Young Commitment
Young commitment to Christ is becoming less and less common. One CLI graduate hopes to see that change.
Hello. My name is Danielle Gardner and I live in Brooklyn, NY. I work for a pharmaceutical company; working in the scientific field can be difficult sometimes as a Christian since a large percentage of my co-workers are atheists. Combine that with living in the New York City area and ministry can be challenging. In the NY metropolitan area there are approximately 22.5 million people, with 45% of them having no religious affiliation and only 4% affiliated with an evangelical church
Danielle is someone who experienced young commitment to Christ when she became a Christian at the age of five.
When I was 5 years old, my Mom and I were driving in Philadelphia and she was worried because one of our brake lights was out. She asked me if something was to happen and we were to die, did I know where I would go. That may seem like an odd question to ask a child, but my older brother had passed away the year before due to cancer so death was very real to me. I told her I hoped heaven but I wasn’t really sure. She explained to me how I could be sure. I thought about it some, I knew that I did things that were wrong, and I knew I needed Jesus to forgive me. Later that night I prayed, asked Jesus to forgive me and come into my life. I wish I could say life has been all rainbows and puppy dog kisses since then, but it hasn’t. I have experienced difficulties and loss but through it all God has been faithful to me, giving me the strength I need even when I haven’t always been faithful to him.
Danielle is very thankful that God has allowed her to work with young adults and children. She loves when she sees young commitment to Christ, she feels that more young people need to be rooted in Christ.
I work with both the children and young adults in my church. In our children’s program, one of the biggest obstacles we face is parents who do not want their children to have anything to do with the church. About 10 years ago, my church went through a painful split and the children’s program fell into my lap, I had planned to help out for a little bit and then pass it on to someone else. However, as time went on I developed a heart for these children. I have come to realize that it is so important for children to make a true commitment at an early age and develop a love for God and reading his word. My work with the young adults has shown me how important it is to make a young commitment to Christ and develop the habit of walking with Him, so that as life gets busy, the priorities are already there. With the young adults I always hear how life is so fast paced that they are always “too busy” for anything church and often God related.
Danielle is training so she can lead in even more young commitment to Christ through increased knowledge at CLI.
I am hoping with these classes to improve as a teacher, to be better able to communicate and encourage those I am teaching while pushing myself to learn and grow more in my spiritual walk.
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Reason For God
Many unbelievers say our God doesn’t make sense and doesn’t match up with reason. But our God is a God of reason and wisdom. Jessica P.G. has gone through a spirtual journey that has led her to believe in God’s reason.
Hi, I’m Jessica P.G. from Jakarta, Indonesia. Despite living in the capital of the most populated Muslim country in the world, Christians in Jakarta are not necessarily persecuted (in a sense that it risks human lives), yet it gets kind of hard when it comes to politics. It seems that ministry in Jakarta is not as hard as in other countries, and it’s considerably safe. There also exists some Christian schools and universities (as well as seminaries) which seek to meet the people’s educational needs — even non-Christians are coming to those schools/universities since they are deemed considerably good.
Jessica’s need for community and knowledge led to her seeing a reason for God.
Despite being raised in a Christian family, I was an agnostic back then (though I retained my legal status as a Christian). Yet I still went to church despite my agnosticism (though my motive was only to find an English-speaking community; I go to a church with an English worship service). Since I wanted to not misrepresent Christians while debating them, I read Christian books, with most of my reading list being influenced by an evangelist who is in charge of the English service. As I read a certain book on my reading list (The Case for Christ, written by Lee Strobel), my jaw dropped. I was kind of reluctant, but I thought I have to receive God, at least intellectually at that moment. Another book that assures me of it is I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek. Thus I converted to Christianity after a struggle to assent what I had read.
Jessica sees her calling as one that uses facts and rational thinking to lead others to share a reason for God.
Unlike many (if not most) people here who want to serve as ministers or church leaders, I am interested to be a lay apologist. I think I am called to reason, to take every thought captive to God as my thoughts have been taken captive, while I work as a scientist (I think we all know how secularized is the scientific world). I hope, through apologetics, one may find a rational basis to believe in the Christian God. I found my family to be quite supportive of my choices to take natural sciences in high school, biotechnology in university (which is to come; I haven’t finished high school yet), and my vocation to reason for God’s sake.
