Matthew Bell has been a High School teacher for four years and has been called to Ministry! He dreams of earning he Degree of Divinity, and he enrolled at Christian Leaders Institute to make his dreams a reality! Here is his story…
Degree of Divinity – Matthew’s Story
My name is Matthew Bell, and I live in the United States of America.
I wish to become an Internet Evangelist.
I was born and raised in Arizona (USA). My mother and father separated because my father was a heavy drinker. He never abused any of his children. In fact, I only have fond memories of my father from my childhood. Thankfully, he quit drinking when I started high school, and now we have a wonderful relationship. However, there was another thing that was missing from my childhood – God.
My entire high school experience was void of God. He was alien to me. But God knew me, and He was sending someone after me. When I graduated from high school, I was totally lost and without any plans or desires. I was lost. Then my uncle (Michael) came into my life and led me to Jesus. He sat down with me and showed me the Gospel of John. Then he walked me down the Roman’s road. He held up the Bible, and it showed me my reelection – I was a sinner. I had to repent.
Then he told me the greatest news I have ever heard in my entire life: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”
My uncle later baptized me.
Immediately I had a purpose in my life. I was saved, and I lived to serve the Kind of kings. I enrolled in Bible college and pursued youth ministry. I knew I wanted to serve the youth, I just didn’t know how. So I remained in the youth ministry program until I was required to take a teaching course. For the moment, I took that course everything became clear. I knew I was called to serve in public education as a high school teacher. I changed my major from youth ministry to secondary education with an emphasis in English. Later, I would graduate from Arizona Christian University as “The Most Outstanding Student in Education.”
I just finished my fourth year of teaching high school English. I got to serve not only the high school student but also the adult teachers surrounding me. At the same time, I continued to teach and serve the youth at my local church. I clearly see God’s providence in my life to call me into ministry in multiple fields: Public Education AND youth ministry.
Now I hear the call again. I feel led to deepening my understand of God by finishing my education in the field of Ministry. I long to go to seminary and graduate with a Masters in Divinity. I no longer want to teach students about Romeo and Juliet or The Odyssey. I long to teach God’s Word.
Teaching will always be a passion of mine, and (God willing) I wish to teach for the rest of my life. But God has also given me another wonderful gift – a family. I met my wife a year after being saved. She is the greatest woman I have ever met. She is loving and brilliant. Since we’ve been married, I have witnessed her do incredible things: she has served as a police officer for over five years, and now she is a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). But above all, I witnessed her give birth to three wonderful children.
I am not only a husband; I am a father too. And God has changed my passion once again. I have an incredible passion for evangelism. My goal is to become an Internet Evangelist. I want to evangelize to the common man. I average American that spends there time scrolling through Twitter and Facebook looking for something. I want to show them that what they are looking for is God. What they need is not another “Like” on their social media, but a Savior.
I want to create sharable, one-minute videos that proclaim to Gospel! I want to engage people exactly where they spend most of their time – on their phones. I don’t only want to evangelize to youth. I want to speak to fathers and mothers too. I want the entire family.
I will call this evangelism platform – American Christian
Your support and prayers in this endeavor would mean so much to me and my family. Please help me with this call of Evangelism.
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