Free Chicago Ministry Training
My name is Katie. I currently live in the US, in the third largest city and murder capital of the country, Chicago, IL. I’ve lived here for 28 years, and I couldn’t be more in awe that God has called me to the adventure of building a lighthouse in the middle of this dark, yet beautiful city. I’ve been part of a church plant for the past 5 years. Our church is located in a super young, trendy neighborhood, where most people are desensitized and completely turned off by the word church. Before launching our church, we interviewed 30 people in the neighborhood: 28 of them had been to church, had a bad experience, and were not interested in going back, 1 person had never been to church and would be open to checking it out, and 1 person was currently attending church. Needless to say, doing ministry here is HARD. People have seen it, done it, and want nothing to do with it again. To be honest, in my city, it’s more socially acceptable to tell someone you are a drug dealer than a pastor.
I grew up in a home with five older siblings and my father. My parents divorced when I was about 2, and my dad raised all 6 of his children on his own. Therefore, he had to work A LOT, to support us. That being the case, I didn’t see him very often, and I didn’t see my mom very often either, so I pretty much raised myself, with the help of my siblings, who were all trying to raise themselves at the same time. I didn’t have very much growing up, but one thing my dad was committed to was sending his children to a private school, where we could learn about the Lord. So I grew up learning about the Bible and God as a concept, but I never learned about the relational aspect.
Being the youngest, I was exposed to A LOT very young. My older siblings all got into drugs, drinking, and living a promiscuous lifestyle. Most of them dropped out of high school. As the youngest, I saw how much my older siblings’ decisions and actions hurt my dad and took a toll on him, and I grew up with a mindset of “I never want to be like them.” My dad was doing the best he could, and as much as I wish he were around more physically and emotionally, I now see how much he sacrificed to provide for his children.
Fast-forward into my later teenage years, and I started to allow the absence of my parental figures affect me, and I used that as an excuse to rebel and act out and go down paths I never intended to go down—drinking, drugs, depression, suicide, self-mutilation. Even though deep in my heart I always knew these things were wrong, I chose to do them anyway, as a way of sticking up my middle finger to life. I felt justified in my actions, and like I had every right to act out. You can imagine where this road led me. Absolutely nowhere. I lived three very dark years, and was so unhappy and so unfulfilled. I felt lonely and confused and honestly had no desire to live if this is what the next 60 years of my life were going to look like. I hated my life, but I had no other solution or answers.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college, when everything changed. I transferred into a Christian College my sophomore year (for financial reasons). I didn’t even know what a Christian University was, until I got there, and was wondering why everyone was so “nice”. I say nice in quotation marks because in my mind, it was all fake. I honestly never looked at humanity at being genuine and good, so anytime someone, was nice to me, I became skeptical. Being at this Christian University when I wasn’t walking with the Lord was definitely a challenge, in fact I almost got kicked out because I was caught partying one too many times. By the grace of God, He kept me there. At the end of my sophomore year, I remember walking to class one day and in the middle of campus, I feel like God came down and rescued me. I instantly had the clearest revelation of the reality of Jesus. I looked around and I saw life for the first time—people all around me filled with joy and simplicity. I knew that was God beckoning me into a relationship with him. So I stopped, and said, “okay God, if this is you, I’m willing to give it a go. I am all in. If you aren’t the solution, like nothing else I’ve ever tried has been the solution, then I’ll keep searching, but if you are the solution, then I choose you.”
Needless to say, Jesus has transformed my life, and I’ve been on a journey of falling more in love with him for the past seven years. I have experienced so much freedom, deliverance, redemption, and purpose through my relationship with Him. I don’t know He found me, but I’m so glad He chose me, and I will NEVER turn away from this love that I’ve found in Him. He is my answer until my very last breath.
Please share with us your ministry dream.
My ministry dream is to be on staff at my church. I don’t know exactly what that will look like, and I don’t know that I need to. All I know is that I am called to a BIG life of ministry. I am willing to go wherever that takes me and do whatever that calls me to. I know that I am called to preach and to teach. I also believe that I’m called to SERVE and LOVE people. As I mentioned above, the church that I am a part of is a lighthouse in the middle of a dark city. It’s hard, but we constantly see people encounter Jesus for the very first time, we see lives change, we see healing, restoration, redemption, and forgiveness. We allow people to come as they are, and we love them through their journey. Our vision is to build lighthouses around the world, and I’m willing to go wherever God takes me and pour my life into building lighthouses around the world.
