Ministry Training Ordination
My name is Susan Malone. I am 46 years old and I am on a ministry training ordination journey. I live in a small town in Illinois, USA. I live with my youngest of four children. He is almost 18 years old and is a senior in high school. I have another son who is 26 and two daughters, the youngest is 21 and the oldest who is born of my heart is 28. I love them all so much. Their personalities are so different and unique from one another. That’s how God intended them to be, unique. Their life circumstances helped shape them into who they are today. That is their testimony. This is mine…
I grew up in a town of 400 people, Kinderhook, Illinois. I went to Sunday school when someone would take me. When I was 19 years old, I went through the process of having suppressed memories resurface. Due to the lack of time I’m giving you the quick version. It took 3 years of counseling, but God healed my mind. I knew that if God didn’t intervene there would be no way I could overcome everything I had remembered from my childhood. He was faithful and was with me through the whole process. I knew by the age of 21 that God would one day have a ministry for me and a ministry training ordination. I understood that the attack on me, in regards to my childhood, was more spiritual than physical. If the enemy was working that hard in order to put a stumbling block in my path, then God must have something great in mind for me!
At the age of 24, (1991) I was married to my high school sweetheart. He had given his life to the Lord and things were good for many years. Then in, 2011 we began to have marital issues. My husband had back slid a few years prior and had just been walking the fence since then. In January 2012, we separated, and he had a relationship with another woman. I was crushed.
In March of 2012, I had back surgery on disc L5 that lead to MRSA staph infection which lead to a major surgery in April 2012. In the meantime, my husband decided he wanted to come home. So I agreed. The infection had killed part of my back muscle and had eaten a hole in my Dura which allowed the infection to leak in around my spinal cord. My treatment was three months long and the IV antibiotic I was taking was attacking my white cells. So after three weeks they had to pull me off of that one. Instead of eight weeks on the main antibiotic, I was only on it for three. My infectious disease doctor couldn’t offer me any hope for survival. But God had other plans for me! By the end of the three months, I was able to come off the oral antibiotic with no signs of the infection! PTL!
Then, in September of 2015, I was diagnosed with Epidural Fibrosis Arachnoiditis (EFA). Scar tissue that had grown from the damaged area of the Dura was beginning to attach to nerve endings on my spinal cord. There is no cure, no treatment other than pain management. Even what they could offer for pain management couldn’t relieve enough of the pain to keep depression from knocking at my door. Even with everything I had dealt with from my childhood in my early twenties, I had never battled depression. Marriage issues, never depression. I worked through the depression. EFA gave me an uncertain future and I knew that. In the Spring of 2017, after many months of praying, I ended my marriage due to another act of adultery just before my diagnosis. After telling my youngest daughter, she and her husband told me they didn’t want me in their life because of my decision. This was overwhelming. Needless to say, I think the enemy was working overtime on me.
One day God used a worship song to speak directly to my spirit. “So let it go, my soul, and trust in Him. The waves and wind still know His name!” I could see a shaft of light in my mind’s eye shooting through my spirit. Immediately all the burden I was carrying was gone! Suddenly, I didn’t care anymore about my future with EFA. God has helped me focus on today. I miss my daughter immensely but I trust God, that He will bring restoration to our relationship.
God has propelled me spiritually. He has led me to start a Bible study in my home for the past three months. It’s going great and I love it! Taking classes at CLI has just made it more exciting. I live in a small rural community and I believe that God has rescued me not only from the abuse of my childhood but also from a deadly infection later in life so that I could reach others with a message of His undeniable love and mercy. That He is able to bring emotional and physical healing to those who believe. I also hope to speak at events/churches. I know that CLI will give me the ministry training ordination I need to have a good foundation of knowledge. I see myself taking on the role of pastor and starting our town’s only non-denominational church.
A scholarship through CLI is important for me to fulfill my ministry training ordination calling because I’m not able to work due to my diagnosis. So paying for a student loan is out of the question. CLI is an answer to prayer! I would ask that those of you on staff at CLI join with me in praying that God keeps the enemy from prohibiting me from these classes. I’m ready for a break! : ) God Bless!
Learn more about ordained minister study programs at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Evangelist Ministry Path
My name is Meredith Brooke Pittman. I was born February 14, 1996, in a small town in the state of South Carolina. I am blessed to call the United States my home. As a child, I grew up in a church learning about God, but never getting the concept of what He is all about. I have some memories of going to children’s church and watching people act out plays and coloring pages of a man on a cross. At the age of eight, my parents got a divorce. In that moment of my life, I lost all things that were real to me. Sadly, God was the last thing on my mind. My family ran from God. At the age of eight, I stood on my hill in my yard as they took my mother away to a hospital for attempting suicide. I walked into what I thought was my home and saw pills all over the kitchen counters and floor. I didn’t know it then, but God laid his hand upon me that day knowing He had an evangelist ministry path for my life.
