CLI student receives free UK Church Planter training online at Christian Leaders Institute: CLI student Steven Whitehurst is fulfilling his dream to become a Church Planter in the UK by earning his Church Planting certificate for free at Christian Leaders Institute! Here is his story…
UK Student Receives Free Church Planter Training Through CLI
Hello, my name is Steven Whitehurst and I live in Manchester in the UK. I have lived here for all my life. I am 27 years old and I am a former carpenter and hotel porter. I am currently unemployed looking for a Job with real purpose, the one that God will find me. When it comes to the UK and ministering in it has become a subject of taboo, because the word religion is very closely linked to racism and racism is trouble. So the opinions of the people have become mixed. We are a heavy catholic country but I am more pentacostal rather than catholic. We are in some serious need of a revival over here.
I have come to find the Lord finally through my to-be wife Marcia. I had some questions before I met her and when I asked her these questions it was clear to me that for the past 10-12 years God had been talking to me and protecting me from myself as I was heading for self destruction. I was abused as a child and when I grew up the dark one made me believe that everyone else should pay for what happened to me, but God was in my life unknowingly to me sending me people to talk me around the self destruction I was heading for. I repent of all I did wrong back then and now I have the Lord to guide me.
My ministry dream is to own my own Messianic Church where we actually do the feasts of the Lord as it was done back in Biblical times. I would serve as a pastor and youth pastor of the church and make a huge difference not just in my own church but also an online church also.
My calling seems to be a Pastor of some sort, When I read scripture aloud to my family I am visited by the Holy Spirit and I believe that my voice is strong enough for the Holy Spirit to use my passion to propel the message of the Holy Spirit to a congregation of followers of Christ.
What brought me to want to be a pastor of some sort is I have a very strong empathetic ear and I have a way of formulating beautiful expressions when all looks dull and buried, I have a way of inspiring of hope from within a person and help them understand that faith and God is all we need. I am very analytical but also tactile with what I say and what I do not say. I am pursuing this because I believe that God needs pastors that not only listen but give his followers inspiration, hope and faith that nothing is impossible with God.
In my geographical area, the unique challenge to overcome that no matter what religion you come from whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh etc, the religion is not the problem. Evil is the problem but as it stands right now religion is just that – trouble. I pray that this viewpoint changes. I pray for those being lied to by this lie and those who truly believe this lie.
My church has helped me tie in what I have been taught was wrong, so for me it this was a complete personality re-haul from a position of hating the world and everyone in it to a position of learning that I was sold a lie and now must love the people in this world including those who do some really hideous evil things.
My family have encouraged me to this point of getting myself to be a pastor. I always thought I would never be good enough for even getting this far, I now understand why the Devil has worked so hard to discourage me because of the work I’m doing now. My family mean the world to me as they want me to do this.
The scholarship at CLI is so important in making this dream a reality. I really need this just like I need God everyday. God gave me life, I want to make sure that he invested well in me. The scholarship also falls in line with how anything relating to God should be free to access with the ability to donate what we do have and we shouldn’t have to pay extortionate fees for something God gave us for free.
I wish for CLI to bless me in my venture to help change peoples lives in my area. I wish for CLI to pray for my success in my schooling here.
Thank you for listening to me.
God bless you all and this school.
Nakavuma Barbarah had a calling from God, and is fulfilling it through Christian Leaders Institute’s free ministry training to become a Youth Pastor! Here is her story…
Free Ministry Training for CLI Student’s Youth Pastor Calling
My name is nakavuma Barbarah and am 33yrs of age from Uganda, and that were I live currently. Am from a family of six children, three boys and three girls and am the third born. When I was four years, I never saw my father home, and only mummy struggled to bring us up, moving from one rented house to another. So with little time for us because mum was the breadwinner at home, we as children had little time to meet as a family and talk about Christ, all we knew about him was what we were taught at school.
In the year 2002 after the death of my mother life changed for us, I witnessed once a united family going from breakage to shutters and by then I was only 18yrs. Rejection, denial, and abuses were what we received from relatives and friends, but this didn’t keep me low. I had to stand strong.
In the year 2007 while being housed by a friend, I was sitting with her nanny, a thought came to me and i said to my self that “barbarah you have cried for so long seeking the mercies of the Lord but if Jesus comes to you and asks what you need what will be your respond” i went to the nanny and asked her the very question I thought of. She laughed but I insisted and rushed to the bed room got a pen and wrote down my prayer request, I asked for every thing a teen could ask but what surprised me that very night while sleeping the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to me in a dream . With this sweet soft voice he told me “YES JUST LEAVE WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING FOLLOW ME AND I WILL GIVE YOU ALL YOU ARE ASKING OF ME”. Right now you can figure how i felt i remember i never went back to sleep i got a friend’s bible tried to read but the joy i had could not allow me do it . That was when i said i must find my self some one to guide me on how am to make this dream a reality. After taking time in prayer and reading the bible i was guided by the Lord Jesus to a local church for deliverance. It was my first day in church and it was the day the pastor announced that he needed ushers. The secretary for the church picked me out and told me ” the pastor wants to see you after service”. I met him together with other thirty two girls who were well conversant with Christianity. To my surprise, we were chosen two out of that number. I was the least among, but the most favored before Jesus Christ.That is how i saw my self into the ministry of the synagogue church of all nations lead by Prophet Samuel Kakande.
