I am Evangeline Lydia. I am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute to prepare for my call to Bible translation (Learn more about online Bible courses, Click Here). Further, I plan to get my online Bachelor’s degree at CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
My Early Life
My birth was in the year 2002 in the city of Coimbatore, India, to Godly parents. I completed my 12th grade in the year 2020. I have a sibling who is younger than me. From an early age, my parents taught me the ways of God. I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Head at a very early age by asking Jesus into my life. As my parents were in ministry from childhood, I went to Sunday School and attended all the prayer gatherings in our churches. In the year 2012, by the grace of God, we migrated from Tamil Nadu to Orissa. God helped me to learn the language of that state, Oriya, within three months.
Total Surrender
Even though I was a daughter of a very Godly minister of God, I had some sins in my life that I did not come away from. On the 6th January 2014, when I was in 6th grade, we went to a convention to help them work there. We also attended prayer, where I confessed all my sins and asked God and my parents for forgiveness. Afterward, I had a different type of Joy that I cannot express in words. That was the night I gave my life fully to the Lord Jesus.
From that time, I felt a call for God’s work in many of the passages that I read and the messages at the church. So acts 1:8 came as a promise verse to me in the year 2015. It is a habit in our church to take a promise verse for that particular year. And I was praying to God to take me to the ministry where He wanted me.
My Calling and Study at CLI/CLI
In 2017, my family again migrated from Orissa to Tamil Nadu. In 2018, there was a prayer request for translators of the Bible in one of the prayers. I felt God calling me to that ministry, and I prayed to God and told my parents about the burden on my heart.
I wanted to study for a Master of Arts in Bible Translation. However, a Bachelor’s degree was needed first, which would take three years to complete if I went to seminary. However, when we were checking online, we found the Christian Leaders Institute for tuition-free Bible courses. Further, the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School offers a low-cost online Bachelor’s degree. This made me happy. I also praised God for His grace and am pursuing a divinity degree.
Would you please pray for me that the desire God has put in my heart to reach the unreached and give them a Bible in their mother tongue will be fulfilled? Also, please pray for God’s name to be glorified through me in all the places I go and in all the things I do in the future. So, may the name of Jesus Christ be exalted High!