CLI is growing her reason for God as well as her knowledge. Also CLI ensures that Jessica’s knowledge matches up with biblical teaching.
CLI helps me to find out whether I have understood what I believe properly, lest I argue for the wrong things. Please pray that more people may come to know God through the use of reason and that more believers may know what they believe and may be always prepared to give reasons with love and respect to those who need it.
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Great Faith From Great Affliction
Kidega Johnson Henry lives in a place where suffering is often happening, Kidega gained great faith from great affliction and became involved in ministry.
My name is Kidega Johnson Henry, a Ugandan by nationality and an Acholi by a tribe. Ever since I was born, we’ve never had real peace. We experienced the most traumatizing, prolonged period of conflict and human rights abuses (more than any other regions in Uganda). This has been because of the players involved with different intentions, missions and expectations and these players include:
• The National Resistant Armies whose aims were to tear down the existing government.
• The historical Karamojong cattle rustlers/ warriors whose interest was and is still cattle rustling, property looting with killing people and raping young girls and women.
• The Alice Lakwena spiritual and political rebellion against NRM Government, which swept the greater part of northern Uganda more especially the Acholi region and resulted in the loss of lives and properties.
• The Lord Resistant Armies spiritual and political rebellion against NRM Government which significantly affected the whole northern region of Uganda.
The affliction has left Uganda and many people there in a terrible situation and in need of God.
One of the leading effects of the armed conflict in the region is poverty and increased unemployment for all. Not only has the areas household wealth been looted and destroyed in different insurgencies, but also the population income base has been destroyed. The population has been deprived of its primary source of income and livelihood. Today in the areas the main source of revenue for the population is underpaid causal labour especially digging, brewing, etc. which are mainly women and youth activities. The responsibility of looking after families has fallen heavily on women and youths since most men died in the war.
Kidega through all the suffering is yet thankful because it led him to being saved. Thus he has gained great faith from great affliction in his life.
This is just to give a bit of where I came from. I slept in the bush, slept under a veranda, went without food for days, was in a displaced camp. The psalmist said, “before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” It was good for us to be afflicted so that we are saved. I gave my life to Jesus Christ because of the war on 02/06/2001.
I became an active member of Kit Gum Faith Mission Church, and in the church I was a praise and worship leader, an intercessor, a translator and a gospel preacher, by the grace of God. I saw the grace of God at work in my life since then. God started using me since 2001 up to this day. I saw many miracles, signs and wonders that God performed in people lives by his grace. As Jesus promised these signs will accompany those who believe, they will cast out demons in His name, they will speak in new tongues, they will place their hands upon the sick and the sick will recover, etc (Mark 16;15 – 18).
CLI is giving Kidega the opportunity to be more prepared for the dreams and position that God has given him.
I made a vow to the Lord while I was in trouble, with my lips I promised to serve the Lord all the days of my life. As long as life endures, I will fulfill my vow I made before I die. I know this training at CLI, if I completed successfully, will prepare me for the work God called me to do. Below are my dreams:
• I am dreaming to serve God as an international gospel preacher reaching out to lost souls through sharing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God.
• To take good care of orphans, single mothers and widows by empowering them and training them with skills to earn a living. This would involve building a vocational training centre for them. I hate to see orphans, single mothers and widows suffering.
• To provide hospitality and care to servants of God by building Christian guest houses with international facilities for hosting international servants of God.
• I want to build a house of prayer and revival for all nations in my home town and several prayer centers in the northern part of Uganda.
Kidega great faith from great affliction has led him to be hopeful no matter the situation.
And I know that all my resolutions for days to come stands firm, my best days are still ahead of me. I will see the goodness of God Almighty in the land of the living. No eyes have seen; no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those that he loves, who are called according to his divine purpose.
Kidega also wants encouragement in his great faith from great affliction and his ministry.
All that I need you to do include:
• Pray for me.
• Help me with a full scholarship for Bible training. A man or woman of God should be well equipped for ministry. You can support me and even sponsor me. God will bless you.
• Support for building a prayer house, vocational training centre for equipping single mothers and widows, so that they can have better living and help their children.
Yours Sincerely,
KIDEGA JOHNSON HENRY
kimarajohnsonhenry@yahoo.com
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