother and sister on this ministry journey. Then I realized that she is the one I have been waiting for from the Lord. We got married and now we are waiting to open a branch of our church here in Grootfontein.
On my ministry journey, I discovered the call of God for me to be a pastor. My wife is called as an evangelist. I am desiring to have more knowledge in the ministry work. Although I received some training from our senior pastor, I was still searching for more so that I could be a graduate in the things of God. To do ministry in our country one needs to be trained because, if one does not have any certificate in the work, people will not listen to or respect them. Another challenge in our country is the lack of funding toward the work of God. That is why many children of God who were called are discouraged, they don’t know what to do.
My wife and I have a dream to run a fruit and vegetable farming business which will help us to run this the ministry bi-vocationally. We registered our business in 2016, but it is not funded yet. We also want to open a town feeding program for orphans and vulnerable children. Let us pray that this fruit and vegetable business would get funding because it will open many doors to preach the gospel and to train the children of God. There are some people living in remote areas that we need to reach in our country, but it is not easy unless you are prepared. For example, you need a camping tent, a car to go to the campsite, and you need food and other essential everyday need. We take all this into consideration when we are seeking for a loan or grant to fund our business.
Due to lack of finances to go on to study in a local school, I was searching for schools which offer free Bible courses online. That is how I came in contact with Christian Leaders Institute. When I went through the subjects, materials, and courses, I said to myself that I have found what I have been looking for. Thank you, CLI!
Learn about local “ecuministry” ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.