I currently live in the Cayman Islands with my wonderful wife. The Cayman Islands is an extremely religious country. By far, the most dominant faith is Christianity. Caymanians generally follow more traditional religious practices such as Sunday worship service, weekly Bible studies and regular church gatherings. Ministry in the Cayman Islands is dominated by formally ordained pastors, but (bi-vocational) leaders with less formal training and experience can also minister by leading youth groups, Bible studies or through community volunteering. One opportunity for Ministry that is special for the Cayman Islands due to its geographic location is missionary work. Churches in the Cayman Islands organize regular missionary trips to other countries encouraging everyone to join in.
I came to know God at a very young age through the influence of my family. I come from a Ukrainian Catholic Family and as a child we attended Church every Sunday. The Ukrainian Catholic Liturgy is very structured and as a child I would recite and memorize the key points of the liturgy every Sunday. Although I did not fully understand everything I was reading or reciting I definitely felt a sense of comfort being a part of the Church family and the sense of community that came along with it. I would not say I had a personal relationship with God as a child, but I did have a close relationship with Him through regular worship with my family.
As a grew into adolescence and then adulthood I moved away from regular Church attendance, prioritizing school, work and social events in its place. I grew into a completely career driven individual, motivated by money, titles and stature. Working for an extremely large organization I travelled to and lived in different parts of the world and enjoyed financial success. However, I was always looking for more and never felt fulfilled. I thought the answer was to keep working longer and harder in the pursuit of career and financial success.
My lifestyle took a toll on my relationships with friends and family. I spent very little time helping or serving anyone other than myself and I was too self-focused to even consider the possibility that this might not be the best way to live. Through it all, there was always a dark cloud hanging over me. I could never enjoy my accomplishments because they never fulfilled me and so I was always looking for the next achievement, hoping to find self-satisfaction.
My lifestyle eventually started to affect my health in a serious way. I immediately realized that I was permanently damaging body and that my lifestyle was not only not fulfilling me, but it was also destroying me.
I panicked. I was not sure where to turn. So, I picked up a Bible for the first time in years and started reading about Jesus’ teachings and his promises to His believers. I was reassured and immediately found comfort in his teachings. For the first time in my life the possibility that I may not be living in the best way I could entered my reality. I spent the next year reading parts of the Bible, various Bible commentaries and attending Bible studies trying to fit Jesus into my otherwise busy life. I still wasn’t making much progress in my quest for a fulfilled life and was more confused than ever regarding the direction my life should take.
One day at a used book sale I picked up “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel. This book documented the historical accuracy and validity of the New Testament, Jesus’s life and Resurrection. By the end of the book I finally understood that the New Testament was more than a general guide for living, but in fact this was the written word of God. I immediately felt excited to live by the words of the New Testament, which suddenly became as real to me as anything else in my life, and the pursuit of a personal relationship with God.
My hope is to continue my ministry training and study of the Bible to strengthen my knowledge in both areas and thus continue to strengthen my faith. I hope to use this knowledge and training to start a Bible study/discussion group to help others strengthen their faith and come to know God in much the same as I did. My ultimate dream would be grow this group into a regular gathering and possibly a micro church.
The words I identify with most would be Bi-vocational leader, small group leader and Church planter.
My local church has supported my ministry calling primarily through regular Bible studies and high quality sermons rooted in God’s word.
I also must acknowledge my wife. Her faith in Jesus has been strong long before I have ever met her. She shares my desire to know Jesus and share that knowledge with others and so we work together towards these goals. Our family has definitely become more unified as we endeavor to spread the word of God and serve others.
A scholarship at CLI is so important to my ministry dream because my call to pursue ministry has been and continues to be rooted in a fundamental understanding of the Holy Bible and its history. I believe that my Ministry calling will flourish with a strong foundation in the Word of God. It is where I rediscovered my faith and where I continue to strengthen my faith.
I am excited to continue my study of the Bible and how to minister to others through CLI’s high quality educational system.
Finally, I have read a great deal about spiritual warfare through the introductory course at CLI. Specifically, competing priorities and opportunities that can pull even the most well intended ministry leader away from their walk with Jesus. Please pray for me to stay focused on the God’s will and not my own, so that I can achieve my Ministry dream confidently, thankfully pursuing Godly aspirations over earthly aspirations.
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Bring Others to Know Jesus
Hello, my name is Casey Dubbs, and I am a mother of 3 children. In 2014, My husband and I decided that God was calling us to bring others to know Jesus in Salt Lake City, UT to help some friends plant a church. We have always been very involved in church and ministry. My husband is a worship leader, and I would teach youth and participate in outreach and evangelism opportunities.
I was not raised Christian, and was the first active Christian in my family. When others started to see God moving in my life and the change in my heart, the remainder of my family became saved.
Several years ago, God broke my heart for his “lost children.” I became very burdened to commit the rest of my life to the ministry of reconciliation and had determined that there was no purpose greater in life that to bring others to know Jesus as their savior.
