Backroad Ministries: Reaching Those Off The Beaten Path
My name is Michael Williams from the United States of America, and I am studying to learn more about the Bible at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). Although I have been a Christian since I was a young boy, I am just recently realizing that my Christian walk is not what I thought it was. I have been presently learning more about a fully committed walk with the Lord Jesus.
As an outdoorsman who enjoys fishing, camping, and hiking, amongst other nature activities. My desire, God willing, is to have a ministry traveling the country with my wife, where we will reside in our enclosed off-road trailer handing out Bibles to those we meet on the road and introducing them to our Lord and Savior.
My Testimony
As a child, I grew up in a Christian home and attended church regularly. In our home, prayer was practiced when we ate and also at night when my father would read the Bible with me. I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior at an early age. I also participated in the Royal Ambassadors programs in the church.
As life went, I got caught up in the “rat race of life.” At times, I fell away from the church but never forgot who I was, a child of God. Now, many years later, I am reading my Bible with new fervor and zeal. I have discovered many things that I wish I had known much earlier in life. My passion for self-growth in Christ and my desire to share Christ have grown exponentially.
My wife, Tammy, had a Christian upbringing that mirrors my own. As a couple, we spend a lot of time in the outdoors camping, fishing, and hiking. Eventually, we plan to do a large amount of traveling and camping in secluded locations. Our hope and desire are to bring a Christian ministry to these remote locations. We can then meet others who might otherwise miss out on God’s Word. Through our ministry, they have the opportunity of being introduced to Christ or strengthening their faith.
Ministry Training Through CLI
I started with ministry training at the Christian Leaders Institute (CLI) to learn more about the Bible. To be prepared to spread the gospel was my goal. However, CLI has done so much more for my spiritual walk. I am more connected with God, which has led to more time praying and talking with God. Working a full-time job and having sleep issues, studying ministry and the Bible at CLI have allowed me to prepare for ministry without interruption to my family or everyday life. I am more excited and driven to succeed. With the tools CLI provides, I can prepare for the ministry God has called me for while performing the role that a husband should. Thank you, CLI!
My name is Teresa Rivera, and I am taking Christian leadership classes at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). My Heavenly Father brought me to the Christian Leaders Institute. I am no longer receiving a weekly pay-check and could not afford ministry and Christian leadership classes otherwise. I plan to go as far as I can with CLI’s Leadership Excellence School and then get my doctorate. Thanks are to God for all that He has done for me and mine!
I reside in a town called West Haven, Connecticut. We are on the East Coast between New York and Massachusetts. I have three loving children I raised as a single mom: two girls who are 46 and 44 years old and my son, 28 years old. I have also been blessed with two granddaughters and two great-grandsons. The oldest great-grandchild is from my 25-year-old grandson, who passed away last year. While it has not been easy, every aspect has definitely enabled me to grow in many ways.
My Journey
I was born in Puerto Rico. When I was four, we came to a tiny town named Guilford in Southern New England, where I grew up. We weren’t rich, but we never lacked anything. It got real when one day I called my good friend since kindergarten, and her mother heard my mother speaking Spanish in the background. The next day in school, my friend said she was not allowed to continue being my friend “because you are not white like rice.”
I thank God that my mother was a devoted Catholic. She was very involved in the local church and always took us with her. They called her to pray when someone passed away, and she had the gift of healing. I can still see crutches and arm slings left behind as the person walked away from our house. Our mother showed us how to be loyal to God and family in that order.
Struggles on My Journey
For a time in my life, I went through a phase of drinking alcohol, using cocaine, and experimenting with pills. I married young to a very abusive man, mentally, physically, and emotionally. The only good to come out of that marriage were my two daughters. They gave me the will to survive and persevere for them and show them how to never fall into that cycle. I had my son in my late 30s. After discovering six weeks into my pregnancy that his father was seeing his ex and another woman, I went back to being a single mom. I committed to living for my children and doing it sober.
