From Chinese Atheist to Called Christian Leader
My name is Lynn Beran. I am married with a son and live in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
My journey toward Jesus Christ began at Peking University, the top ranked college in China like Harvard in the USA, for my first college degree in philosophy with a major and concentration in worldwide religion. At that time, I was an atheist. The purpose of concentration in religion was to study history and theory of major religions so that graduates could help government communicate with believers and churches. My internship was to investigate the growth and influence of Christianity in Fujian, a southern province. After graduation, I worked as a policy analyst for Family Planning Committee of Central Government, like the Federal government in the USA, for three years. Although I attended churches as an observer, I was fond of Christianity compared to all other religions.
Before coming to the USA, I lived in Singapore for about three years. I worked as a kindergarten teacher for a year. One of my co-workers graduated from Theology College, and her husband was a Christian church pastor. She invited me to her church, and I went. Having been an atheist all my life, I had never thought it was possible to believe in God. It was then that I started to feel the possibility to become Christian.
My journey continued to bring me to Northwestern University for computer major. I was immediately surrounded by campus evangelists, which I didn’t know then. They didn’t preach at all but simply provided us with the help and warmth that a new immigrant desperately needs. After being friends with them for over two years, I felt God’s calling and decided to become Christian and get baptised in spring 2000.
Through all these years as a Christian, I wondered from time to time what God’s calling is for me. I also from time to time toyed with the idea of becoming a missionary to Chinese people in China or around the world after I retire. Last week in my car on my way home when I listened to the Christian radio station, I heard that in China there is a great shortage of ordained pastors, which prompted the questions to me: how should I prepare myself to become a missionary? What are the requirements to be ordained? When I searched online for the answers, I found the link to Christian Leaders Institute. I had wished I could have the opportunity to study Christianity as a believer. I am drawn to study The Word. I am still not sure what God’s calling is for me. However, Church Planter seems to touch me most.
The fact that I was an atheist and am a believer is amazing to experience. I am very grateful for God’s mercy, grace, and all the blessings. I hope more Chinese can hear the good news and be saved.
When I was baptized in 2001, I joined a non-denominational Christian church. My husband was born into a Catholic family and has been a Catholic all his life. Although, in my eyes, we have always believed we have the same belief since we believe in the same Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, my husband was always concerned about my non-denominational Christian faith. To ease his concern, I was converted to Catholic in August this year, just in time to go to Philadelphia to see The Pope. .
I hope you can pray for me for God’s wisdom to know what God’s calling is for my life. I also hope you can pray for me for stronger faith.
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My name is Nicole Roane, and I currently reside in Texas in the United States of America. I have lived here the majority of my life. From the time I was an infant, I was raised in the Catholic church. My household contained both parents and two brothers, and we were living the American dream (at least, it appeared that way). Then my life took an unexpected turn for the worse when my parents divorced my Senior year in high school. That was the starting point to my abandonment of faith. My mother left, and I was left with my resentful father and brothers who relentlessly took out their anger on me. Thus, I relinquished my relationship with Christ and instead chose to search for fulfillment in sex, drugs, alcohol, and abusive relationships. My life rapidly spiraled downward until I finally hit rock bottom at the age of 22 when I found myself unwed, pregnant, jobless, and homeless. My family had rejected me, I had no friends, and I was by all definitions of the word, alone. For the next nine months, I suffered through what was hands down the hardest time of my life. The only good thing I thought I had to look forward to was the birth of my now 14-year-old daughter. Once God graced me with her birth, I began to hear Jesus calling me back to Him. It took several months, but I finally heeded the call and found a church. God rescued me from that point — I was no longer homeless or alone. A few weeks later, I was baptized and began a new life with Christ. Since that point, God has blessed me with a husband (which I never thought I would have) and two more daughters who are now 11 and 9. Marriage and raising a family has not been easy, but through the love and mercy of Christ Jesus, we have thrived, and our family has been blessed beyond all measure.
Last year, I went on a Walk to Emmaus where a fire was ignited within me to get to know God like I never had before and to step out and serve Him as a leader to others using the gifts He has blessed me with. In my fourth day, I began working at our church as Worship Leader. It was there that I began to feel the Holy Spirit pulling me towards furthering my education in the non-traditional sense. He was very clearly calling me to a Bible school. After much prayer and deliberation, I stopped procrastinating, and I began searching for schools.
Both my church family and my home family were excited to hear about my calling, and they have all been extremely supportive of my endeavor expressing their excitement to see what the Lord will do and how He will use me. I don’t have a specific ministry calling at this point. I just know this is where I’m supposed to be. I’m blindly following by faith. What I do know is God is good, and He will provide a way. That’s exactly what He has done for me with CLI. I was fully expecting to have to incur thousands of dollars of debt to obtain this education He was calling me to. Then, He led me to CLI where to my amazement, the price for education was calling not money. The foundation for which this institute stands is a breath of fresh air. Someone finally got it right!! Jesus didn’t charge His disciples to learn from Him, so why should anyone else? Thank you, CLI, for this free ministry training opportunity to further my spiritual education for the glory of God!!!
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