Disaster Relief Chaplain
I am a mother of four children, whom I educate at home in the United States. I am privileged to be free to practice my religion, teach my children my faith, and pursue ministry as a woman.
Over twenty years ago, I was unsure about my future. After graduating high school, I began attending community college with the intention of determining a degree path. However, at that time in my life, I was experiencing a deep personal crisis and struggled with my courses. I decided to set higher education on hold for a time and reached a place where I was completely lost, wandering in the wilderness of the world. I found myself in many dysfunctional and painful situations as a result of sin. I put myself in positions to be seriously hurt by some individuals. I suffered the devastating effects of promiscuity, abandonment, adultery, divorce, drugs, abuse, suicide, crime, and mental breakdown. After reaching my lowest point, Christian counseling inspired me to seek the Lord. When I began to seek God, I slowly rose above the fog and started attending a loving church where I was led to Jesus Christ. I called Him Lord and Savior in the year 2000 and received such freedom and healing that I have never looked back.
Early in my Christian walk, it became clear that I was intended to be a wife, a mother, and a home educator–and that serving my husband and children are my most important ministries. As I grew in the Lord, I discovered a passion for worship, and have been blessed to serve in worship ministry in two churches. I also discovered a hunger for studying and researching the things of God–I developed a burning desire to understand the Scriptures more deeply and have spent much personal time educating myself through the Bible and other resources. As my knowledge has increased, a desire to share the Gospel with the lost more effectively and help others grow in Christ has blossomed in my heart and I have served as an online missionary with a global ministry. I have an ever-increasing love for God’s people and a deep compassion for those that are in the wilderness. I have an overwhelming desire to minister to those that are suffering, in crisis, or have experienced trauma. I have had opportunities come across the path of my daily life to support, counsel, and advocate for those that are confused, afraid, vulnerable, hurting and broken. After ministering to an elderly brother in Christ who was in an abusive living situation, and working with many authorities on his behalf, then walking through the end of life with my mother-in-law in hospice, I began to discern a ministry dream of chaplaincy. I have had this dream confirmed by God twice recently.
I have desired a Bible and ministry education for some time and have longed to go back to school. Two years ago, the Lord gave me permission to take online classes through a Bible college. Although I excelled, the pace was too intense for me while raising my children and the cost was too much for our one-income budget. God told me to set classes aside again for a time. I was initially grieved but obeyed in faith that He would use what I learned and further direct my steps. I believe that the Lord has told me I will need to be educated for the future ministry, so I have been praying for an affordable avenue to continue my education at my pace, in His timing. A scholarship to study the Bible and ministry through Christian Leader’s Institute is an answer to this prayer. I have no other way to pursue an education at this time, so I am very excited and hopeful about this opportunity. I have the support of my pastors, one of whom serves as a disaster relief chaplain in our denomination. Since asking for their sponsorship, I have been given a leadership role at my church which I hope might lead to chaplaincy in my denomination. Please pray for me as I move forward, that I walk in God’s will for myself and my family, and that the Lord will eventually open the doors for me to minister with credibility in the world as He sees fit, to help others find freedom in Jesus!
A scholarship to study the Bible and ministry through Christian Leader’s Institute is an answer to this prayer. I have no other way to pursue an education at this time, so I am very excited and hopeful about this opportunity. I have the support of my pastors, one of whom serves as a disaster relief chaplain in our denomination. Since asking for their sponsorship, I have been given a leadership role at my church which I hope might lead to chaplaincy in my denomination. Please pray for me as I move forward, that I walk in God’s will for myself and my family, and that the Lord will eventually open the doors for me to minister with credibility in the world as He sees fit, to help others find freedom in Jesus!
Free Formal Ministry Training
The need for free formal ministry training is not being met by traditional seminaries. Many do not have the resources or time to do residential ministry training. Christian Leaders Institute recognizes the there is a need for free formal ministry training and we desire to make high-quality ministry training available. Graduates of CLI have shared their stories of how they found free formal ministry training at our website. Here is one such story.
My name is Sandra Roberts and I reside in the United States. Since my earliest childhood, I always had a desire for Jesus. At the age of seven, I would gather all my neighborhood friends in my room and preach to them the little I knew about Jesus and then I would teach them how to pray.
It wasn’t until I was sixteen, that I officially asked Jesus into my life. It was an unconventional event. (I had no Christian friends and no one that I can recall ever invited me to church.) A family member asked me if I wanted a small Gideon New Testament Bible they had received from someone at a community college. I said yes and read the Sinner’s Prayer in the back of the book. It so touched my heart as I received Jesus and wrote my name in the space provided.
It wasn’t until a few years later that I connected with other believers. This happened through a Bible Study during the noon hour at my place of employment. I was in awe when I attended the first study because the man teaching talked about the Bible as if he knew God personally. A few times after that, he asked me if I had ever been baptized. I told him as a baby and then he gently explained my need to do that again as an act of my will. So he arranged to baptize me on the following Saturday in a hot tub of one of the other Bible Study participants. After that, God led me to a church to connect in.