When I totally surrendered my life and my will over to God, He freed me from the depression and the darkness of my past. God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was with me from the very beginning, through the good and the bad. I had blocked memories from my childhood. During my journey, I had to stop at some destinations along the way. Multiple times I landed in psych wards because I couldn’t deal with all the memories. I joined a large gang and worked my way to the leader. Through Divine intervention, I left that lifestyle. I developed a quality, intimate relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
An Overcomer in the Lord
Through the Lord and the Holy Spirit, I came to see that everything I went through came together for good. If I had not gone through the good and the bad in my life, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate and be thankful for not just surviving but overcoming through my Lord. It all is to glorify His name. Some people think that once they receive Jesus into their life, all will be peaches and cream. This couldn’t be further from the truth. As we grow in our path, so do the trials.
It is an honor to be tested in our faith like Job. If you are not tested regularly, you are not a threat to the devil. God does not abandon us! He promises, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Eventually, we come to where the peace of God surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7). The person I am today has grown and is not the person I was 23 years ago. I accept my past and use the lessons learned to help others as they go through similar life chaos. We must overcome evil with good. What was meant to break you, God brings together for good!
Called to Serve with an Attitude of Gratitude
I have had careers from one side of the spectrum to the other, from Cosmetologist to Instructor to Platform Artist to MLM to Tractor Trailer and Motor Coach Driver to Local Church Leader. As I look back, they all deal with customer service.
I enjoy working with people and have been blessed with an Outreach Ministry since 1999. On November 6, 1999, we held our first Annual Thanksgiving and Coat giveaway for the Homeless. We help with their self-esteem, motivation, and education. We help with Bible classes in prison and hospitals, home visits for the elderly and the sick, faith-based recovery for the entire family, resources for their necessities, counseling, etc.
I was ordained as a Licensed Minister on November 26, 2013. As I waited on God, He tells me that the time is now. I believe CLI, CLI, and CLA will help me with organizational Christian leadership classes and support. Then, I can develop leaders who are duplicatable and committed to God’s Kingdom work. Back to Divine Intervention, God’s Calling to God’s perfect timing to God’s Purpose in my life is all from God!
May His blessing be upon you and yours always and forever!
My name is Peter James Lhamon, and I am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute to pursue a low-cost ministry degree (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I live in Suttons Bay, Michigan, United States of America. I am married to my wife, Casey. We have three children; Tristan, Adrienne, and Nora. I am 42 years old and have been a Christian for almost 15 years.
I own a residential construction company that has two divisions. We build complete homes as general contractors from top to bottom. We also have a framing carpentry division in which we frame houses for other contractors. I employ 11 employees currently. In the past several years, I have maintained 28 -32 employees. However, in the past year, I dialed things way back with where I believe my calling is taking me next.
My Early Years and Call to Ministry
As a young elementary-age child, I felt a calling from the Lord into ministry. At that time, I attended Catholic school and Catholic church every Sunday morning. Naturally, I pictured myself as being a Catholic priest. However, I always struggled with that feeling because I really wanted to have a wife and kids. So, I ignored it and never pursued it even though I thought about it often and pictured myself serving at Mass as a priest. As an altar boy, I observed the priests and memorized how to conduct Mass.
I tried to put it out of my head completely by the time I was in Junior High. There were so many other things happening that I was more concerned with. Mostly, I tried to be cool. At that time, my parents had just divorced, too. They separated when I was in sixth grade, still attending Catholic school. When they finally divorced, my brother and I lived with my dad in a town an hour away from my mom and sister. My brother and I went with my dad because our mom who raised us, was not our birth mother. I have never met my birth mother. My dad left her when I was about a year old because she was very addicted to drugs and alcohol.
Changes and Trials
Despite the trials of adjusting to a new lifestyle, my dad remarrying, having new stepsiblings, and all that Junior High throws at any adolescent; I still felt the call. The Lord’s calling went on through Junior High, even though my dad divorced his third wife and remarried again. It went on through High School, my own alcohol and drug use, and my early adulthood. It never went away, no matter where I was or what I was involved in, or how my life was. I experienced what Francis Thompson writes about in his poem titled “The Hound of Heaven” in my life.
