Jessica Nemec wanted a better future for her small town life, so she enrolled at Christian Leaders Institute and set goals to achieve a Big future, at no cost!
Small Town Girl – Free Ministry Training for A Big Future
Hello! My name is Jessica Nemec. I am a 34-year-old stay at home mom to four beautiful children. My husband and I are currently raising our family in a small town in Wisconsin.
Being from a small town, it seems as though everybody knows everybody, and I first started to get to know the Lord when someone we knew introduced us to a local pastor who was teaching confirmation classes. At age 14, I attended these classes and was baptized. Sadly, none of what I had learned or had done as a teenager stuck with me and I found myself falling deeper into the culture of our time.
At just 19 years old, I married my high school sweetheart and we lived out the early years of our marriage as most people did in our area….in the bar. At that moment, we felt as though we were having the time of our life, but as time went on, it got to a point where it just didn’t seem fun anymore. So after some lengthy talks (and fights), we agreed to settle down and try to start a family. It was only at this point that I was able to start reflecting and see just how much pain, suffering and strain the years of drinking brought to our marriage. But, we were done with that now and were going to begin a new chapter in our lives. We were going to start a family! Little did we know what a challenge that would be.
We tried unsuccessfully for a year or two to have a baby and then sought out a fertility doctor. We went through years of fertility treatments and still no baby. Along the way, my mother-in-law invited me to church. I was 25 at the time and hadn’t been to church since my confirmation class, but I went out of courtesy and much to my surprise; it was very different than what I remembered. I remember understanding the sermons in a way that I hadn’t before and feeling like each one had been written about my life. I continued to go to church and committed my life to the Lord in 2007.
After giving my life to the Lord, I no longer felt the desire to continue with our fertility treatments. I still wanted to be a mom but felt in my heart like it was God’s will for us just to be the best aunt and uncle we could be. Turns out, God was just waiting for me to give up control and trust Him because, in December of 2008, I found out I was pregnant with our first child!
We were so excited, and everything went great with the pregnancy until we hit 31 weeks. It was in June of 2009 when I noticed our baby wasn’t moving so I went to the doctor where we then got the worst news of our lives. Our precious baby boy, our first child, had passed away. I was so angry and so hurt that I lashed out at God. My prayers were not kind, I would yell and scream and in the midst of all of this, our loving Heavenly Father reached down and comforted me in a way that I certainly didn’t deserve. It was only by God’s grace that I had the strength to make it through labor, delivery, hello and goodbye with our son. From then on, it seemed as though my anger had subsided. That’s not to say I wasn’t still hurting, but the rage was gone, and I began to focus on re-building my relationship with God.
Just three short months later, I found out I was pregnant again and this time, we delivered a beautiful baby girl! Then a year later, He blessed us with another baby girl. Another year later, another girl! Then, after three amazing girls, God blessed us with a baby boy!
Still, through all of the chaos of having babies, I felt a calling from God try and help other people who had lost children. I spoke with my pastor about it, and he introduced me to another woman who had lost a child. We hit it off immediately and together, with our churches; we formed a grief support ministry that reaches out to people in our area who have experienced the heartbreak of losing a child. My goal now is to help people find the same comfort, strength, love and grace from our Heavenly Father that I found during my darkest hour. Earning a scholarship from CLI would play a huge role in making this happen.
As I mentioned, I am a stay at home mom and with four children, extra money is sometimes hard to come by. My husband is so supportive and I know would do anything to help me follow this dream, but racking up huge amounts of student loans to pursue this calling just isn’t something we can do. That is why I believe that God led me to Christian Leaders Institute. Completing the programs offered by CLI would give me the opportunity to get the training that I need to help people find God in the midst of their trials. This is something that I am extremely passionate about as I truly believe there is no greater gift you can give to someone than the love of Jesus!
I feel so blessed to have this opportunity and will be praying for CLI, their students, and all of those that support this great ministry and make it possible for people like me to follow the dreams that God has placed in our hearts. Also, I appreciate any and all prayers for God’s guidance and wisdom for me and my family as we follow the path that God is leading us down!
Thank you all so much!
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!