Disaster Relief Chaplain Melissa Zietlow

Disaster Relief Chaplain

I am a mother of four children, whom I educate at home in the United States. I am privileged to be free to practice my religion, teach my children my faith, and pursue ministry as a woman.

Over twenty years ago, I was unsure about my future. After graduating high school, I began attending community college with the intention of determining a degree path. However, at that time in my life, I was experiencing a deep personal crisis and struggled with my courses. I decided to set higher education on hold for a time and reached a place where I was completely lost, wandering in the wilderness of the world. I found myself in many dysfunctional and painful situations as a result of sin. I put myself in positions to be seriously hurt by some individuals. I suffered the devastating effects of promiscuity, abandonment, adultery, divorce, drugs, abuse, suicide, crime, and mental breakdown. After reaching my lowest point, Christian counseling inspired me to seek the Lord. When I began to seek God, I slowly rose above the fog and started attending a loving church where I was led to Jesus Christ. I called Him Lord and Savior in the year 2000 and received such freedom and healing that I have never looked back.

Early in my Christian walk, it became clear that I was intended to be a wife, a mother, and a home educator–and that serving my husband and children are my most important ministries. As I grew in the Lord, I discovered a passion for worship, and have been blessed to serve in worship ministry in two churches. I also discovered a hunger for studying and researching the things of God–I developed a burning desire to understand the Scriptures more deeply and have spent much personal time educating myself through the Bible and other resources. As my knowledge has increased, a desire to share the Gospel with the lost more effectively and help others grow in Christ has blossomed in my heart and I have served as an online missionary with a global ministry. I have an ever-increasing love for God’s people and a deep compassion for those that are in the wilderness. I have an overwhelming desire to minister to those that are suffering, in crisis, or have experienced trauma. I have had opportunities come across the path of my daily life to support, counsel, and advocate for those that are confused, afraid, vulnerable, hurting and broken. After ministering to an elderly brother in Christ who was in an abusive living situation, and working with many authorities on his behalf, then walking through the end of life with my mother-in-law in hospice, I began to discern a ministry dream of chaplaincy. I have had this dream confirmed by God twice recently.

I have desired a Bible and ministry education for some time and have longed to go back to school. Two years ago, the Lord gave me permission to take online classes through a Bible college. Although I excelled, the pace was too intense for me while raising my children and the cost was too much for our one-income budget. God told me to set classes aside again for a time. I was initially grieved but obeyed in faith that He would use what I learned and further direct my steps. I believe that the Lord has told me I will need to be educated for the future ministry, so I have been praying for an affordable avenue to continue my education at my pace, in His timing. A scholarship to study the Bible and ministry through Christian Leader’s Institute is an answer to this prayer. I have no other way to pursue an education at this time, so I am very excited and hopeful about this opportunity. I have the support of my pastors, one of whom serves as a disaster relief chaplain in our denomination. Since asking for their sponsorship, I have been given a leadership role at my church which I hope might lead to chaplaincy in my denomination. Please pray for me as I move forward, that I walk in God’s will for myself and my family, and that the Lord will eventually open the doors for me to minister with credibility in the world as He sees fit, to help others find freedom in Jesus!

A scholarship to study the Bible and ministry through Christian Leader’s Institute is an answer to this prayer. I have no other way to pursue an education at this time, so I am very excited and hopeful about this opportunity. I have the support of my pastors, one of whom serves as a disaster relief chaplain in our denomination. Since asking for their sponsorship, I have been given a leadership role at my church which I hope might lead to chaplaincy in my denomination. Please pray for me as I move forward, that I walk in God’s will for myself and my family, and that the Lord will eventually open the doors for me to minister with credibility in the world as He sees fit, to help others find freedom in Jesus!