Sadly, I started to follow in my father’s footsteps with marriage. I, too, married and then divorced, married again, divorced again, and married again for the third time. My first marriage lasted a year. My second marriage lasted less than a year after the loss of a baby boy with premature birth. The third time, I married Casey. We have been married for 14 years now. We both were saved around the same time and have stayed together through all the good and bad by God’s grace.
Saved by Grace
I was saved in the summer when I was 27 years old. I was in my garage tinkering when I started to reflect on my life. Questions hit me like, “How did I get here from there?” and “Am I really called to be a minister?” In my reflection, out of nowhere, I felt the Presence of God. I felt His Power, His Holiness, His Perfection, and my imperfection. Terrified, I thought I was going to be put to death. The anguish I felt over my sin and ignoring His call for so long made me tremble with fear. It forced me to the concrete floor, and I remember burying my face in a spare tire on the floor. I wept and begged the Lord not to take my life. I begged for forgiveness and mercy. It all seemed so loud in my head, like chaos all around me.
Then, in an instant, I felt calm, and everything seemed to quiet. I felt the Lord say, “Get up. You are my son. I love you. Go work with your hands. Go do what you love to do.” Immediately, I jumped up with a full heart and so much joy rushing through me. I felt free and alive. I ran outside with my shovel to a set of stairs I was working on weeks prior but procrastinated finishing. Finally, I would finish them.
Called to Ministry Again
While I worked on them, I sang songs that I sang in the church that Casey and I attended recently. Then, the Lord spoke to me again. He said, “Leviticus 9.” I got my Bible that I was on my workbench in my garage. When I opened the Bible, it was to Leviticus 8. I read the entire chapter of 8. When I got to Leviticus 9, the subtitle in my NIV is, “The Priests Begin Their Ministry.” It spoke loudly to my heart. That is when I finally submitted to the Lord’s calling and told my pastor that the Lord was calling me into ministry.
My pastor mentored me and had me lead a small group of second graders for the summer. By the fall, he asked if I would lead the children’s ministry. I served there for about two years. Then, I enrolled and started classes at Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My wife and two kids moved down to Grand Rapids with me as I entered the Pastoral Ministries program.
Ministry Journey
Before college, I went on a few mission trips to Mexico. One was with a church-led group, and the second time I organized a trip with a few friends of mine. There was another opportunity to go on Thanksgiving break, and I could bring Casey, my wife, with me for her first time. After we went, we wanted to explore what it looked like as a missionary family in Mexico. So, I transferred my classes to the online program for the next semester. We took the kids with us for about a month.
Then, I received a call from a Texas church that had seen my ministry profile on a ministry hiring site. They wanted to interview me for a position. We headed out of Mexico, and it was good timing as we were running out of ministry funds. The position was not the right fit, so we returned to Northern Michigan. I went back to work building houses. I also took a few other ministry positions part-time and volunteered over the next few years. Then, I worked for a few months at a church in the Texas Hill Country.
After our Hill Country adventure, I started a construction company. I had a season of ministry proclaiming the Gospel to all the guys that worked for me. I have done this for almost 8 years now and have built a good company. The Lord worked and changed lives. I had many opportunities to be used to lead men to the Lord and mentor and coach them. In the last year, it became apparent that I made my business more important to my calling and my family sometimes. I prayed through and walked slowly, wanting to be in the Lord’s will to make the right adjustments.
A Low-Cost Ministry Degree at CLI/CLI
Our family recently went on a road trip adventure weekend and traveled through 14 different states. It was awesome! On this vacation, I was searching Google about getting your calling as a minister later in life. That is when I came across the Christian Leaders Institute. It has been an answer to prayer to find something like this! I want to pursue a low-cost ministry degree to have the credentials and proper training for what I believe the Lord is calling me into, full-time ministry.
Christian Leaders Institute offers me a blessed opportunity to work to provide for my family and pursue a low-cost ministry degree. Finding CLI was an answer to prayer. I can’t wait to see what adventure the Lord takes us on next!