Light Among The Darkness
Living in Los Angeles is like living in constant spiritual warfare. Christians are a light among the darkness here. There is so much consistently fighting for our attention, it can very be difficult to find a place of solace where you can talk to God. I grew up in a suburban town of Los Angeles County. My father has been the minister of our church since 1986. Looking back to childhood, I cannot remember a time when I did not know the Lord. I grew up never questioning if Jesus Christ was my savior. My dad baptized me by my request in 1992, I was 9 years old. I knew I loved Jesus and I knew He was my savior, but I did not really understand what that meant. I had not experienced enough of the world to understand how badly we all really need Jesus.
As I grew into my teen years, social pressures and selfish desires began to sink their claws into me. Slowly, I was moving away from God. I was worrying more about pleasing my peers than pleasing my Heavenly Father. By the time I got to college my relationship with the Lord was leaning towards the non-existent. I dropped out of college and worked just enough to support my social life. Alcohol and vanity blinded me from what was truly important. Los Angeles is filled with innumerable opportunities for self-degradation. Every minute of every day, it seems, that our minds are being persistently bombarded with the temptations of sin. We need a lot more of Jesus in Los Angeles. I hope to be Lord’s aid in spreading that light among the darkness.
The Lord is gracious and He brought back me back to Him. Not only did He save me, He also gave me a husband who knows Jesus as his savior and was baptized by my father in our church. Together, my husband and I hope to impact the lives of many by bringing the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 2016, just a month after our daughter was born, my dad was diagnosed with advanced stage Leukemia. It was this terrible news that the Lord used for good to call my husband and I into the ministry. God put it on our hearts to start some family outreach ministries and we have been blessed with church growth. My ministry goal would be to follow in my dad’s footsteps and keep our church alive and thriving, but I know that it is not always my choice. I submit to the will of the Lord and will pursue the paths that has planned for me. I may not know what God holds for my future, but I know that this is exactly where I am supposed to be right now.
This year, my husband became a deacon of our church and my father began mentoring and formally training us both to take over his roles in the church one day. The Lord lead me to Christian Leadership Institute and both my husband and I enrolled the next day. Upon completing my first certification, I plan to start a women’s Bible Study while continuing my education and training. It is truly amazing how the Lord works in our lives. The Bible says when Jesus Christ returns, He will come like a thief a night. That is exactly how He moved into my heart. My plans and life goals changed overnight. My view of the world changed overnight. My relationship with God changed overnight. Suddenly, there was a light among the darkness.
As I continue on this journey to fulfill the plans God has for me, I ask for prayers from my brothers and sisters in Christ that my family will remain strong and faithful in the face of adversity. Everyday, I resubmit myself to will of the Lord and try to keep my eyes on Him, knowing all I do will be for His glory and glorification of His kingdom. I see many lost souls everyday searching, reaching, hoping for something better, never to find it, never to feeling truly complete. As the world around them encourages further debauchery, they distance themselves even further from the One True God. I want to bring these people to the light, to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Only with the love of Jesus and Holy Spirit in our hearts can we ever feel truly whole.
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Life in the Son
CLI student, Beth Stevenson, has realized her calling after running away from it for 15 years, Stevenson has started a ministry called Life in the Son.
Read her story below:
I am Beth Stevenson, I am from the United States, and I have lived here all of my life. I was the baby of six kids, in the small town of Alliance, Ohio. I attended church all my life but didn’t really come to know God, and have a relationship with Him, until 3 years ago.
My father’s death and a variety of other things, that God allowed to happen in 2013, lead me back to God and the plan He had for my life. Little did I know He had been calling me into ministry for approximately 15 years. God has a way of doing things in his own time.
God had given me a vision of what type of ministry I would be leading early on, but I ran from it. Finally, in 2015, I said yes to God and the plan He had for my life. Doing ministry, in Alliance, is such a great opportunity to reach the lost souls in the area. We are a free country and are truly blessed to be so. We understand that some countries aren’t as fortunate.
I opened up Life in the Son Ministries. Life in the Son is a coffee shop/soup kitchen that serves the less fortunate. We are a donation based ministry and run on the nickels and dimes that are put in our offering jar daily.
I am truly living my dream and I give God all the praise, honor, and glory for it. My title is Pastor. We don’t necessarily have a sanctuary in our building. The streets are our sanctuary. We believe in being the hands and feet of Jesus. We go wherever we’re called.
God has worked with me and has raised me up to be a conqueror and to be motivated to lead with compassion, but also with love. I’ve come through enough things that had the power to destroy me and the ministry, which has made me determined to do what God has called me to do, even if it hurts sometimes. When God calls you, He doesn’t let it rest.
