My name is Tiffany Spurgeon. I am a resident and citizen of the United States of America. I found the LORD in the midst of my mess. GOD allowed some drastic things to grab my attention and I surrendered to Him while in prison in 2007. I accepted the LORD JESUS CHRIST as my savior and I am so glad that I did.
Since I dedicated my life to CHRIST my ministry dream has been to please Him in all my ways. Making myself available to him at all times. Last year GOD called me into the preaching ministry to become an evangelist. So I have accepted my calling and I am on my way to growing as an Evangelist. It was not until a year after GOD called me that I submitted to His purpose for my life. When I realized that my life had become more difficult and harder to deal with, it was because I was refusing to do what GOD had instructed me to do. I submitted to the will of GOD. Since then I have and will continue to pursue the preaching ministry as an Evangelist for CHRIST. In fact I constantly use the hash tag pursuing on purpose for that very reason. GOD has revealed to me His purpose for me and I dare not ignore, take it for granted, or deny it again.
I am a privileged and active member in my home church of Greenville, South Carolina, where I am grateful to be under such a great leadership created by GOD, inspired by JESUS, and filled with the Holy Spirit. My church family is a very loving, Christian, caring, passionate family. They are always there to teach, empower, enlighten and support me along my journey. I thank GOD for such a blessing. They help fill the void of any relatives that I seldom communicate with, due to the fact that the majority of them are reside in various states. Attaining my scholarship here at CLI will be a great achievement. It will add on to the many undeserved blessings that GOD continues to favor me with. It will also be a tool that will strengthen me along such a privileged journey for the LORD. I ask for your prayers as I continue to be led and remain accessible to the will of GOD.
May GOD continue to bless you and all that you do for His glory.
“Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.”
Psalms 103:1
My name is Laurie, and I live with my husband on the west coast of the vast country of Canada. I am blessed to be surrounded by the beauty of the natural revelation of our God. Towering trees, rushing streams, crashing ocean waves and majestic mountains frame the city of Victoria.
Although a “developed country”, the need for the Savior is great in Canada. Often against the backdrop of “much”, the struggles become those of complacency, independence and the acceptance of sin as normal. How that must grieve God who longs for us to seek Him with all our hearts, to lean on Him only for all our needs, and to set apart all our lives for Him in holiness.
I am eternally grateful that the Holy Spirit called me when I was but a child of 12. Special meetings were held at a local church to which I and my mother had been invited. Each day the thought of God choosing me to be a part of His Bride for His Son before the foundation of the world fills me with wonder, much encouragement and humility. Although my life has been strafed with sorrows and many challenges – God has had His Hand on me.
After college I ended up working in the very department I graduated from and was drawn to teaching. Completing an Instructor’s Diploma the Lord affirmed through many sources that teaching was something I was gifted at. It is hard to match the excitement of seeing someone grasp a concept or skill and make it their own. Truly students leave the class better for being there. This stirred me to want to translate this experience into teaching and learning the Word and encouraging the Walk of my fellow believers. I have felt this avenue may have closed due to an accident I had. I now feel I had lessons to learn and God has been schooling me in anticipation of His plan for me. His timing, as always, is perfect.
Although a door is not open at the moment to fulfil this desire to teach “officially”, I believe opportunities are all around to instruct others about our wonderful Lord. The way we live speaks volumes. It is my job to be ready, as Paul told Timothy, to “be a special instrument, set apart, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” (2 Tim. 2:21)
This is why I was excited to discover CLI which gives ministry training in Canada as well as everywhere else in the world. It was an opportunity to marry my desire, my own studies, and the biblical-based curriculum of the Christian Leaders Institute. The online program was just what I was praying for – something I could work on at my own pace with my health needs, disability, and without the financial burden. Now, that is a ministry! God richly bless you! I long to be prepared for God’s moment.
I would ask you to join me in prayer in asking “that He may grant me, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, and that the Messiah may dwell in my heart through faith. That I may be rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that I may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
(Eph. 3:16-19)
I’m currently living in the United States, in the state of Maine. In general, doing ministry in the USA is challenging. Where there isn’t currently the threat of persecution to the same degree it is in other countries, there are many opponents to the gospel message and strong political forces that would otherwise eliminate Christian thinking if possible. With a very large “melting pot” within the borders, it is possible to affect a worldwide audience without leaving the country.
My ministry dream centers around a few things and I’m certain my focus will be more fine-tuned as I continue through my coursework with CLI. I have a strong interest in the spiritual disciplines (meditation, fasting, solitude, simplicity, etc.) that the early Church Fathers demonstrated and I’ve always been inspired by men like Francis of Assisi. I believe I will use my biblical studies and writing gift to work toward spiritual formation materials and probably leading or co-leading groups with that. I’m also a fervent lover of nature and animals and have a strong conviction that Christ-followers ought to be leading the way toward reconciling the earth and its creatures. I believe although we (rightfully) see our fellow man as fellow “image bearers” we often do it to a fault. In our fervency to “save the world”, we’re forgetting that the world is made up of more than people. Too many think Christianity is anti-enviroment, this is a sad mistake. While we believe that worshiping nature is wrong, we are instructed in the Bible to be stewards of God’s creation. So my dream is to work in helping followers in their disciplines and see real transformation and I’m also interested in creation care.
Initially, before I started looking at schooling, I thought perhaps I’d be a pastor. I took several online spiritual gift tests and rank high in discernment, teaching and giving. First I thought I would just go on a sabbatical, staying at a monastery for a weekend or taking a guided retreat. But those searches led me to feel pulled toward a deeper ministry and pursuing a college degree. I spent a lot of time contemplating and praying about my new direction and, through a set of circumstances, happened upon the Christian Leaders Institute site and was immediately attracted to their model of not charging for REAL Biblical studies training. Often the church tends to reinvent the gospel or make it a commercial enterprise, but Jesus never did that kind of thing. He didn’t charge His disciples to follow Him around and CLI is showing true Christianity with this model. CLI makes ministry training available to everyone.
I have worked many different jobs since leaving my five-month DTS, pursuing many different careers. Sometime in 2011 I started thinking about going back to school. I hadn’t gone to college at this point and was thinking I’d pursue English or better my writing as that was my strongest interest at the time. That aspiration got shelved for the time being, but in late 2014 I lost my job. I knew of a temporary assignment I could take and decided to take the time to reassess and figure things out.
Christian Leaders Institute is so very important to my ministry goals and dreams because it allows a cash and time strapped father, husband, and full-time worker to pursue what might otherwise be improbable. It allows me to do it as I can, it provides experienced and knowledgeable faculty and makes it available to the entire world.