My name is Terry Gatewood, and here is my journey to ministry study at Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). Currently, I hail from Columbia, South Carolina, USA. I was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. At the age of 12, I moved to Columbus, Ohio, due to my father’s death in 1977. My mother passed the following year, and family in Columbus, Ohio, took in my brother and me. I lived in Ohio until 2014.
At age 48, I retired from law enforcement and moved to Columbia. There I took on a job as a Fire Protection and Communications Maintenance Technician with Richland County School District Two. Law enforcement was a career I thought I would be in until I physically couldn’t work the job, but the Lord had other plans for my life.
My Ministry Study Journey
Currently, I hold an Associate’s Degree in Pastoral Ministry from Ohio Christian University and worked toward my Bachelor’s Degree in Biblical Studies until my financial aid ran out. Due to economic reasons (cops don’t make as much as many think they do), I could not afford to pay out of pocket for college. Sadly, I needed to withdraw about halfway through my program. I love learning and the Lord, so this was a blow to me.
However, last year on my journey to ministry study, I was looking at some local small colleges to enroll in. I wasn’t finding anything that would get me where I needed to be in Biblical Studies. When I was ready to give up, I came across Christian Leaders Institute, which advertised a free education. Of course, still having that cop mentality of suspicion, I almost brushed it off and kept on scrolling, but something (the Holy Spirit, I believe) told me to go back and have a look. I did and liked what I saw but was still a little leery. After some prayer and a “go for it” attitude, I enrolled and began taking classes. What I have learned to this point is on a level with my university education in workload and learning.
My Upbringing and Struggles
Growing up in Texas, my brother and I attended church, but my parents did not. They were both alcoholics but functioning alcoholics who took care of us well. But neither darkened the doorway of a church. They fought from time to time, but there was no physical violence. With all of his flaws, my dad was a good man with compassion and a strong sense of right and wrong. But, he did have a side that was not so good, mainly when others provoked him.
We lived in a rough neighborhood on the east side of Fort Worth in the Polytechnic Heights area. This rough and tumble area molded me into what I became—a fighter and a drinker. I fought all the time at school and home with other kids. When adulthood arrived, so did the beer, whiskey, and womanizing. Sadly, I lived this way for about 25 years of my adult life.
God Called Me
While on patrol one day, I was dispatched to a residence regarding a possible break-in to a garage. It is where I met the woman who would become my wife. She is my rock and best friend. I didn’t know the Lord then. However, since the age of 15 or 16, I knew the Lord was after my heart. I had dreams from time to time of being a pastor, but I always brushed them off. Why would God want someone like me to do His work?
I know now that God works in mysterious ways and puts people in your life for a specific reason. However, it wasn’t my wife, Nicole. But instead, it was her mother, Dawn. When I met Dawn that day, I instantly knew there was something different about her. I had only seen this difference one other time with Pastor Doc Wiggins, one of my instructors in the police academy. Doc was a true man of God, and he had “that thing” about him that made you want to be around him. I liked what they both had, and I wanted it too. However, I didn’t put two and two together until three years later. That’s when Dawn passed away from complications of open-heart surgery. Three weeks after her passing, I finally put the two and two together and accepted Christ on my knees in my dining room.
Answering God’s Call
My wife noticed an almost instantaneous change in me, and so did many other people I was around daily. I now understood God’s calling on my life (remember the dreams?). So, I began to pursue a path to ministry. I am not sure where God wants me, nor in what capacity. However, I remember Pastor Richard Ellis of Reunion Church, Dallas, Texas. He said that serving God isn’t always about being up at a podium preaching the Word. The person cleaning the bathrooms in the church is as important in the eyes of God as the preacher. As soon as we understand everyone in whatever capacity serves the Lord, we function better as a church.
As I continue this journey and mystery, pray that I stay the course set before me. Thank you.
My name is Erica Sosa from the USA, and I am studying to be prepared and equipped to minister at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I came to accept Jesus Christ into my heart two years ago, in May 2019. This month marks my second anniversary of being a born-again Christian! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
My Story Begins
No one ever told me about Jesus or God in school. My mom raised us Catholic. However, her hypocrisy, of being one way at home and another way at church, disgusted me. It made me draw away from God until we eventually stopped going to church altogether during my teenage years. Little did I know that God had his eyes on me. He would go on to use the very man that hurt me the most in my entire life: my ex-husband. He has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Therefore, he was extremely abusive toward me emotionally, mentally, and verbally throughout our whole relationship.
Struggles
When I was involved in this toxic relationship, from 2013 to 2017, my spirit was beaten and crushed down to nothing. That led me to start seeking love, a sense of worthiness, and validation elsewhere through the form of modeling. The modeling gigs seemed harmless at first, as I was initially only doing fashion shoots. But, over time, I started lowering my standards of what I was and wasn’t ok to do. The next thing I knew, I became a famous fetish/sex industry model on Instagram. I tried living a double life. So, after six months of cheating on my husband, I confessed what I had been doing behind his back. He was devastated but then confessed that he also had a dark secret. He had been unfaithful to me the whole time we were together with his ex-girlfriend.
We went our separate ways soon afterward. He moved to California, and I stayed in Chicago. I continued my highly glamorized and promiscuous Instagram model lifestyle. We did not talk for a whole year. Initially, the modeling, fame, and attention, and compliments from thousands of fans made me feel like I was on top of the world. I had never received so much love and admiration like that in my whole life! But as time went on, I realized how fake it all really was. All the thousands of men only loved my physical appearance. The women that followed me only loved me because I could make them famous too. No one actually loved or cared for me as a person.