I grew up without a father and most of my childhood my mother was absent. In and out of hospitals attempting to kill herself. I surrounded myself with guys trying to fill the emptiness I felt inside all the time. At the age of fourteen, I began to be sexual and at sixteen I lost my virginity. I knew and believed in God, but I didn’t really know him the way I thought I did. I cried myself to sleep for many years praying to God asking Him to take me out of this world. It was not until I was seventeen years old that I met Jesus Christ personally. I was sitting in church for Easter and all at once I lost control of myself. I stood up in front of hundreds of people and gave my life to Jesus Christ. Realizing that He died for me and loved me unconditionally changed my whole point of view on life. That summer, I made the choice to be baptized in the ocean in Daytona.
I would like to say from then on it was easy, but then I would be lying. I got caught up again in the world. In the sex and alcohol and parties. I was still trying to find something that only Jesus could provide. I was running away from all the pain of rape, sexual sin, and hatred of myself. I looked at myself and felt nothing but disgust. It was not until I had an affair with a married man that I realized I no longer knew who I was or who I was meant to be. So I got down on my knees and I gave it all up to Him. I no longer wanted to be in the driver’s seat. I picked up my Bible and I never looked back.
It is easy to type down words of the things I have done in my life. It is simple to recall those times of being lost. But to go through them at the time, was not easy at all. My ministry dream is to reach women, ALL women on my evangelist ministry path. I want them to know that there is another way. JESUS. I want to be a person that doesn’t turn away from the lost and confused, but one who shows them the love of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be an evangelist. Taking this class at Christian Leaders Institute has shown me so many ways to connect to my Father God and my Savior. I have learned how to stay in sound doctrine daily, even when the world and Satan try to test and tempt me.
There are so many reasons why I want to go into ministry: rape, suicide, porn addiction. I am twenty-one years old, and I want to know everything there is to know about the Bible, about Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. I want to lead others to Christ because I did not deserve His love. I was dirty and a sinner, but He washed me clean. So I want to pick up my cross and serve the Lord. Connecting to the Bible brings me grow closer to God. I am learning how He wants me to live and how to pursue my dreams in ministry. I know I still have much to learn. That is why the CLI scholarship is so important to me. I want to be able to share the gospel and have the knowledge to teach correctly. I have connected through my church and I am taking a Bible class once a week there. I am connecting with fellow Christians who are helping me with my walk with Christ and my evangelist ministry path dream. Pray that I do not falter, and even when I have to make hard choices, that I make the right choices for God.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.
Spiritual Dream
As a young innocent child, I always felt close to God. It was instilled in me throughout my elementary school years of attending Catholic Catechism classes held on Saturday mornings. I dreamed of being a nun, devoting my entire life to serving God and others. Unfortunately, the scripture that reads “The devil roams around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” proved to be a force in my life and on my spiritual dream. Around the age of 10, I believe the enemy whispered to my soul a destructive lie that even if I was the last person on earth, not even God would love me!
As I grew up I behaved as if that lie were the truth and I spent many years in a state of depression… because of it, my original dream faded. My heart was broken at the thought that I was undesirable, especially to God. Soon in my early teens, I began to search for anybody’s love and acceptance. But that only brought more heartache, to the point of suffering physical abuse along with rejection by young men. Eventually, I became an unwed mother at the age of 17.
It was this event that ultimately led me back to my Father. I felt that my only friends were my child and my family Bible. I was secluded in my bedroom feeling shame over my behavior, and I was driven to repentance and so devoted myself to reading the Bible.
It wasn’t until several years later, in my early 30’s that the power of the lie was totally broken! There was a new Pentecostal Church in town and I began to hear of many whose lives were getting changed by the power of God in this place. A friend that I worked with at a local bank, Vera, mentioned to me how her life and her families lives were being affected and I could sense a joy and peace in her life. So I made a decision to attend this place called “Joshua Generation for Jesus” in Gallup, New Mexico.
At the moment I entered this store front church building, I immediately sensed a peaceful presence. Peoples hands were lifted in the air as songs of worship were being sung and I took in all of this in quiet observation. When the Sunday service was over, the pastor approached me and asked if he could pray for me. Not being familiar with this type of concern and openness, I immediately declined. However, as we spoke further I felt a strong presence urging me and I asked him to pray for me. When he laid hands on my head and began to pray, I felt the weight of sin fall off of me for the first time in my life. Then this warmth which I can only describe as a touch of the Holy Spirit ran through me.
At last, I found the love that I had so desperately sought after for years and years! I began to grow and mature in the Lord and have never looked back. After 22 years, my desire to know Him and serve Him is ever present in my life.
Christian Leaders Institute is another spiritual dream come true. I have longed for such training as I am presently receiving. I hold this opportunity in highest regards. What drives me is my longing to see my family and others lives changed as mine has been. Thank you, CLI; “for such a time as this”, I discovered you.
Learn about minister ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.