Finishing Well and Growing in Faith to the End
My name is Mary Ann Anderson, and I am receiving my continued ministry education at Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I am married to Jeff Anderson. We have been global workers (sent ones) with Action International Ministries since 1984. After over 33 years of ministry in foreign fields, we are now residing in the USA. We have two children and four grandchildren.
Childhood and Conversion
When I was born, my father was a Baptist pastor in rural Wisconsin. I am the middle of five children. My godly parents raised our family to love the Lord and to love people from all over the world. When I was around three, my parents moved to Minnesota and joined the Navigators Ministry. Our home became a center for discipling several young people. Discipleship was a theme my Dad taught in our home and still encourages me to be engaged in this ministry today. We had people in our home from other ethnicities, and this fascinated me. It helped prepare me for God’s calling on my life.
When I was around 5 years old, I learned that I needed to trust Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. This was a decision I had to make on my own. Having godly parents was not enough for me to become a child of God. John 1:12 tells us that all who receive Jesus Christ, “who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” My mother guided me in praying to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior. Later at the age of 12, I was baptized by immersion as a public confession that I was dedicating myself to follow Jesus Christ all my life.
Challenges
Even though I was active in church growing up, my High School years were turbulent. In 8th grade, I was extremely depressed and discouraged. One cold winter day, I went out to pray and walk around a nearby lake. When I was halfway around the lake, an evil man tried to persuade me to follow him. I ran away as fast as I could. When I couldn’t run anymore, I crossed the middle of the frozen lake where I thought I’d be safe.
With tears streaming down my face, I cried out to God. I begged Him to open up the ice so I could fall in and be with Him. I felt so alone, but I began to feel God’s presence filling me as I kept walking. When I got home, I went to my room and continued to pray. “Lord, I am still alive. That must mean that You have a plan for my life. Now You have to do something with me.”
Calling to Ministry
Several months later, I attended a mission conference at my church. The speaker gave a powerful message from Exodus 3 about the life of Moses. When God called him from the burning bush, He told Moses what His plan was for him. Even though Moses felt terribly inadequate for what God was calling him to do, nonetheless, God called him and sent him.
At the end of the message, the pastor asked if there was anyone God was speaking to about giving his/her life in service to the Lord. I knew in my heart that God was calling. I went forward, stood at the altar, and dedicated my life to serve the Lord wherever He would lead me. It was amazing and totally unplanned. But at the end of the service, most people came forward to affirm that they saw God had His hand on me to serve Him. Several former Sunday school teachers and mentors took it upon themselves to track with me, encourage me, and offer any training or assistance they could. This experience embedded in my heart that this was a work of God. I finally had a purpose, and I never looked back.
Marriage and Family
After taking secretarial courses in college, my ministry began as a resident manager in a Christian women’s program for recovering substance abusers. I met my husband-to-be, Jeff Anderson, there. He served as the manager of the men’s program. We became good friends, but we were not dating at that time. Two years later, the Lord opened an opportunity to serve in missions for 9 months with Sudan Interior Missions (today, SIM). I served as a secretary in Niger, West Africa. When I returned home, Jeff and I recognized our mutual calling to missions and our desire to serve the Lord together. We married later that year, and in the following few years, our two children joined our family.
Ministry Beginnings
Jeff and I both knew God called us to serve as global workers wherever He sent us. We joined Action International Ministries. Through our agency, I became a Licensed Minister. Our sending church put us through a rigorous internship program. At the end of 1985, we left for the Philippines. After language school, we resided and worked in Metro Manila, a massive city of over 20 million people. Our primary focus was ministry to street children and squatter-dwelling children along with their families. In addition, because the Philippines has many natural and man-made disasters, we engaged in disaster response several times every year.
