Path of Salvation
CLI student Aquiles Pereyra has had a long journey in finding the path of salvation. He has faced many hardships along the way; he is fired up and ready to follow the path of salvation wholeheartedly.
Read his story below:
I was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Washington Heights (Manhattan, New York). My parents were raised Roman Catholic but later converted to Mormonism. They divorced when I was 3 and I was raised by my great grandmother.
At the age of 7, I was sent to the Dominican Republic to live with grandparents because my great grandmother had a stroke. I was enrolled in boarding school. For the next 7 years, I was raised following the Roman Catholic religion. At the age of 12, I was baptized in the Catholic Church. At 14, I was sent to live with my mom in Miami, Fl. She remarried a Jewish man and I began to learn and follow the Jewish religion. At 16, I moved again to live with my dad in New York City. He still followed the Mormon religion and upon my arrival insisted I should be baptized and become a Mormon. To please my father, I was baptized and began to attend the Mormon church. At 17, I moved out because I did not get along with my father’s wife. A year later I decided that it was time to find God on my own. I was invited to a Pentecostal church by my girlfriend at the time (she later became my ex-wife), and instead of finding God and the love of Christ, I found criticism and rejection by the church members.
In December of 2001, I moved back to Florida and started to attend a non-denominational church. Still not being able to find and build my relationship with Jesus, I stopped attending church altogether. For the next 13 years, I lived with a woman who became the mother of my two precious children. In 2013, she was diagnosed with cancer. A year later, she found Jesus as her Savior (I wasn’t as convinced), and for the next three years, God would use her to prepare me for what was to come. It wasn’t until her death on July 25, 2016, that I broke and a week later walked into her church (my home church now, New Dawn Ministries) and truly gave my heart to Jesus, allowing God into my life, and a major transformation has been happening in my life ever since.
I finally received Jesus as my Lord and savior. It has only been five months since her passing, but the Lord has given me peace in knowing that she was saved and left me in the path to salvation. I have felt him calling in my heart to become something greater than what I had become, and this is the reason I have decided to attend CLI.
Read other CLI stories on the CLI Facebook page.
His Healing Power
CLI Student Nassang Mimba has faced many challenges, but she has also experienced God’s healing power in her life. She is convicted to share about his healing power and saving grace everywhere.
Read her story below:
I am Nassang “Natty” Mimba; I am a contemporary gospel singer from Cameroon. I bless the LORD for my country Cameroon, for Christianity is not outwardly persecuted as it is in other countries, by His grace ministry work is accepted.
At age 6 I gave my life to Christ. My mom told me a story about baby Jesus, who came into the world, knew no sin but was nailed to the cross for my sins. He died, was buried and on the third day rose from the dead and is in heaving preparing a place and is coming back to take me to be with Him. At that age, I said to myself “what an amazing thing for someone to die for me so that I can have eternal life and all I need to do is confess and ask Him to come live in my heart.” Of course, she painted a beautiful picture of what heaven was like and I made up my mind I wanted to be part of it. So I made the prayer and accepted Him as my LORD and personal savior from sin. In my early 20s, I did stray, but I thank the LORD for His mercies and for bringing me back to Him.
My dream in ministry is to change as many lives as I possibly can, bringing lost souls to Jesus through music and the gospel. Showing them that He is the one “thing” they cannot do without. Evangelist is one word I identify with the most.
I have never shared this publicly but let me tell you right now, God’s hand is not too short to save, to heal and to redeem. I saw this first hand when His healing power healed me from Hepatitis B. A few months after I was diagnosed and on medication. I kept telling myself “I don’t want to keep doing this, I don’t want to keep taking the meds, God, please heal me, ” And He did with one touch. So when it gets hard, I think of all He’s done, nd I get the strength to keep going. This is how I got prompted to go into ministry, to thank Him with my life.
One of the challenges in my country are bad roads. This I think makes it hard for and discourages ministry leaders to want to take the word further and deeper.
The work my church puts into my spiritual life through the word, prayer, and encouragement has gone a great deal to help me in my ministry calling. My mom has also been a great support in my ministry calling, she saw the gift of revelation in me before I could even come to acceptance with it. Her teachings of the word of God to me and her prayers built a great foundation in my walk with God which she still continues to do until this day, she also introduced me to a mentor which is one thing I believe is very vital to have as a revival leader. My mom has and is the greatest spiritual aid I have ever had.