About a decade later, God told me to start a Bible Study at a the company I was working for. I hesitated much and ran from God’s calling to do that. It was due to the fact that I had never taught anything and had no . I had only attended the one Bible Study at my other job years before and in my church, it was small and there weren’t many Bible Studies going on. Any that did occur generally happened while I was a work. A year later, my unsaved boss, whom I never really shared anything deep with about God, out of the blue one day told me I should start a Bible Study there at work. I was incredulous because my first thought was why would she care? She wasn’t saved and she had no intentions of attending.
Thus, I started the study and long story short, it grew and people from all over the city began to attend. It then led me to an appointment to teach a Bible Study in my State Capitol for two years. The Minority Republican Senator’s Chief of Staff offered me the Senator’s office to conduct the Bible Study in. I was amazed and humbled God put me there because I did not advertise for it. A lobbyist went to the Capitol and sought the appointment and sponsorship.
In 2010, I retired from the secular and was called into full-time ministry. My husband and I planted a church in our area. Many of the people over the years from conducting a Bible Study in companies I had worked at were the ones who first populated our church.
Since leaving the secular, I have now authored three books – one for the legal field with a traditional publisher, and two self-published, a devotional and a children’s book for little girls 3 to 5 years of age. Even so, with all these happenings, my most important jobs are being a great wife to my husband and mother to my children. God has truly blessed me and there is so much more, but I will stop re this subject for now.
My ministry dream is to share the grace and promises of God in such a way that even the hardest of hearts will be compelled to hear more. My husband and I both identify as planters. We love to start ministries and then let others take the reigns. I was once called to be a Women’s Ministry Pastor at a new church plant. Within three months, I had engaged sixteen women as directors of sub-ministries. For a time, the women’s ministries was the core of the church until it grew. Afterwards, I stepped down to go off to plant something else.
I think the unique challenge in our geographic area is that there are a lot of churches, which can afford people an attitude of not wanting to commit. I have found many people church shop and hop because they can. It’s not uncommon to hear that a person attends more than one church on a regular basis. For example, we have people who only attend our evening services because they are “committed” to attending other churches’ morning services. It’s a challenge for support not only monetarily, but also for event planning and so forth.
A scholarship at CLI is very important to me. With leaving the secular to minister full-time, we rely upon and trust the Lord to provide for us, and sometimes there is only enough to keep the lights on so-to-speak. I have a great desire to continue learning and growing in my relationship with Christ. CLI has made this opportunity available to me, for which I am greatly appreciative!
I would love your prayers for helping us continue to do the work God has called us to.
Thank you CLI for all you are doing. You are a blessing!
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Free Chicago Ministry Training
My name is Katie. I currently live in the US, in the third largest city and murder capital of the country, Chicago, IL. I’ve lived here for 28 years, and I couldn’t be more in awe that God has called me to the adventure of building a lighthouse in the middle of this dark, yet beautiful city. I’ve been part of a church plant for the past 5 years. Our church is located in a super young, trendy neighborhood, where most people are desensitized and completely turned off by the word church. Before launching our church, we interviewed 30 people in the neighborhood: 28 of them had been to church, had a bad experience, and were not interested in going back, 1 person had never been to church and would be open to checking it out, and 1 person was currently attending church. Needless to say, doing ministry here is HARD. People have seen it, done it, and want nothing to do with it again. To be honest, in my city, it’s more socially acceptable to tell someone you are a drug dealer than a pastor.
I grew up in a home with five older siblings and my father. My parents divorced when I was about 2, and my dad raised all 6 of his children on his own. Therefore, he had to work A LOT, to support us. That being the case, I didn’t see him very often, and I didn’t see my mom very often either, so I pretty much raised myself, with the help of my siblings, who were all trying to raise themselves at the same time. I didn’t have very much growing up, but one thing my dad was committed to was sending his children to a private school, where we could learn about the Lord. So I grew up learning about the Bible and God as a concept, but I never learned about the relational aspect.
Being the youngest, I was exposed to A LOT very young. My older siblings all got into drugs, drinking, and living a promiscuous lifestyle. Most of them dropped out of high school. As the youngest, I saw how much my older siblings’ decisions and actions hurt my dad and took a toll on him, and I grew up with a mindset of “I never want to be like them.” My dad was doing the best he could, and as much as I wish he were around more physically and emotionally, I now see how much he sacrificed to provide for his children.
