Mr. Bean’s Thorn
I am John Bean, from Kingman, Arizona, USA, and free education at CLI is a Godsend for me. Just like the Apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, so I have had this thorn. Some say this thorn was epilepsy, and this is what I had for 20 years. I have not had a seizure in over five years. However, I live with the stigma that people hold when they hear of my struggles and victories with the Lord.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies degree, along with two other college degrees. Sadly, they practically became framed toilet paper when I lost much of my memory after a temporal lobectomy (brain surgery) in 2011.
Grampa’s Witness
One thing I remember from my youth is Grampa John Bean persistently taking my brothers and me to church for the AWANAS children’s program every week for a few years. I never wanted to go back after I turned 12, though. But then I felt that “thorn” protrude when I was 14 in high school, and I had a seizure about once a week (Complex Partial – mostly just a blank stare).
In Grampa John Bean’s gracious spirit, he sold both of my brothers a vehicle just before they were legally able to drive. I wouldn’t be able to drive until I was seizure-free for a time, which came at age 18. But Gramps had something else for me, and the Kingdom of God too.
New Life Community Church was a church plant started by my Grandpa for the Filipino community of Paradise Hills in San Diego, CA. The church needed a worship team, and he offered me a nice Sonor drumset if I played with them every Sunday. At age 14, I felt far away from God. However, an opportunity to play in front of a perpetual crowd enticed my brother (bass guitar) and me.
God’s Grace
The Lord did not let me be on that stage as an instrument for my pride, but as an instrument for the people of God to come closer in praise to Him. Saved by God’s grace, I wanted to teach the youth around me about the change that occurred in me through the Word. So I also became the youth minister.
I got involved in Campus Crusade for Christ at my community college, where I met my wife, Lori. I traveled the USA as a “musicianary” drummer in a swing band. It was with Bill Bright sharing the four spiritual laws. I felt called into ministry and soon enrolled at Southern California Seminary, graduating with a BABS in 2008.
The seizures worsened, and I needed more medication. It got to the point it was toxic, so brain surgery was necessary. I was able to continue in ministry as a drummer. However, I was in and out of work although able to get a driver’s license. Through all this time, Lori and I had four beautiful children.
Ministry Dream
My dream has always been in ministry in some capacity. My constant prayer to God is to do so in a teaching compacity, but right now I hear Him say “wait” to me. I know I can teach the Word because my family can see the fruit. But my health delayed progress in the church.
Therefore, I became proactive in educating myself on my health since my doctors couldn’t show any progress for 20 years. I learned about other treatments besides the prescribed medications I was on that could help me. I learned restorative therapy through my mind (Christian meditation), body (Daniel Fast losing 90 lbs.), and spirit (prayer, praise, study). It has been what I needed these last few years.
I went from 25 pills/day to 6 pills/day and have a part-time job. I wrote a book about the relationship of the human body (the temple of God) and the Worship of God through the upkeep of His temple (mind, body, spirit). It is called “One Body in Christ, Many Souls in Praise” (on Amazon).
Free Education at CLI
As Paul was given his thorn, Barnabas helped him by taking him to the apostles in Jerusalem. Barnabas explained how Paul had evangelized courageously in the name of Jesus. This once stigmatized opponent of the church was able to associate freely with Jesus’ disciples and proclaim salvation to the unsaved. My hope is that the Christian Leaders Institute can be that Barnabas figure that will show that I can be like Paul and not stigmatized for the thorn.
I have formal education to show that I can produce fruit, but much of the in-depth training has eluded me. I find that free education at CLI is crucial in relearning much of what was lost. My hope is to use this training for ministry in a chaplaincy position at the state prison or in my church. Praise God!
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 Brenda Antwi, and I am excited to study at CLI for their free ministry learning opportunity. I am a person with a passion and a deep reverence for God and His Word, with a heart flowing with love for God’s people. Born into a Catholic family in November of 1974, I am the third born out of five siblings. I have been married for 17 years and blessed with three beautiful children who are all currently in secondary school. We live in the Borough of Croydon, Surrey, UK.
During my secondary school education, I was quite active in sports, drama, and charismatic worship, coupled with my staunch Catholic upbringing. I was the one they asked to do church readings in the boarding school because I was articulate and an excellent reader. Having the zeal to study further, I went on to study a Degree in Management at the University of London. After that, I pursued and gained a Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Leicester.