A schorlaship at CLI will get me fully trained and equipped for the realization of my ministry dream. Please pray that the LORD gives me the grace to go throw the tests in my walk with Him and the mission inorder that I come out stronger.
Read other CLI stories on His healing power on the CLI Facebook page.
Learning to Minister
CLI Student Leaha Brisbois is learning to minister by taking CLI classes. She wants to bring the peace of God as she learns to minister to others.
My name is Leaha Brisbois. I live in the United States; Pacific Northwest area- specifically Washington State. Religious expression is a freedom that Americans are very fortunate to have so ministry can be easily shared. Ministry is simply the act of sharing God’s truth in hopes of leading someone to make an important life change for the best. We can share with anyone pretty much anywhere. Some might welcome it; some may not… but that’s o.k. because a seed has been planted.
I came to know the Lord in 1994 when I met my Husband Richard. He was well in love with the Lord and made it known to me during our very first phone conversation. He told me about how wonderful God is and even shared his own testimony. He always ended our phone conversations with a prayer. He also told me that God changes lives. One day, I said “o.k. God, let’s see what you will do with my life.” Our first date was on a Saturday at the state fair with our children. Our second “date” was the next day; He took us to church. I was attentive to the Pastor even though I didn’t always understand everything that he was talking about. Richard assured me that this was an amazing thing about sermons. Not everyone gets everything every time, but we get what God has for us that day. Within weeks, I was baptized.
My ministry dream is to use music and conversation to tell people about God. I love to sing, and I want to learn to play the guitar and keyboard. I imagine myself in living rooms, behind the pulpits or even around a campfire playing a guitar and singing about the Lord. I guess that I identify with the Evangelist most because they are the ones that create a spark in me that just lights God’s fire in me and the words of God get it roaring. I feel refreshed and revived every time I hear an evangelist.
This past year, I was in bible camp feeling empty. I knew I needed something, but I didn’t know what. In hind sight, my light had gone out. I remember going up to the alter and feeling heavy about my family, mainly my dad and my children. My dad doesn’t believe in Jesus, and my children’s focus is elsewhere (but they all know Jesus). At camp, A lady came to pray with and for me. We talked for a long time, and she taught me how to pray for my family in a way I’ve never done before. She told me not to worry about them because God has them in his hands. I felt so much better. I also knew that perhaps it was me that was supposed to tell my dad the truth about God even though he lives with a devout Catholic. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but God assured me that I can do anything, all I have to do is just do it. He told me that I could NOT fail – that if He is with me, I could do anything and it would not fail. All I have to do is just open my mouth and tell what I know – that’s it. How EASY is that? Truly!! How much easier could God make it? I realized it was fear keeping my mouth closed.
Geographically, there are not many challenges for me. The only challenge I see is that I live in the mountains; neighbors are far, and few and winters can be rough to travel in. I currently do not attend church. The nearest church is about 10 miles away, but we don’t attend there anymore due to some belief conflicts and a lack of “spiritual food.” Since leaving, my husband and I were determined to find spiritual food somehow. Perhaps on an online course of some sort that would fill us with God’s word in a manner that gave us joy, peace, and understanding. We wanted something that could truly educate us and would allow us to properly minister to others. Perhaps even start something in our local area. But for now, we are content with just learning.
I believe my family’s role is to simply accept my prayers for them and to listen when I tell them something that I’ve learned; this also helps me learn to minister to others. My husband’s role includes helping me understand things that I have questions about and to make sure I have my learning time.
Out of the many online bible courses I found, many were costly and didn’t seem truly God-centered. When I found CLI, I was so happy that instead of a brick building on the home page, I saw people asking questions that I’ve been asking. I even saw a place to click that said Bible study tools. They even offered church and a way to tithe, and it was all free. Pastor Reyenga talked about how Jesus never charged anyone for his teachings. This made sense to me and then I could not understand why anyone would charge someone to listen to them teach about God’s love. I really want to be part of this program. I can’t see that another program could be as good as this one, so I don’t want to look elsewhere. I would really appreciate the opportunity to be part of CLI and this scholarship is my ticket in.
CLI prayer warriors can pray (for me) that I can find peace and joy outside of my comfort zone and that my comfort zone gets bigger over time. Please pray that I reach people the way God intends for me to do and that God’s light will shine brightly within me. I have a forgetful mind, so please pray that my memory will be strong so that I can better remember things I’ve read. Also, please pray that I can learn to sing without fear.
Join other CLI students learning to minister by liking the CLI Facebook page.