I have unique challenges every day in the ministry I do. We work with a lot of less fortunate people by feeding them a meal, as well as the word of God. We deal with the mentally ill, the homeless, small families that struggle, veterans that fall through the cracks, and also city workers that need lunch and devotions.
February will be 2 years in ministry for us and we are just now getting support from our local church. I don’t get a lot of support from local congregations, being a woman in a pastoral position. I find myself trying to get the point across that we are ALL called, it doesn’t matter if we’re male or female. I do attend the local pastor’s meeting. At these meetings, I am respected for my position. I try to remember I’m not called to fit in.
My family has supported me greatly and I get a lot of respect for my ministering goals. My kids really love the ministry and have a heart for the clientele we serve. They have really taken part in serving in the ministry and that makes me happy. Our children have taken part in everything from painting, lettering windows, helping to serve meals, and even outreach events. It blesses me to see what God is doing in their lives, as we serve. The ministry has brought us together in so many ways. I thank God every day for the restoration he’s bringing. Someday, I can see us opening a second location and serving in another neighboring population.
CLI was literally a Godsend. I needed accountability in the area of studying and knowing God’s word. I was blessed to find the training offered here at CLI. I look forward to the doors that will be opening for me during and after my training is complete. God is so faithful to give the things we need, right when we need them. This scholarship is a big door that’s been opened and I thank CLI for everything. God Bless this ministry richly.
Please pray for strength while in ministry, as well as funding. Thank you.
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Church Planting in Liberia
CLI student, Jerome Allison is seeking ministry training because he feels the call to church planting in Liberia. Allison hasn’t had it easy he was raised in a home with two conflicting religions but he chose salvation.
Read Allison’s story in his own words below:
I was born and raised in West Africa, Liberia. Currently, I’m living in Las Vegas, NV with my wife and five children. My wife is an African and also a chef.
I grew up in the midst of two tough families with an opposite belief. My parents and grandparents, especially my mother and her father are completely opposite to each other when it comes to religion. My mother is a very strong Christian and on the other hand, my grandfather is a traditional man. When I was two years old, my grandfather took me from my mother to be with him as his own son cause his only son, died before I was born. My grandfather’s purpose for my life was wholly different from that of my mother. However, I grew up learning about both Christianity and West Africa/Liberia’s traditional beliefs. As I grew up, I found it very difficult to decide what belief to follow. With my grandfather, I always had the spirit of not belonging. For this not belonging spirit, I decided to spend more time with my mother and my uncle who was a pastor for a Baptist Church. Even though, while I was with them, going to church was an act of obedience to them. After years of their encouragements, teachings, and prayers, I became a Christian. In the year 2000, at the age of 15, I finally accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior. After I was baptized, I became a member of the church (Effort Baptist) in the Ivory Coast which was pastored by my uncle. I also voluntarily became its janitor. Later, I was made Sunday school teacher for the church’s kids. I work for the church until relocating to the USA. The journey has not been smooth, but God is always there for me and my family.
My life has been truly inspired by CLI beyond my expectation when I started. The sound teachings help to shift my experience in so many areas of my life. My understanding of God’s word had greatly improved compared to when I first started with CLI and without a pressure of student-loan debt. There is no better way to really explain the experience with CLI but to just say thanks to God for CLI.
Been ordained is very important to my ministry calling. With this ordination, my family and local church will rejoice with me, knowing that I have responded to God calling by studying his word and by the confirmation of other pastors.
I love reading God’s world, it brings joy to my heart. I always desire to share this joy by teaching other people the word of God and helping them to understand how to live base on God’s word. I believe the first thing in my calling is to study God’s word. I believe Christian Leaders Institute Ordination as a pastor and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can accomplish the work God calls me to do.
I am so grateful to CLI for this Ordination. Even though I teach sometime and after many studies with CLI, recently started preaching once in a while in my local church, with this ordination my preaching will now be regular in my local church preparing me for my mission calling to the world, starting with Africa.
My calling is church planting in Liberia. In my country, there are villages where the gospel has not been preached. The mission is to reach out into these villages and share the gospel of Christ and establish churches there. However, most of the people in these areas can’t read. Therefore, for the gospel to be effective, there must be some kind of Educational system in place to teach those that can read so they can teach other the gospel. The first challenge is how to establish this educational system. The second challenge is, no Internet connection can be found in most of these villages and the Internet café in the city can be expensive; therefore, I can’t get those that can read to be trained by CLI.
I am grateful for my local church for their encouragement and support. My ordination service has been fully organized by my church members. The senior pastor who is also my mentor was always willing to answer me and explain to me in more detail where I had questions.
I am seeking for God’s protection, boldness and his direction in church planting in Liberia.
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