My name is Kristina MacDonald, I am 32 years old, married and the mother of two beautiful children. I live in a rural community in Atlantic Canada. I was raised in a christian home, but had a falling away from my church when I was a young teen. Shortly after my parents separated, I moved to the city. At age 19 my world was turned upside down when I lost my brother to a sudden unexplained death, I struggled dealing with this for a long time.
One year after my daughter was born I had the opportunity to move to the house I grew up in and work in my mother’s restaurant business. It was at this point I started turning back to God. I realized I wanted my daughter to be raised knowing God and going to the beautiful country church in the same way that I had. After all, a lot of the congregation was not only family through God but blood family. I started helping in the church with small tasks, trying to fit in.
Fast forwarding over the years, I had many difficult events take place, my husband become physically disabled and unable to work, my daughter and myself were diagnosed with a genetic heart condition, my great grandmother fell ill, our taking care of her, then her passing away, and most recently, I lost my job. Each trial drew me closer to God, making me rely on Him more and encouraging me to share and teach others about Him. I am now very involved with my church. For the past 7 years I have been a youth leader and Sunday School teacher. I also hold a few offices in the church.
I feel I have been very blessed to be able to take CLI’s online training. With my current financial situation, I would not be able to have this training any other way. I hope to use what I learn at CLI to further my understanding of God’s Word, to help be a better teacher, and help bring revival, to the church, community and beyond.
My name is Tiago and I am Brazilian. I was born in 1986, in a small town in northern Brazil. When I was 8, my parents were called to the gospel of Jesus. I was baptized and made my public profession of faith in a Presbyterian Church. Since that time, I myself became a Christian, or at least I thought so. However, until I was 18, I never really took my Christian life very seriously. I lived “without God in the world”, deceiving others and myself. I attended the service and had Christian friends, but I didn’t know Christ.
When I was 18, I moved to another city to go to college. I applied for a bachelor degree in Engineering of Materials, but I couldn’t complete it. At that time, God started to give me strong convictions of sin. I had no more peace with sin and I hated myself because I was unable to live a better life as a Christian. After a long time struggling with the Holy Spirit I came to understand that I needed a Savior. And God presented me, through the Bible, my dear Savior Jesus Christ. He was there all the time, but I didn’t know him. Since then I have rested in Him for salvation and not myself.
When I was 26 I moved to my current city where I work for the Brazilian Prosecution Office. I also teach a youth class at the Presbyterian Church. I always had the desire of having a sound theological education. My ministry dream is to became a bi-vocacional leader and work as a Youth Leader. When I found CLI, I was very happy because we don’t have a seminary in my city.
CLI gives me the opportunity to prepare myself for the challenges we face in Brazil. Our people are suffering much because our spiritual and secular leaders are extremely corrupt. The prosperity theology has ruined many souls. There is a cloud of despair in the air, a fear of the future. The spiritual condition of the people is awful. The youth face the danger of drugs, sexual liberation and unemployment. Even the Christian Youth are affected. We have young people who need encouragement to live out the Christian faith. They don’t want to preach the gospel. They don’t have a life of prayer and intimacy with the Lord. That’s our deplorable condition. So, the work is hard and abundant but many are the opportunities as well. My pastor is encouraging me to pursue theological education, so that I can help more effectively in the ministry of the church. My wife, Ilsa, is also very understanding, and is giving me support.
CLI is a unique opportunity for me, and I will improve with it the best I can. May God bless you and strengthen you so that we all continue to fulfill his mandate.
Hi,
My name is Stuart Lamb. I’m an Englishman living in Thailand. I’ve been here for two years now – before I tell you what I’m doing here, let me tell you a little about my background.
I was born to an Irish mother and English father and was brought up as a Catholic, attending Catholic schools (one of which was monastic). I loved God from an early age….even re-enacting church services to my fellow students (I was at boarding school). Whilst I felt ‘close’ to God during my schooling, I don’t think that my walk with Him had really begun. This was to change drastically after I had left school. I realised that my Biblical knowledge was far from adequate and so I sought to rectify the situation. I picked up a Bible to check out something that I’d been told…..the Book became my best companion and I started to get ‘personal’ with God. I gave my life to the Lord and was reborn…I’ve been suffering ridicule ever since…..and I thank God for it because this testing has made me stronger….and led me here to CLI.
In the UK, I lived in a few different places according to my employment. I was blessed to find strong Biblical churches wherever I found myself living. I met many wonderful Christians. I have been involved in many in-house church ministries and also been a Street Pastor and was on course to be a Port Chaplain….I’ve always been passionate about sharing my Faith with others….so, here I am in Thailand…..evangelising. My dream was to travel around Thailand evangelising and also encouraging the small churches which I found along the way. I can hear people say “your dream WAS to…..”? Yes, the reason I’ve entitled my submission ‘Revelation’ is that I now believe God is steering me towards a pastoral role…..I have no idea where….but He knows so I will wait upon the Lord.
I would like to share something amazing with you now; one sunny weekend in UK, I was helping someone clear a field of stones and boulders as they wanted to use the land as a riding school. It was hot….I had sweat pouring into my eyes….if you’ve every experienced this, you’ll know how much it stings! Well, to cut a long story short, I lost the vision in my left eye…..and then in my right eye. The casualty diagnosis was that I had detached retinas caused by macular degeneration. After further examination I was told they could save the vision in my right eye, but I would never see again through my left eye. Whilst I was waiting for the retinas to be reattached, I could do nothing at all and stayed in bed. The long and short of this is that my vision was restored in both eyes (despite the retina not being attached to my left eye)…..but even better than my sight being restored was the ‘sight’ given to me by the Lord…..my eyes were truly opened! Forgive the pun but I’ve not looked back since!
So, I’m here in Bangkok to evangelize….but over the period I’ve been studying here….I now feel that the time is close to take-up a pastoral role. The biggest challenge I face (in either role) is that Thailand is a staunchly Buddhist country…but the blessing is that the Thais are tolerant and allow multi-faiths.
The small churches, here in Thailand, operate on a shoestring budget, so the support I get is fellowship and encouragement. I support myself financially through teaching English. Of late, I’ve had more and more opportunity to speak to people about Christianity. I want to be as best-equipped to do this as possible. This course at CLI is God sent…I can do this course and eventually end up with a Bachelor of Divinity….this will open up so many more possibilities here, maybe even help me in obtaining a ‘religious’ visa which would afford me much more security in this country….but it will (and is) drawing me ever closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ, the only Son of the Almighty Father.
Please pray for my success in Kingdom building, for my continued walk with God, for those that I’ve already preached to and for those I’ve yet to meet. Please pray that doors would be opened to me and that I fulfil my new calling to become a Pastor.
May the Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.