To God Be the Glory for My Story
My name is Jasmine Simons. I have a Life Coach ministry call and am studying at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I am 33 years old and live in the United States of America and love Jesus with my whole heart and soul. To live my life totally and completely sold out for Him is my desire. However, things weren’t always this way. Come with me as I take you on a trip down memory lane to let you know how I got to this place in my walk with Christ.
My Youth and Struggles
I was born in San Diego, California. However, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. My parents got divorced when I was fairly young. My brother and I lived with my mother and her family in her hometown of Cleveland, Ohio. In my youth, we struggled financially. As a result, we moved often and usually lived in places that were quite crowded with other family members.
While my mother and my aunt, who lived with us with her son for a good portion of my youth, went to work daily, the kids pretty much fended for themselves. I remember being hungry at times. So, I walked to the local grocery store to see if someone would allow me to push their grocery cart to their vehicle and unload it for them for $1. Then, I could buy food for my brother and me. I also remember being molested several times before the age of 10 by friends and family members. But I dared not tell anyone. Instead, I found other ways to cope. I threw myself into reading at first. Later, it was boys. Then, it became drugs.
By the age of 16, I had moved out of my mother’s home and into the home of an older man. I was an exotic dancer. Pretty much from that point forward, my life was on a downhill spiral. I married a couple of years later. That marriage was mentally, physically, and emotionally abusive and ended in divorce. I jumped from relationship to relationship after that, had a few children, and experienced a dark depression, unlike anything I’d ever experienced in my life. It was during that time that I tried to take my life 3 times in 3 months. The third time I tried to jump off of a cliff.
Saved by God’s Grace
However, God had other plans for me, and, by the grace of God, my uncle caught me right before I went over the edge. After getting out of the Psych Ward again, I got into a rehab facility that required me to move out of town. Go figure, the name of the rehab center was N.O.A.H., as in Noah’s Ark. It was there that I re-surrendered my life to Christ. I first gave my life to Christ when I was about 10 years old and struggled with my faith most of my life until this point. At NOAH, I had no family and no friends there. But I had God, who loved me back to life!
Life Coach Ministry Call and Study at CLI
Now, here I am 3 years later, by God’s grace and mercy, answering the call on my life to pursue ministry full-time. I never in a million years would’ve thought that God would’ve chosen me for an assignment such as this. However, I never would’ve thought that He would ask me to write a book or start a non-profit organization to help women worldwide “Awaken” to their true identity in Christ. But He did! And I’m so thankful that I answered the call. Now, I am at the Christian Leaders Institute, ready and willing to pursue my Life Coach Ministry call and ordination in Christ. The sky is the limit after that!
As a single mother of 4 children, taking free courses at CLI has been a Godsend. Ever since I’ve found this school, I haven’t been able to stop thanking God for His faithfulness. I pray that my story, journey, and testimony will encourage, inspire and motivate that person on the fence about pushing forth in purpose. Just know that if God did it for me, and He is no respecter of persons, He is more than willing and able to do it for you too! Only believe and do not doubt! God bless you!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
My name is Johan Scheepers, and I am receiving global ministry training online at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I was born in 1969 in South Africa, Gauteng, and since I can remember, I have been in church-life. When I say “church-life,” I mean my parents have been helping out in several different ministries in our church at that time. Now I know why because the Lord revealed to me the origin of my father’s heart, which was a Levite-heart. He served in the temple, if I can describe it like that. I have the same heart, so I am a Pastor in Middelburg, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
My Journey
I fooled around a lot after my High-School years until I joined the Armed Forces in my country. However, instead of going full into the army, I joined a band sponsored by the army to minister to other army camps. We could even minister to schools and churches outside the army as well. During this time in my life, I realized my love for ministering to people I did not know in towns I did not even know existed.
After the army, I still experienced a sense of being lost. My mom suggested I start my studies to become a pastor. I finished those studies partly through the Apostolic Faith mission and the Full Gospel church theology colleges. I served a few years as a youth pastor in Alberton in Gauteng at a Full Gospel church. During this time, I also married my wife, and we have three wonderful kids. Two of them are serving God, and we are still praying for the third.