In my early years in the field, I served in publishing and new global worker development. I observed many new workers arrive on the field and struggle through their first term as I did. The Lord put it on my heart to come alongside them and mentor them. With that, they could survive and, more importantly, thrive through their adjustment period. This passion led to being appointed to serve as the International Coordinator for Training and Development in March 2016. Now, Jeff and I share this role of developing and mentoring pre-field and first-term workers worldwide. In May 2019, we turned over all our Philippine ministries to those we trained over the years, concluding our 33 years of residential service.
My education includes a Bible Certificate through Moody Bible Institute and certification as a CliftonStrengths coach.
Current Focus
In September 2021, we will have been in full-time ministry for 44 years. We currently reside in the Midwest USA and continue to work for our mission agency. Living in a large city has brought opportunities for ministry in the inner city, where many people have been traumatized by riots, racial tension, and vandalism. We partner with an inner-city church where we have been able to help and encourage their ministry.
We are committed to raising the awareness of churches to the needs of children-in-crisis and their families. Also, we serve ACTION in mobilizing, training, and developing new workers worldwide. Along with raising awareness, we offer to assist churches and “called-ones” through equipping, developing, and networking. We often speak in churches or other groups to raise awareness of what God is doing in missions and share our passion for sending out well-equipped workers to the ripe harvest fields of the world. We also travel to other countries (in person or virtually) to help train global workers for service.
Currently, I mentor women through a ministry called Weight Loss, God’s Way. I have lost 70 pounds in the past three years and am close to reaching my goal. It has been hard work but spiritually rewarding in many ways. As God continues to lead me, I offer encouragement and support for other women on this journey.
We are blessed to be actively involved in ministry to our children and their families, as well as my elderly parents.
My Spiritual Dream and Continued Ministry Education at CLI/CLI
My spiritual dream is to finish well and keep growing in my faith and relationship with the Lord to the end. After serving many years in foreign missions, I want to use my God-given gifts and life lessons to guide new workers going out to the field so they can be well equipped for the rigors of mission life. I desire to become better equipped for this task and all areas of my walk with God and ministry through Christian Leaders Institute.
Further, my dream is to finish my Bachelor’s Degree through CLI’s Leadership Excellence School. My husband and I trust the Lord for our finances, so receiving my continued ministry education through CLI is a real blessing. I am grateful to discover CLI and the other programs. Now I see a way to achieve my goals. My interests are in courses on Spiritual Fitness, Life Coaching, and Women’s Ministry. Thank you for this program, which makes my ongoing education possible.
Greetings everyone! My name is Chad C. Ford, and I am from Ft. Wayne, IN, USA. I am at the Christian Leaders Institute for free biblical training and credentials in ministry (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here).
My Early Journey
Growing up in a Christian household, I attended Christian grade school and high school. When I graduated high school, I joined the military. I tried to stay active in the church, but I failed at that. Over the years, I tried to restart my walk with Christ only to come up with another excuse for why “I couldn’t make it to church.”
Several times I found myself getting away from my walk with God. Over time, I had several experiences that either challenged my faith or made me question the Lord’s plans for me. Every time, I shied away from the Lord. I couldn’t see what God was trying to tell me or where He was leading me.
Changed by Trauma: Understanding God’s Call
Recently I was involved in a horrific incident. When I woke in the hospital, one of my first questions was, “Why, Lord, did you let me live?” By all rights, my injuries should have killed me. The doctors advised my wife that they were not sure I would survive the first night in the hospital.
One thing I realized, it was a wake-up call to get myself back on my walk with Christ. The Lord was bringing me back into the flock. The second thing I realized, over the years I was missing my calling. There were times I thought of future goals in Christian Ministry and ignored the Lord.
After my incident, I spent many days and nights asking what God’s plan for me was. As I asked, I started remembering the times I considered getting into the ministry. Then, one Sunday while at church, I realized I have kept missing my calling. I finally understood His call.
Called to Ministry: Biblical Training and Credentials with CLI
I am a firefighter/paramedic with law enforcement and military background. The Lord has reached down to me and is leading me to be a minister. I am called to provide Christian counseling directed to Veterans and First Responders. I want to assist them through times of struggle as I can relate to it due to my background.
