I greet you in the name of my savior Lord Jesus Christ.
My name is Garnet Meshesha. I live in Baton Rouge, LA I have three precious sons named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. I came to the United States several years ago to attend College. After I attended college for about six years and became an accountant, I joined the work force and worked for about ten years as an accountant. While I am working as an accountant, I heard my Lord’s calling to the ministry. I responded to his calling affirmatively and began preparing my self for the ministry.
I made a decision to follow Christ, as a young girl with the age of 12. Although I was young, I was pretty committed to love and serving God. But unfortunately shortly after my conversion, my country made a decision to follow the communist regime and closed Churches. Persecution came against the Church of Christ and Christians. I thank God for saving me a lot of persecution my fellow Christians had to endure in many ways. Despite the fact that there was not a local church that help me grow in my faith, I always loved the Lord and wanted to be his servant. Today, I am grateful to God for allowing me to worshiping him freely and be committed to him without fear of persecution. .
After I had come to the United States of America, I attended Church regularly and served the Lord as a choir member and one day I heard his call to ministry. When I heard, it was loud and clear that he called me to preach his gospel. Soon after that I decided to start preparation but it was not easy to make the shift from a professional, single mother life style to a devoted servant of God in a short period. That is why It has taken me ten years to consider becoming a full-time minister. While I was preparing myself for ministry, I was actively participating in my local Church in different ministries. I also have attended bible college in the pas couple of years and studied evangelism. I believe the Lord is leading me to continue my studies and continue serving him. So I would like to continue my studies in preparation to become a full-time, minister. 2 Timothy 2:15
I believe the scholarship I am receiving from CLI will help me to become a minister by giving me opportunity to focus on my studies and not worry about availability of sufficient fund that cover my monthly bills and tuition. I am very grateful to CLI, people, and ministries who are participating in this noble mission.
May God Bless you for all of your labor and multiplies and return it to you in many ways!
II Corinthians 9:6
I started going to church with my mother when I was young, but didn’t really KNOW God. My mother was a very good Christian woman, but my father was an alcoholic.
For a while I started to work my way to God and began to really love God. In 1999 I was baptized and for a few years I lived for God. When I entered 8th grade I started to fall away. I started using marijuana and running with the bad crowd.
When I turned 16, I now had a driver’s license and a truck. I continued using marijuana and started experimenting with even harder drugs. I also began drinking excessively and having premarital sex with multiple partners.
Many times I had tried to get away from the world and move closer to God, but it didn’t last. One night I was so messed up on drugs that I contemplated killing myself because I thought I would never “come down”. I began to pray to God to sober me up. Instantly I was sober. I began to cry and thank God. Slowly I made my way back to God.
I have been clean from drugs for years and haven’t consumed alcohol to the extent of drunkenness. I have been studying the bible and doing a bible study with my brother daily via text. I have dedicated my life to serving people daily in my career, but now its time for me to serve God.
I now know what its like to be “on fire” for God. I want nothing more than to please God in all I do. I have recently started here at CLI and cannot wait to see what God has in store for me.
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I am Richard Foster, husband to Roslyn, father of 6 and grandfather to ten. I am a resident of the west coast of Australia and live in a suburban community about 100 miles from the State capital of Perth. Australia is an affluent nation that enjoys high levels of health and safety. It is quite isolated from the world by its geographic location and history. Perth occupies the same time zone as Beijing and Singapore, and it is cheaper to travel to Indonesia from Perth than the other capital cities in Australia.
The high standard of living, isolation, comparative wealth and security of Western Australia is reflected in the beliefs of many of its people. There is a general sense of self-sufficiency, and, therefore, the need for God is not recognized.
There are indigenous communities, and the increase in migration, especially from Asia is bringing change from the Colonial past and a greater exposure to different faiths and cultures which is beginning to have an effect on public policy, sense of self and identity. Ministry can be comfortable, but testing. By census over 60% of the nation identify as Christian but less than 10% attend any place of worship. Australia has been cited as being one of the most atheistic countries in the world.
I came to the Lord in my late teens after flirting first of all with the street culture and then the ‘flower power’ movement of the late 60’s and 70’s. Having grown in a fairly dysfunctional home, I sought a sense of identity in various sub cultures without much success. At the invitation of a friend I attended a fundamentalist church where I came to believe in the reality of God without feeling the need to make any sought of personal commitment to Him, however after a period of wrestling and questioning I understood the need to surrender my will to the Lordship of Jesus and accepted him as my saviour. As still quite a young believer I was invited by my Pastor, and the first mentor, to preach in a youth service. I think I made a mess of it, but he obviously saw something I didn’t and persevered with providing encouragement and opportunities. Ever since I have felt called to communicate the word of God by preaching and teaching.
Initially my desire to enter vocational ministry was not shared by wife, so I worked in areas of administration and management until 1986 when I joined a para-church organisation on ‘faith’ basis. Over the next years, I moved between pastoral roles and business type activities until being invited into a full-time pastoral role. While I had studied in various places and at different times, I didn’t proceed to conclude formally any formal Biblical or Theological training, and life just got too busy. After a period lecturing in a secular college, I was invited to assume the role of Senior Pastor in the church I now serve and where my wife and I expect to remain for some time.
Despite advancing age, I retain the dream of challenging young people and providing them with the confidence and belief to achieve their goals. Until recently I was working bi-vocationally as a Lecturer in Business and Management, specifically to final year high school students who were not coping with usual school curricula. I have also been invited to travel to Uganda to help to teach capacity building to young men and women there as well as to provide some training to disengaged youth in mining town close to where I currently live. These, I believe are components of the dream that remains within me.
This course through CLI will, I believe, provide me with some structured learning and discipline to aid in fulfilling that dream.
I have been called to a local church as Pastor, and so I have its endorsement on my life and calling. This is a church of young families in a growing community. It does not own buildings or real estate but has a passion to reach the community, especially those in the 4 to 14-year-old window. The most effective way that others can pray for me is that I will be able to balance the challenges of the administration of a church while retaining my passion for preaching and teaching the word of God.