I identify with Church Planter most, but also with a small group leader and pastor. Being part of my church since before it even launched has given me the real feel of what it’s like to plant a church, with no money, no resource, and no people! Ha! I have served in every role and worked alongside my pastor for years. I’ve learned so much on what it looks like to run a church from a business aspect, but also what it’s like to just pastor and love people.
When I got saved, I instantly knew and heard from God that I was called to ministry. The more I got involved in church, the more I realized there is no other way I would rather spend my life than to serve and bring others to Jesus. I know what it was like to not know Jesus and not be connected to a body of believers. I also know that the hope and answer are Jesus, and the way to find that and walk that out is through His church. My life looks different than most other people my age, and I’m okay with that, because what an honor it is to serve Jesus and build His house.
As I mentioned above, most people in our city have been to church, had a poor experience, and have no interest in going back. Most have a terrible perception of church. Most think that church is all about shaming you, telling you everything you’re not, and everything you the should/need to be. It’s rare to find someone who actually believes that the church is meant to believe in you and bring out the best in you. Being in a big city as well, there’s a culture of everyone’s just out to build their own empire and establish a secure life for themselves. Everyone’s busy. Everyone is constantly moving. That being the case, there’s no time or room in their lives for church or for God. I also believe that we live in this post-modernistic era where everyone has their own theology and answer for life, and it’s more socially acceptable than ever for people to live out of their homemade theologies. So there’s more opposition than ever as well.
My local church has supported me in my ministry calling by pouring into me to the nth degree. My pastors have walked alongside me for the past five years, pastoring me, mentoring me, and counseling me. They have taught me how to have a relationship with God, how to discover my ministry calling, they helped me discover the gifts and strengths that God has placed inside of me, they have given me opportunities to lead, they have challenged me and coached me, and they have always given me space to be messy and sort things out.
My family is very disconnected from my life and ministry calling, except for my father. My father got saved a few years ago and lived a passionate, dynamic relationship with Jesus. He is my biggest fan and support, and I am his. The rest of my family doesn’t quite understand why I would choose this type of life for myself, and they don’t quite understand it.
I know that I am called to lead and preach and teach the gospel as part of my ministry calling. I believe that CLI is going to provide me with an incredible foundation in the word of God and absolutely challenge and expand my capacity to know God and his word. I am so excited to continue to grow in my love and heart to serve God and people. Even though I have been walking with the Lord for the past seven years, I feel like it’s still just the beginning. I am SO excited to have CLI be an integral part of this adventure!
My name is Shong Chai Her. I live in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, United States of America. My nationality is Hmong. I was born and raised in a Christian family and grew up going to church in the mountains of Laos. By going to church, I experienced church services or worship, prayer meetings, church choir, and Sunday school classes and programs, but I did not know Jesus Christ personally until I faced a crisis in my life. The crisis that I faced was an illness. Do you realize how great God uses illnesses to change a person’s life? Well, God used an illness to change my life for His glory. He came to me through an illness that brought me to Christ and changed my life.
God came to me during my illness. He came to me when I was about five or six years old. The illness that I suffered was hernia. This illness prevented me from doing any activities such as sports and playing with my friends. With this illness in me, all my friends neglected me so they did not want to play with me. I cried, was hurt, sad, angry, and frustrated for many years. Since I was all alone, the only thing for me to do was pray.
I gave my whole life to God and talked to God every day. I also asked God to help me through my illness. God answered my prayer and helped me through my illness. When I was about fourteen years of age, my family came to the United States of America. God had showed my illness to an American doctor and that doctor had cured me through a surgery. Since then, that illness left my body and I was completely healed. Shortly after my surgery, I was moved by the Holy Spirit and began to read the Hmong Bible version. But since I was very limited in English, I wanted to read the English Bible version so I can learn English as well. I used the Hmong Bible as my translator and went back and forth between the Hmong version and the English version. I then recommitted my life to Christ and was baptized in 1984. I joined the confirmation classes and youth activities. Since then, my desire was to go to Bible College and study to be a pastor for the Hmong people.
After high school, I got married and decided that I will pursue higher education later due to the family financial crisis at that time. At this time, Christ began to change my life. He directed me to study Pastoral Ministry through the Hmong District under the Church Leadership Academy of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I graduated in 1997 and God placed me as a pastor in the Hmong Alliance Church in Stevens Point, Wisconsin in the fall of 2000.
I thank God for giving me the privilege to serve Him. He had found me through my illness and gave me a new path of life and called me to serve Him. He showed me His love and saved me from darkness. As I look back in my life; I cannot imagine how much God had blessed me. Without God’s guidance I will never be where I am now. I believe that God has a plan for me from the beginning and has a purpose for me to serve Him. I would never have the opportunity to serve God if it wasn’t from Him. He gave me everything I need in this life. Now I long for His return and to meet Him face to face in His Kingdom. Amen!