Life was not as I thought it would be, but my pastor always told me “pure gold is tested by a furnace, Jesus loves you allow him to train you. You are not being persecuted, but that is ministry grooming” Day by day I saw my self-grow stronger in faith from a cleaner to a pastor right now. All this I call the GRACE OF GOD ALMIGHTY. After seeing what the Lord is doing in me, i later discovered that my call requires me to upgrade my skills in so many areas where I serve. I discovered that I needed to know the deeper knowledge about ministering. This forced me into a search for who would help me do it. A friend of told me about online ministry courses. That’s how I made a search and got an opportunity to get into Christian leaders institute where I was given an application free of charge, and everything that follows all free charge. Where will on earth can one get this great opportunity of quality education free of charge if not the love this institute has for Christ Jesus. I will live always to be grateful for this mercy.
With this bursary to be offered to me i am to take it on me as if it is all on me to improve in the area of ministering as a pastor and a youth pastor, applying all the skills and knowledge I will acquire from CLI and live as a ministering servant and not as it was with authorizing. Am humbled to ask for your prayers that the Lord’s grace may be continuously upon me as I live day by day and the spirit of the Lord to give me his wisdom, knowledge and understanding to pass and implement all that I learn from CLI. Long live CLI and may the Lord remember all your efforts of spreading his word and the knowledge you give to people like us who didn’t have the skill.
Former US Marine David Moorehead strengthens his family by advancing his Ministry Education free at Christian Leaders Institute. Here is his story…
Former Marine Begins Strengthening Family Through Ministry at CLI
I was born March 2nd 1981 in Des Moines, Iowa. My father passed away from a drug overdose when I was 8 years old. I was left with my younger brother (by 4 years) and my mother who at the time was battling alcohol and drug addictions herself. Most of my family became addicted to drugs and were in and out of jail my entire life and watching this made me want to be something more than what I observed. I went to Sunday school as a child and learned a great deal about God and his eternal plan for us as well as his Son, Jesus Christ.
Eventually my mother moved my brother and I to Florida where I went to middle and high school. Upon graduation of high school I entered the United States Marine Corps where I stayed for four years before completing my tour of duty and returning home. I still felt a strong sense of wanting to serve those less fortunate or those in trouble so I decided to go to the police academy. I have been in law enforcement for closed to 6 years between two different agencies. I am married and raising 6 wonderful children. I began going to church again after becoming a Police Officer and the church I started going to awoke something deep in me to want to preach about our Heavenly Father, God, to those who don’t know him or know little about him and his plan for each and every one of us. My church is Meadowbrook Church in Ocala, Florida and it has been eye opening in every way and helped foster my desire to walk with Christ.
I want to be able to lead my family from a Godly view and understanding as well as teach those who lack the knowledge of what our great God wants for us. I am no stranger to His word and the Bible but there is so much more that I have to learn and I thirst for the knowledge and the pleasure of serving our God. My plan is to hopefully preach the Word of God if not in my own Church then within Meadowbrook Church’s congregation. I believe that my story will give those with little to no help some sort of motivation and understanding that God is there for us and will never give us more than we can handle. I have sinned along the way as we all do but I have been forgiven and accepted by a gracious God, a God I want to help others get closer to.
I also look forward to my children looking to me for guidance and to be able to give them the answers to their questions as God commands of me as a father. I also want to be the husband to my wife that God commands I am to be. My wife is my rock and stands behind every endeavor that I have set out to accomplish. She also puts up with so much from me as I know that the Marine in me can be stubborn at times and refuses to quit once my mind is set to a task. I would most likely identify with a Pastor because to me a Pastor has to be so much more than your teacher. He has to be your rock, your ear when you need to talk, someone the congregation looks to for guidance on a spiritual level as well as a personal level. The totality of my upbringing and various dangers jobs and the fact that I am still here has amazed me. I am amazed that God has allowed me to come from a rough start and to be where I am today. I am amazed that God made me mentally strong and able to say no to people whom did not have the best of intentions for me growing up.
My ministry dream is huge and I have a vision in my head that I cant quite put down on paper but I do believe that the scholarship to Christian Leaders Institute will help me excel and reach the first steps of my vision and more. CLI can help pray for my ministry by asking that we are a light to those in the dark, that we find those who are desperately seeking a walk with God and that we provide them with a path that is understandable and forgiving.