Right before my tertiary school years, I met my husband. However, I had become quite stale in my spiritual walk with God at that time. My husband then took me to his church (Pentecostal), where I started improving upon my relationship with God. Being a businessman meant he traveled a lot. During his travels, he would call me, and we prayed together.
Testing for My Growth
My real tests began shortly after marriage over 16 years. It was continuous testing of my faith. It moved me to levels of deeper commune with God, fighting spiritual battles that I didn’t know I could. I had an encounter with the angelic hosts with the assurance that God was on my side. I call it the desert years. There was a Job kind of test at some point with an attack on my spiritual and physical – my body, marriage, children, finances, job, and my sibling’s families.
Furthermore, suddenly I gained this inexplicable hunger to study counseling, which helped me to work on myself. It also enabled me to counsel in schools and on an individual basis. During these trials, I had moments of weakness but grew spiritually healthy. The Holy Spirit used me to heal people with diseases, give competent counsel. I comforted those distressed and shared the Word. In the women’s group that I led, people felt the presence of God.
The beauty of these trials was that God showed me the length, breadth, and height of wickedness. I had to physically go through the trials to understand the severity of what God’s children were going through. Interestingly, for as long as I didn’t understand the point or meaning of the trial, I stayed in it. When I got the message, He moved me to the next phase.
Further Spiritual Understanding
God helped me also to understand the different “men of God” who came into my life. Some were greedy, false, or took Him for granted, and then some were for Him. I grew more durable in the Lord. I endured knowing nothing else but the Word and prayer. Through the countless cries to God in times when I felt He was not listening, He was there!
When I was coming to the end of the trials, God revealed His plan for me in Luke 4:18. I saw myself preaching, healing, and casting out demons. Alleluia! He took me through the refiner’s fire to season me for a purpose.
Shortly afterward, He sent a man of God to anoint and prepare me for ministry. That also came with challenges from the enemy. But God is faithful! He is God, not a man that He should lie (Numbers 23:19). Whatever He says, He will do, and no one can stop Him.
Ministry Servant
Today, humbled by it all, I stand as His servant and minister to people wherever He leads me. I serve by leading women’s prayer groups, counseling, deliverance, and encouraging many through the Word of God with love. To fulfill God’s revelation in my life, I was ordained in the church as a Reverend Minister in April 2018. I continue with God’s work even though I work part-time as a sales manager in an Estate Agency.
Recently, I founded The Voice of Christ Ministry, which changes lives through prayer and an oasis for the oppressed, the sick, and those in bondage. I share the Gospel wherever the Lord leads me. We have prayer sessions every Thursday evening, and God is working awesomely in the lives of His people.
In following the call of God, I have learned that the task He has put me on is no child’s play. I am to let people know who He is and the great love He has for humankind. In summary, until I completed the school of the Holy Ghost, I wasn’t ready for His purpose.
The Learning Factor
Through these processes, I have realized that the learning factor is critical. God teaches us specific valuable lessons, strengthening us in areas of weakness, tightening all the bolts, and loose ends in our lives. By the time we are fully ready, we are seasoned for His use. Psalm 66:10: “For thou, O God, hast proved us. Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.” Also, Psalm 12:6: “…as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”
I trust God and lean, not on my understanding. All I want is for His will to be done in me. I have been humbled and matured by all the experiences. Learning to be patient, endure, persevere, look to Him alone, have a deeper commune with Him, be more prayerful, and continue to learn the Word, has been my desire. The task ahead of me is enormous and requires me to be firmly grounded in Him.
Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.” I pray that God continues to strengthen me to fulfill His ministry calling. I know that He helps me to be obedient to my calling and His vision for my life.
Free Ministry Learning Opportunity at CLI
Finding the Christian Leaders Institute for free ministry learning online is a blessing for me. Since the learning factor is critical, as I mentioned above, I want to study and learn at CLI. Then I will be further prepared for the tasks before me. Thank you, CLI, for this free ministry learning opportunity!
Trust God in whatever comes your way, stay grounded, patient and focused, be unrelenting, and be true to yourself, to God and others. Be thou blessed!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.
Hello, there! My name is Robert Willis Sr. I am taking free online classes at the Christian Leaders Institute. I am 33 years old, living in the vast, very fast-paced city of Chicago, IL. Happily married to my wife, Candice, we have two children together. Our son, Robert Willis Jr, will be 14 this coming October, and our beautiful daughter, Milani, just turned nine in May.