When I was young I had a dream that someday I would become a pastor. The reason I had a dream to become a pastor was because I saw that being a pastor is being full of God’s knowledge and God’s power. This made my heart thirsty and I desired the knowledge of God and His power in my life. But there was one thing that blocked my desire and that was being called a stupid and dumb person.
As I was labeled as a “stupid and dumb” person, this totally changed my character and my behavior. This characteristic began to be present in my life in everything I do. Everything I did, I got yelled at and was labeled as a person with no brains. It made me feel broken, hurt, sad, depressed, lonely, low self-esteemed, and it deteriorated my physical body as well. As a result of this, I felt that I was no longer worthy to live anymore, but by the grace of God, He allowed me to live. This reminds me of Jeremiah 10:14 “Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge.”
God, therefore, directed my life to the United States of America and gave the opportunity for me to learn and become who I am. Even though I was labeled as “dumb and stupid”, God always had a plan for me because He loves me and gave me time to find His knowledge, wisdom, and to find out who I am through learning and studying His words. This is the motivation that made me study God’s words. Therefore, I used every minute that I could to read the Bible and to learn His knowledge and wisdom. In the midst of all of this, I committed my life to Christ and asked Him to be my teacher and to guide me to all truth for His purpose and glory.
As time went on, God came into my life and revealed to me who He is. He then taught me that I am a very special person in Him and that I have a special place in His kingdom. I therefore came to my conscience and got the opportunity to put off the “dumb and stupid” characteristic away for good in the Name of Jesus Christ and claimed the knowledge of God and His power into my life. God then transformed me and poured out His wisdom and knowledge into my life. He also opened the door to train me to serve Him through the Hmong District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. I no longer hear the voices of “dumb and stupid” being whispered in my mind anymore, but I now hear the voices of Christ’s knowledge and wisdom speaking in my mind.
I never thought that I could accomplish the dream that I had when I was young to become a pastor. I only accomplished it through Jesus Christ as He said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16, NASB). As I look back in my life, I may have been worthless in the eyes of many other people, but in the eyes of Jesus Christ, I am very special and am worth so much to Him. Who could ever doubt that a “stupid and dumb” person like me could ever gain the knowledge and wisdom of God? I can only say that, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, thank you so much for your love and mercy. Amen!
My family and I just recently planted a church in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Rapids is a small town in central Wisconsin. There are about a thousand Hmong people that live in Wisconsin Rapids and the surrounding area. There isn’t any church in Wisconsin Rapids specifically for the Hmong people. Hmong people by culture, tradition, and religion have been Shamanism for over five thousand years. The traditional practices are hard to let go by many Hmong people and very difficult to convert them to Christianity.
In 2013, I stepped down from the pastor position in the Hmong Alliance Church in Stevens Point, Wisconsin and I began to pray and ask God for direction. After a year of praying, God answered my prayers and called me to look at the Hmong community in Wisconsin Rapids. He opened my eyes and I saw that there were many Hmong people that were lost and without a Savior. There are some Hmong believers in Wisconsin Rapids, but there is no shepherd to guide them. So God directed my step and called my family to gather the believers together and to start the church plant in March of 2014. Since then, there were many struggles in our ministry. The believers were not committed to help themselves grow in Christ, the believers were not looking towards the Word of God, and the believers were not properly trained in praying, and worshipping. Also our biggest challenge is that many of the Hmong people are not willing to live the new life in Jesus Christ unless they are oppressed by demons.
I’m so thankful for God’s love and care for me and my family’s need over the years. His blessings are filled in our lives and overflowed to the Church. The Church’s main financial were our tithing from the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Currently, my family members are the main leaders of the Church until we have fully trained leaders who are willing to rise up.
We need your prayer in asking God to open the hearts of the Hmong people in this area because they are lost and living in darkness. Pray that me and my family have the knowledge and wisdom from God to lead and train the newly converts. Pray that we have bold hearts to reach out to the lost for Christ.