A New Direction and Global Ministry Training
I left the full-time ministry for financial reasons and started to work in the secular sector. However, it was a very intense, frustrating time of my life. It is funny how easily we tell ourselves that a second-hand life outside of God’s purpose for our lives can be our standard for our life. We tend to get comfortable in this life.
Well, God changed all this in my life when the Holy Spirit made revelations in God’s Word to me. It snowballed from there until I accept an Assistant Pastor’s position in Middelburg, Eastern Cape. There, I grew so much spiritually and in my character. During my time in Middelburg, God revealed my global ministry for the nations. I had an opportunity to go to Kenya and ministered there in Kisii with a mission. I saw the power of God flow in a way I have never experienced before, and I was sold for this vision of God for my life.
During this time in Middelburg, I learned about video editing and recording, multi-media producing, worship leading, selecting songs, preparing worship programs, etc. So was this period in my life worth it? Yes, yes, and yes again! As I am waiting for my next season, I am receiving global ministry training at the Christian Leaders Institute to be better equipped for my next steps in ministry as God leads me. I know the best time in my life is yet to come.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
My name is Julie Erickson, and I have a ministry call and now study for this call at the Christian Leaders Institute (Learn more about online Bible classes, Click Here). I am 47 years old and live in the United States.
My Salvation Journey
Salvation for me came at the age of 19. As a teen, I was involved in many sinful things. It is awesome when I look back and see how God was moving in my life even before I knew Jesus as my Savior. I was attending a public junior high school. A Catholic school in town came to our school to tell us about what they had to offer and recruit students. I chose to go to this school even though I was not Catholic and had no interest in religion. I had to work and pay my own tuition, but this did not deter me.
One year, I had to take a class called Comparative Religions. One of the class requirements was that we attend church services at several different denominations. One of the churches I went to was a Southern Baptist church. I had never heard someone deliver a sermon like the one delivered that day. The sermon was about our tongue. It stuck in my mind for quite some time, maybe about 2 years, before I felt God tugging at my heart in a way I could not ignore. I went back to that church, and Jesus saved me.
My Journey in Christianity
My journey as a Christian has been a long process of overcoming guilt, sin, depression, and trying to live up to others’ expectations. I look back and see God’s hand of protection over me through so much of my life. I am so grateful for His grace, mercy, and loving care. He truly delivered me from so much. Often, I didn’t recognize this deliverance and his hand in it until well after the fact. I look back at His amazing care through the darkest parts of my life and am in awe of how God carried me through.
Ministry Call and Study at CLI
This leads me to why I am here at the Christian Leaders Institute; my ministry call and the need to study for the ministry. I truly desire to minister to other women to help them overcome all that I have overcome through Christ. I want to help women look to God for their guidance, not other people’s expectations. So many women don’t have the tools to overcome depression and guilt. I want to give them those tools. Too many churches burden women with more guilt and never show them the way to true freedom and joy.
I also feel a calling to minister to police and their spouses, emphasizing police chiefs and their spouses. My husband has been an officer for 27 years and is currently the police chief in our town. There is no support system for us, no one to reach out to in the tough times. As America’s political climate becomes more and more hostile to law enforcement, the need for ministry to this group of people grows immensely.
Spreading the Good News
I also have a desire just to spread the joy that God gives. So many people question God, even when they have all the answers right there in His word. They don’t want to accept the answers and fight God on everything. I want to help them find faith in His answers, stop questioning, start believing, and step out in faith and joy in the Lord.
God is leading me in this direction, and I just need to follow in obedience. I don’t know exactly where it will take me yet, but I know God will be faithful and show me. I am so grateful for having found Christian Leaders Institute to get training to help me on this journey. God has guided me through so much, teaching me, shaping, and molding me. He has given me a joy I never thought I could have. He has protected me, loved me, forgiven me, shown mercy toward me, and handled me with such grace. I want others to stop questioning and to start trusting God.
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.