Free biblical training and credentials with Christian Leaders Institute is my next step in answering God’s call. Now, I can get the biblical training and credentials for my ministry calling.
Hello everyone! My name is Cindy Ellams. Answering God’s Life Coach Minister call, I am studying at Christian Leaders Institute to learn more about God and the Bible (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I am from Canada. Since childhood, I moved around in Canada a bit and have recently found my home location in Vernon, British Columbia. I am married and have been with my husband since I was 22. We have a little boy named Safi who is currently 3 and a half.
My Journey to New Age
Due to difficult home life, I decided to move out on my own when I was 16 years old. I also dropped out of high school simultaneously. I was a good student and could achieve high grades when I applied myself. However, the struggle of home life was too much for me to really care about education at that time. I did go back over the course of a few years.
During my early twenties, I mostly found work as a receptionist at an accounting firm and a chiropractic clinic. I eventually pursued self-employment in the “new age/new thought” arena as an energy healer and transformational coach. I was into all of this since I was very young. At the time, it seemed like a natural fit. I worked for myself and built up my own clientele from 2012 till I let it all go in 2021. I had developed a good reputation in this arena with loyal clients. Also, I was doing some public speaking and facilitating transformational healing classes and workshops. I had the vision to build a strong career in the healing and transformational movement as a public figure.
Jesus Changed Me
That all changed in October of 2020. In October 2020, I had been in a rut and was experiencing very subtle waves of depression and simply feeling lost. I had reread a metaphysical book called “The Nine Faces of Christ.” This book is about a new-age version of Jesus. The thing is that I always loved Jesus. In the new age movement, Jesus is considered one of the master teachers, but this is obviously a false and distorted version of Jesus.
This love of Jesus was never instilled into me by anyone that I can remember. There were no influences that taught me about Jesus. He was just always there. After re-reading this book, it gave me the drive to study what Christianity was all about. I started to check it out, and that was when everything changed. I felt the true presence of Jesus in my life. He started showing me how everything that I was into was demonic.
My Tortured Journey to Jesus
I got pregnant in December 2016 with my first and only child. In January 2017, I started getting demonic attacks and demonically tormented. About a month before getting pregnant, I had done a San Pedro ceremony where I consumed a large amount of San Pedro cactus which is hallucinogenic. It was a very bad experience for me. From my current vantage point, along with everything else I was doing in my life, I believe I opened a major demonic doorway at this time.
The torment would come and go throughout my pregnancy but took on a whole new level when my son was born. It was extremely severe for the first year and a half of his life (I won’t go into the details here). It started to ease afterward but would still come and go.
Deliverance through Jesus
By the time October 2020 came, I had exhausted every avenue (other than Jesus) of healing my life from this torment and other things. Nothing worked, and I was at a dead end. This is when Jesus came and revealed to me the truth of everything I was involved in. How it was inviting the devil masquerading as“an angel of light” to be firmly rooted in my life.
Since then, I have been on and off in spiritual warfare. I experienced true drastic transformation and much deliverance. However, there is still a little way to go. I am part of a church of wonderful people who are well aware of my situation. They are helping me through this until I see complete deliverance and victory in my life. I know in full faith that it is just a matter of God’s timing.
Life Coach Minister Call and Study at CLI
I am so grateful to Christian Leaders Institute because you have been part of my journey of getting closer to God and experiencing true transformation. I feel a Life Coach Minister call on my life from God. Also, I want to focus on deliverance ministry because it has been such a big part of my journey. At some point, when I am a little further down the path, I would like to speak to people who are immersed in the “new age/new thought” movement and share Jesus with them: the true biblical Jesus as I now know Him.
I would not be able to get this kind of education at this time without Christian Leaders Institute. I had to let go of my income through my clients. With a very small amount of study time, I take care of my son full time and am going down the homeschool path. Thank you, CLI, from the bottom of my Jesus-loving heart. You are in my prayers.