Fast-forward into my later teenage years, and I started to allow the absence of my parental figures affect me, and I used that as an excuse to rebel and act out and go down paths I never intended to go down—drinking, drugs, depression, suicide, self-mutilation. Even though deep in my heart I always knew these things were wrong, I chose to do them anyway, as a way of sticking up my middle finger to life. I felt justified in my actions, and like I had every right to act out. You can imagine where this road led me. Absolutely nowhere. I lived three very dark years, and was so unhappy and so unfulfilled. I felt lonely and confused and honestly had no desire to live if this is what the next 60 years of my life were going to look like. I hated my life, but I had no other solution or answers.
It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college, when everything changed. I transferred into a Christian College my sophomore year (for financial reasons). I didn’t even know what a Christian University was, until I got there, and was wondering why everyone was so “nice”. I say nice in quotation marks because in my mind, it was all fake. I honestly never looked at humanity at being genuine and good, so anytime someone, was nice to me, I became skeptical. Being at this Christian University when I wasn’t walking with the Lord was definitely a challenge, in fact I almost got kicked out because I was caught partying one too many times. By the grace of God, He kept me there. At the end of my sophomore year, I remember walking to class one day and in the middle of campus, I feel like God came down and rescued me. I instantly had the clearest revelation of the reality of Jesus. I looked around and I saw life for the first time—people all around me filled with joy and simplicity. I knew that was God beckoning me into a relationship with him. So I stopped, and said, “okay God, if this is you, I’m willing to give it a go. I am all in. If you aren’t the solution, like nothing else I’ve ever tried has been the solution, then I’ll keep searching, but if you are the solution, then I choose you.”
Needless to say, Jesus has transformed my life, and I’ve been on a journey of falling more in love with him for the past seven years. I have experienced so much freedom, deliverance, redemption, and purpose through my relationship with Him. I don’t know He found me, but I’m so glad He chose me, and I will NEVER turn away from this love that I’ve found in Him. He is my answer until my very last breath.
Please share with us your ministry dream.
My ministry dream is to be on staff at my church. I don’t know exactly what that will look like, and I don’t know that I need to. All I know is that I am called to a BIG life of ministry. I am willing to go wherever that takes me and do whatever that calls me to. I know that I am called to preach and to teach. I also believe that I’m called to SERVE and LOVE people. As I mentioned above, the church that I am a part of is a lighthouse in the middle of a dark city. It’s hard, but we constantly see people encounter Jesus for the very first time, we see lives change, we see healing, restoration, redemption, and forgiveness. We allow people to come as they are, and we love them through their journey. Our vision is to build lighthouses around the world, and I’m willing to go wherever God takes me and pour my life into building lighthouses around the world.
I identify with Church Planter most, but also with a small group leader and pastor. Being part of my church since before it even launched has given me the real feel of what it’s like to plant a church, with no money, no resource, and no people! Ha! I have served in every role and worked alongside my pastor for years. I’ve learned so much on what it looks like to run a church from a business aspect, but also what it’s like to just pastor and love people.
When I got saved, I instantly knew and heard from God that I was called to ministry. The more I got involved in church, the more I realized there is no other way I would rather spend my life than to serve and bring others to Jesus. I know what it was like to not know Jesus and not be connected to a body of believers. I also know that the hope and answer are Jesus, and the way to find that and walk that out is through His church. My life looks different than most other people my age, and I’m okay with that, because what an honor it is to serve Jesus and build His house.
As I mentioned above, most people in our city have been to church, had a poor experience, and have no interest in going back. Most have a terrible perception of church. Most think that church is all about shaming you, telling you everything you’re not, and everything you the should/need to be. It’s rare to find someone who actually believes that the church is meant to believe in you and bring out the best in you. Being in a big city as well, there’s a culture of everyone’s just out to build their own empire and establish a secure life for themselves. Everyone’s busy. Everyone is constantly moving. That being the case, there’s no time or room in their lives for church or for God. I also believe that we live in this post-modernistic era where everyone has their own theology and answer for life, and it’s more socially acceptable than ever for people to live out of their homemade theologies. So there’s more opposition than ever as well.
My local church has supported me in my ministry calling by pouring into me to the nth degree. My pastors have walked alongside me for the past five years, pastoring me, mentoring me, and counseling me. They have taught me how to have a relationship with God, how to discover my ministry calling, they helped me discover the gifts and strengths that God has placed inside of me, they have given me opportunities to lead, they have challenged me and coached me, and they have always given me space to be messy and sort things out.
My family is very disconnected from my life and ministry calling, except for my father. My father got saved a few years ago and lived a passionate, dynamic relationship with Jesus. He is my biggest fan and support, and I am his. The rest of my family doesn’t quite understand why I would choose this type of life for myself, and they don’t quite understand it.
I know that I am called to lead and preach and teach the gospel as part of my ministry calling. I believe that CLI is going to provide me with an incredible foundation in the word of God and absolutely challenge and expand my capacity to know God and his word. I am so excited to continue to grow in my love and heart to serve God and people. Even though I have been walking with the Lord for the past seven years, I feel like it’s still just the beginning. I am SO excited to have CLI be an integral part of this adventure!