Changes
Two years later, I was still working in the sex industry and making lots of money. However, I felt empty inside. So, I started seeking spirituality. I quickly came across all the New Age practices, but none of it really interested me.
However, during my seeking, what I did come across was the concept of “forgiveness and how that sets you free.” So, I decided to call my ex-husband in December 2018 to let him know, “all is forgiven, and I no longer hate him.” He was, of course, shocked. He told me that he was a Christian and started talking to me about Jesus. I had no interest, but he didn’t care. Every time we talked on the phone, he always brought up God. It annoyed me, but the hard walls around my heart started softening and crumbling as time went on. Six months later, in May 2019, I got down on my knees in my bedroom. I cried and prayed to Jesus like never before. A lifetime of struggle and chaos had so deeply broken me. I didn’t want Jesus. I desperately NEEDED Jesus.
Total Surrender and New Life
That same month, I quit my full-time “successful” sex industry modeling career. Convicted to surrender my whole life to Jesus, I gave Him my damaged and broken heart because that’s all I had to offer. I had nothing else. I prayed to Jesus with tears streaming down my face and my heart aching so painfully, “I’m so sorry Jesus, I wish I could give you a better gift, or at least a heart that was in much better condition. You deserve to receive the best of the best quality gift. But I’m sorry, this is all I have to offer you: a tattered and torn heart in terrible shape.”
I didn’t think he would be able to fix my brokenness. I thought I was broken beyond repair. But thank God, He proved me wrong! Jesus took all the broken pieces and remnants of my life. He lovingly and tenderly straightened up the chaotic mess I had gotten myself into.
Prepared and Equipped to Minister by Study at CLI
Through all the classes I have taken at Christian Leaders Institute, I realize that I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. There is nothing for me to worry about because I am not relying on my own qualifications, skills, and abilities. Instead, I rely on God’s power, strength, and wisdom to lead me and lead through me. I am prepared and equipped to minister after my studies at CLI. After taking the Prayer class, I know that I am the strongest and most powerful on my knees praying.
CLI’s Leadership Excellence School is definitely a tool that God has used to change my life and bless me a hundredfold! I am forever grateful! I definitely feel thoroughly prepared and equipped to go out into the world and fulfill my share of The Great Commission.
Matthew 28:19-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and the earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
My name is Alexander Uriel Duodu, and I am impressed with the quality ministry courses offered at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). Born on the 23rd of March 1992, in Kumasi, a city in Ghana, I am the firstborn of four children. I grew up in a Christian family, but I was only religious. My family and I went to church services, but I went without knowing the Lord personally. I did not have godly friends who could influence me positively. In the evenings, my mother made me read the Bible to her. However, my life was affected by my ungodly friends as I was spending most of my time with them.
My Spiritual Journey Begins
In 2011, I was born again and baptized on the 20th of November 2011 when I entered the University. I changed all my ungodly friends. I stopped living the ungodly way. At University, God connected me to spiritual brothers and sisters who loved the Lord. I bought my first study Bible and joined these brothers and sisters in prayer meetings. My new friends read spiritual books written by anointed ministers and also watched preaching videos. So, I picked up that godly habit and started experiencing God in a special way.
In 2012, I followed those friends to evangelism in the mornings. We woke up very early and prayed till it was 6 am. Then, we moved to the hostels to preach before we prepared for lectures. In 2013, I was part of the University Christian Fellowship (UCF) and was elected as the Evangelism Secretary and Bible Teacher in my hall (Commonwealth Hall). That same year, I received a vision from the Lord to a call to ministry.
Further Growth
During a long vacation, I stayed with some of my new spiritual friends for a Bible Conference. I was so affected by this Bible conference. When I went home, I spent the rest of my vacation reading the Bible. For the first time, I read through Genesis to Revelation. Since then, I enjoy reading the Bible, and God in diverse ways does communicate with me especially during my time with the Word.
In 2014, the Commonwealth Hall elected me as the UCF President. Winning souls for the Lord always brings satisfaction and joy to me. In 2015, after my university education, I went home. Good Shepherd Assembly of God appointed me as a Bible Teacher. That same year, I did my national service at a town called Ejura in the Ashanti region in Ghana. I joined the Lighthouse Chapel during my national service and became an active member in the prayer ministry. In 2016, I told Bishop David Ashong who is the shepherd of that church about my call and he recommended me to the Anagkazo Bible Ministry & Training Centre (ABMTC). In 2017, I was elected as the PRO of the Spiritual Revolutionary Council which represents the student body in Anagkazo Bible Ministry & Training Centre (ABMTC).
My Life and Ministry
In 2018, I married Animuonyam Nana Yaa Duodu, one of my spiritual friends from my university days. She has been a blessing to my life. She actually taught me how to fast when we were on campus and other spiritual virtues. In 2019, I graduated successfully with a diploma in ministry from ABMTC and was also appointed as a Pastor. I was the second-best student by the grace of God. In April 2020, God blessed us with a wonderful daughter named Anna Dunamis Kim Duodu. In September 2020, I planted a church, Cathedral Of Glory, Ghana. Currently, I pastor the church in Kumasi, Ghana. My greatest desire is to know God and to be faithful to Him forever.
Finding Quality Ministry Courses at CLI
One day, I went through the Christian Leaders Institute webpage. I was astonished to discover that an institution could offer such quality ministry courses online that are free and also be a blessing to the less privileged countries. Anyone can pursue certificates, diplomas, and degrees at CLI/CLI. This is a great seed being sown for the Kingdom Of God in these last days. It is my prayer that the Lord will raise more Kingdom-minded ministers to support this great vision. Many have aborted their call because of a lack of opportunity to be enrolled in an institution like CLI.