I thank God for directing me to CLI and to get the opportunity to listen and read what CLI has to offer. I never thought that there would be a Bible school that will ever offer a certificate, an associated, or a degree program of Biblical training for free of charge to anyone else in the world. After listening and reading what CLI offered, I am very exciting and motivated to learn from CLI. I know that this encountering with CLI is from the Holy Spirit because I was not in the mood of going back to school. One day in October 2016, there was a little voice in the back of my mind saying, “search for a free Bible class online.” At that moment, I then quickly searched online. CLI came across my search icon and I began to read the information. This is why I am here. I believed that this was from the Holy Spirit who spoke to me to search for a free Bible class online. With this being said, I very determined to learn through CLI and trust that CLI will be a great equipping training for me to better serve God, living out the call that God called me to do, and loving God and others with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. Thank you so much CLI for the scholarship because with this scholarship. It will open the door for me to receive my first College Degree and will be a window of opportunities for me to serve as a missionary to the Hmong people.
Hawaii Ministry Training
Aloha, my name is Elijah Kala McShane, and I am a 22-year-old Native Hawaiian living on the beautiful island of O’ahu in the magnificent Islands of Hawaii. I grew up in a family with two amazingly hard working and loving parents and three siblings, having two sisters and one brother. My entire life, I have fortunately attended private schooling at Catholic/Christian schools here on O’ahu. I have always believed in God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but never pursued a true relationship with a deep connection and clearer understanding. It was not until earlier this year that I began focusing on building that relationship with God through attending a Baptist Church and also a Four Square Church here in Hawaii called Inspire Church.
God has blessed me with many things in my life including a beautiful future wife, Cheyenne; that has had my heart since 15 years old, an amazing family, and a vision for my life that can only be realized through God. This year, I began living my life according to Christ, spent time devoting worship and prayer to Him but as an “every other day Christian.”(not fully committed)
It was on a rainy night here in Hawaii when I was blessed with the vision to become a Pastor and Evangelist. I talked it over with my girlfriend, parents, and friends to gather some advice and input on the vision that God had placed in my heart. With asking these important people in my life, I received some advice that caused me to think things through thoroughly once again. I then came to a conclusion that “I don’t have to be in ministry to serve God.” So I launched my speaking and personal development business called “Elevate 2 Motivate” which was based on a topic that I am beyond passionate about; and that is helping people to Discover their Gifts, Pursue their Purpose, and Fulfill their Potential. This mission was birthed by having a revelation from God that helped me to identify my true gifting and purpose on earth. This purpose was to serve others with my gifts of speaking, connecting, loving, inspiring and motivating people by spreading Aloha (love). Something wasn’t clicking. Although the dream was in my heart, and the purpose of contribution was alive and well, I could still sense that my pursuit was coming from a place of status and prestige. This left me lost and confused on where to go next.
After closing down a business, having major financial difficulties, and encountering other valleys of life. I was working as hard a man could work to make my dream of being a personal development expert become a reality. God then spoke to me and told me “Your gifts will only be maximized, your purpose will only be fulfilled, and your potential will only be reached if it is in my Kingdom.” From that moment, I made a commitment to the plan that God has for me, and that is becoming a Pastor/Evangelist, and to change the world with all of the giftings that He has placed in my heart. I immediately began seeking guidance from God and His Word, and also from my Pastors from both churches. I recently enrolled in CLI and planned to go on to receive my Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. in Divinity. God has offered me clarity and opportunities to build my ministry dream of becoming a Leader of the Church Community, Kingdom of God, and to become a servant to people across the entire globe.
My ministry vision is to become the Senior Pastor of Waipahu Baptist Church and lead people in Hawaii and the world to live a better life found in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I want to build a strong church by inspiring people to be all that God is calling them be. I have the vision to build a worship team, connect groups, leadership training, business training, health classes, and spiritual development courses in my church to serve the community and the world. Personally, I aspire to become a multiple best selling author, and world changer by inspiring one person at a time.
Hawaii is definitely in need of a spiritual revival. We need more leaders who are building people through the One and Only Truth, the Word of God. Our economic issues, relationship issues, culture and career problems, and life obstacles can all be solved by developing ourselves through the Word and an intimate relationship with God. Becoming the Senior Pastor for a Church will give me the divine opportunity to provide all of those solutions.
A scholarship here at CLI will be everything I need and much more to gain the wisdom and insight to make an eternal mark in the Kingdom of God. My purpose can be fulfilled by gaining the abundant amount of wisdom through the education that CLI has to offer. Everything that God has placed in my heart has been placed in their for the pure reason of manifestation. The manifestation will come through working my purpose through Him and also sharpening my edge in every way possible. I believe CLI is a dream come true to all ministry leaders who are being called to revolutionize the way human beings live on this planet. God has equipped Rev. Henry Reyenga with all the gifting to serve the world and to make a lasting contribution. It would be an honor to serve next to such mighty men and women of God.
Aloha and God bless,
Elijah Kala McShane