My Youth
I was born and raised in Chicago on the Northwest side of the city. I grew up with my mother, but I spent most of my time with my grandparents. My grandfather, Bob Sweat, was my hero. He and I spent great, heartwarming time together. He showed me how a father was supposed to love his child and how a husband was to love his wife. The neighborhood I grew up in was relatively quiet, but just a few blocks away, the gangs hung out along with the drug users/sellers. My childhood was great. My parents loved hard, and we took vacations once a year and had dinner at the dinner table together, the ideal family. However, God and the Bible were never spoken of in our home.
At the age of 12, I was a young kid with no direction. I began getting in trouble, hanging with the wrong crowds, and involved with the gangs down the street from me. A few years later, I met my first real girlfriend. At the age of 20, she and I had our son Robert Willis Jr. Meanwhile, I’m still getting into trouble and hanging with the wrong crowds. That same year I ended up catching a charge for aggravated assault on a police officer. It sent me upstate for two years.
Changes and Wondering
During my time in prison, my mind detoxed from the alcohol and other substances I was taking. I realized that I was going down a path I didn’t want for my newborn son. When I got out of prison, and while I was in there, my son’s mother decided she wasn’t going to allow me to be a part of his life. We went to court for custody, which by the grace of God, I won sole custody of my son.
During this lengthy court process, I started changing into a man. That is when I met my wife. Our first year into our relationship, she conceived our daughter Milani and things finally started to feel stable like how I grew up. Things stayed like that for some eight years, still never hearing nor reading God’s Word.
In September of 2017, my hero, my best friend, my Papa, Bob Sweat, fell ill with dementia and ended up in hospice care. On Christmas Eve of 2017, right after we all ate dinner, he opened his eyes very briefly and took his final breath and passed away. Now it’s here that my mind started to change a bit. I thought to myself, “Where are you at, Papa? Where did your soul go? Where do all of our souls go?”
A Door Opened
A little under two years after my Papa passed away, I was still having these reoccurring thoughts. In September of 2019, my Papa’s best friend, Mr. Steven Jacob, fell ill and passed away. His wife, Mrs. Sue Jacob, invited us to his memorial service that was at the local church. That morning was no different than the rest. I woke up and got ready for his service. I thought to myself, “I don’t want to go to this service, but I will since it was my papa’s best friend.” So
When we pulled up to the church, I remember thinking about how uncomfortable I already was. We exited our vehicle and entered the church. Immediately, I felt a feeling I never felt before. It was a comforting, loving, caring feeling. So, we took a seat in the pew next to my friends and family. The pastor started speaking, and almost instantly, I fell into a trance and did not even blink an eye during his entire sermon. When the sermon ended, I fell out of the trance.
We proceeded to exit the sanctuary, and the pastor was standing by the door, greeting guests. I ducked my head, hoping he wouldn’t greet me. However, he did. He pulled me to the side and introduced himself as Pastor Rick, the head pastor at Bethany Baptist. I introduced myself as Bobby. He looked intently into my eyes and said, “Well, Bobby, your presence here today was very graceful. I ask that you join us again next Sunday.” We shook hands, and I walked out.
Giving My Life to God
As soon as I got into my truck, that feeling that overwhelmed me when I first got to the church that morning weighed very heavy on my heart. Something whispered in my head and said, “Bob, go home and read the Bible.” However, right then, another voice whispered to me, and this time I recognized that voice. It was the voice I heard all my life. It was the evil one. He said, “Why read the Bible? You’re never going to understand it.” Then the overwhelming voice whispered once more, “Bob, please just try.”
That was it. As soon as I got home, I pulled out my Papa’s old Bible and started reading it for the first time in my 33 years. I read God’s Word. Here I am, almost a year later, and I’m in my studies at the Christian Leaders Institute with its free online classes. During my walk with the Lord, I married my wife Candice this past March 7th after being together for ten years. A month after that, we were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Free Online Classes at CLI
Now our family is very close to the pastor and his family. We are doing family outings with each other almost every weekend. Other than that, all I do with my time is to study God’s Word, along with taking these free online classes at CLI. Thank you, CLI!
My spiritual dream is to share the Gospel wherever God leads me. I want to bring this joy, this love, this peace to everyone. We are all sinners in need of a Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ, the Messiah!
Learn more about ordination at the Christian Leaders Alliance. Interested in a low-cost degree? Check out the CLI’s Leadership Excellence School.