Our family has committed our lives to the cause of Christ and daily work towards bringing freedom, grace and love to the lost and hurting.
Salt Lake City is known for having a high population of Latter Day Saint members and the opportunity to plant a church here was exciting. It felt like America’s last mission field. While I can not make a general statement about members of the LDS church being saved or not, I can, however, say that the majority of them struggle in accepting grace and knowing confidently they are in right-standing with God. Some really do have relationships with Jesus as their savior, but many have not even heard the true gospel.
In addition to a high per capita of LDS members, Utah is also the home to may cults and extremists. There are thousands of people here who are trapped in Warren Jeffs Polygamous cult, the Fundamentalists of Latter Day Saints. This cult religion has become more extreme since Jeffs was imprisoned several years ago during the Yearning for Zion Ranch raid in Texas. My heart truly breaks for these people who are so misled and deceived following a man hoping that it is the way to God. They are with their whole heart searching to be in communion with God and to jump through hoops and rules that are completely man-made and yet are still so far from finding the comfort of the Father.
There are local ministries who are working with people who have managed to escape the FLDS cults, but I can’t help but think there is more to be done. One of my motivations for getting a scholarship at CLI was so that I could have some credentials to work alongside law enforcement and local government who comes in contact with ex-FLDS members and help educate about their spiritual conflicts and set up a system in place to de-junk their mind from years of false religion. I am currently mentoring a young minor who has fled and been excommunicated by her family left alone in a whole new world to sort out truth from fiction.
My ministry dream is to continue to be a valuable leader within our local church and to help my immediate church congregation grow in the things of God. When my young children are older, I would like to do frequent international mission trips to help spread the Gospel and God’s love into spiritually poor places in the earth. As far as what calling I identify with the most, I am torn between a Church Leader and Evangelist.
I would also like to write a book about the things I have learned about God and the kingdom through my children and their child-like faith. I purpose to humble myself to be taught even through my children.
What I would like most is prayers for our church and all the churches in Utah to be a positive representation of the love of Christ in our interesting spiritual climate. There is a lot of resentment, arguing, debating and ostracizing that seems to happen on both sides preventing a real move towards reconciliation and truth. My prayer is for the LDS church to have a revelation on the truth of the Bible and the sacrifice of Jesus and to accept Him as their Savior and to turn from false religion and false prophets. I pray for a united Christian alliance who can create a strong, healthy safety net to properly transition ex-LDS members form their religion into a healthy relationship with Jesus and to learn how to forgive and be free from resentment and bitterness.
For my personal ministry and family, I ask for prayers that we continue to grow stronger together and that each day our focus and purpose is furthering the cause of Christ. That we are heaven minded with a single eye on bringing Heaven to earth. I pray that we continue to have open doors around us to preach the gospel and live in the fullness of joy that can only come when Christ and His purpose is the center.
I am Pastor Darko Ghanaian by birth, Italian by nationality, lives in Italy since 1993,with married with 6 girls, ordained as the Pastor in 2011 by the Day star bible school in Ghana, I was brought up by my mother who taught me the way of the Lord, I daily moved with her to Bibles studies in the scripture union, I gave my life to Lord in 1976, being born again had the Holy Spirit baptism, was baptized by immersion in 1978 after a three days seminar in a suburb of Accra – Ghana.
Being part of the Scripture Union really helped me to live for Christ, my desire by then was evangelism, down broadcast, distribution of Bible tracts, doing corresponding courses with the World Bible school as a youth with the zeal to know much to serve the Lord, my love for the Lord was so much that I was called by nickname pastor, evangelist and so many, I used to organized my school mates in sharing the word of God, prays with them, I have attended several leadership training course both in Ghana and in Italy.
Since 1979, I got interested in Church planting, in the secondary school I was forming bible groups, weekly worship, praying for people, became a youth leader and doing lots of work in the arena of the church. My desire has since been to learn more of the things of God to enable me preach, and teach His word.
In the year of 1993, changes happen for me. Italy was all a new beginning of my Christian life and my vocation, going from place to place preaching and planting churches. I stared the study of theology in one of the Bible schools in Italian language for barely 8 years without achieving my objective with the difficulties of the their language, I then started different corresponding courses in order to prepare me for ministerial work., but could not complete any for lack of funds due to the excessive charges.
For the 23 years residing in Italy, I see the needs for reaching the people with the gospel of Jesus Christ
Through my research for an affordable Bible Institute I came across the CLI, after reading more about the Institute and testimonies of some of the students I was totally convinced that this is the place for me to have the necessary training I needed to be well equipped as a pastor. Fortunately and, unfortunately, I am self-sponsored in my calling in Italy with my wife’s salary and mine. My wife and children have been of a great help in every area, my late mother always happy to see me working for God that was the revelation she had about me from my childhood.
I am convinced and happy that a scholarship at the CLI will help me become a well-trained pastor God wants me to be.
I will need the prayer of everyone above all the CLI in the area of Boldness in reaching out the people with the word of God that we win more soul to the Lord and machining positive changes in the community.