My name is Gil Paiz, I am 28 years old, husband of a beautiful and amazing woman, father of a very energetic and special little boy named Isaac, and son of a Christian church pastor, now a missionary in Honduras. I lived my childhood and part of my teen years in Honduras where I was under the care of my two aunts because my parents had divorced. After that they both moved to the United States but in 2001, my father brought me to the states where I resided in Maryland. My dad was a pastor of a small hispanic church there. Recently I moved to New York where ministry is easier than other places, we are not persecuted for preaching and still have freedom of religion. It is also challenging, since people have greater opportunities to get all the material stuff they want, they are focused on working every second of their lives to pay for what they have.
Being a preacher’s son gave me the opportunity and blessing to be raised at church, I had my times of “rebellion” but always returned to the right path. In one of those times I decided that the church I was assisting at was not for me, I wanted to serve the Lord but the church never gave me the opportunity, so I started going to my cousin’s church. I went to their Sunday school where they were talking about the prodigal son, which made me think about my spiritual situation. When the class was finished all the classes got together and the pastor gave the call to receive Jesus as Savior, I went forward, I knew it was the day the Lord had prepared for me. About a year later, I got baptized, and started serving the Lord as a kids club leader.
I have been through a lot of things in my life, and I had no one there to tell me not to do the things I was doing. I am not making excuses for what I did, but one thing is for sure, I would have loved to have had someone there to guide me. That’s my ministry dream, to help youth come to know the Lord, to help them learn how to walk with God, and to be of assistance to them with any questions, doubts, or issues the enemy brings into their lives and hearts.
Personally I identify myself with the ministry of a youth leader, even though I have been called pastor many times.
When I was in Maryland, my pastor always treated me like a leader. He used to sit down with me and tell me about the ministry and the church; he even told me that I looked like a pastor. In July of 2013, God opened the door for our church to go to Puerto Rico as missionaries, during our visit to the various places, the local church leaders called me pastor all the time. I did not see that as a call from God until the last day we were there, at a dinner with the main church in Puerto Rico, one of the local pastors came to me and said, “you have a calling to preach the word of God.” After that he gave me a book about pastoral ministry. To me, that was a calling from God.
I mentioned in the beginning that ministry in NY can be easier because Christians are not persecuted here, but it is also challenging because people have their hearts set on material possessions and addictions, especially in the area where our church meets, it is filled with drug addicts and dealers. However, we understand that the Lord has placed us here for a reason.
My church supports me in everything the Lord tells me to do, but as for this part of my life and ministry, they still do not know that I am taking classes or pursuing ministry training, but I am sure that if they knew about it they would support me 100%.
I come from a family of ministers, or so I have been told, my great grandfather was a missionary, and my father a pastor, church planter and now missionary.
A CLI scholarship would be of huge help in my calling to serve the Lord. Right now I am in charge of the youth group at my church, by getting the scholarship I would be given a chance to learn the bible a lot deeper and to pass that on to the group. I looked for an affordable option for ministry training but unfortunately without a job for almost a year, I could not find anything. I came across CLI and fit right in. By finishing the getting started class, I proved to myself that not only could I do it, but also found that this is a really high quality training.
Please pray for my spiritual life, to not give up on this new part of my life and for my family to always understand that I am doing this for the Lord, not for me. And also for them to help me get through each class with their support.
My name is D. Zoe Young. I am currently living in India and doing bi-vocational ministry through teaching and reaching out to a local village and tribal area. Previous to this, I was in Turkey and had the opportunity to share a “first Bible moment” with a family of Muslims.
It all started with a phone call and an invitation to go to the UAE to teach Kindergarten.
I sat in my mentors living room and heard the Spirit call to my heart, “Will you tell them about me?”
The answer from my heart was “Yes Lord”.
Four days later I was on a plane to Dubai.
That was four years ago.
From the time I started this course to now many things have changed. I thought I was going to join a church and be an assistant pastor/teacher. I never dreamed that I would be journeying around the world. Even as I began this incredible journey, I didn’t see the ministry that God had already laid out in front of me. It never entered my mind that my teaching profession could lead into a place of ministry. But it has and it is quite amazing to me how I missed that!
I started the CLI courses with the intent of getting the “paper” that seemed to be needed every time I tried to move out into ministry. Having taken these courses (and I intend to keep going) God has revealed so much to me in regards to my ministry calling, my own growth in Him, correction, re-evaluation, and truly a sense of being “re-born”. God used each different course to show me an area of my life that needed some work, or cleaning up. I never thought that courses like this could have such a profound effect on my walk with Christ. I am excited to be an Officiant Ordained Clergy.
There are many things that I do as a bi-vocational missionary that are covered under this ordination, and now I will have the training and the paperwork to add credibility to what I have been doing in the Kingdom work. As I move further down the road of missions, I feel more prepared to face the challenges that will come. I know that even just the growth from taking the courses that I have experienced has been a “mission” all its own.
I am very thankful to all the teachers of CLI for their own dedication, time, and talent that they have lavished on us.
I am looking forward toward the next “unexpected journey”.
Ed Butler, Royse City, TX
My name is Ed Butler. I was born in Berwyn, Illinois in 1961. I was raised in the Joliet, Illinois area. My parents were not Christians when I was born but started attending a church in Hickory Hills Illinois shortly after my birth. I grew up in that church and was saved at the age of 9.
I started attending a church in Romeoville, Illinois when I was a teenager through an invitation from one of my best friends. They had a program there called Word of Life, as well as a gym where we played basketball often. It was in this church that I met my wife, Beth.
I also had the opportunity to go to work for Beth’s dad while still in High School. As it turns out I not only had a career path laid out for me, I also of course married my wife. I now run an AV company AST-AV . We install sound, video and lighting systems in churches.
After the birth of my two children, Lauren in March 1990 and then Nathan in August 1991, God began really placing several men in my path that challenged me about my walk with the Lord. At one point I read a book called Halftime by Bob Buford. In it he described how God had led him to spend the second half of his life in service to the Lord. I remember thinking how that would be an amazing Goal.
As things began to work out in my life, we moved to Texas in 2000. I became increasingly convinced that God was working and calling me to ministry. I began volunteering as a discipleship intern at Ridgecrest about 5 yrs. ago. I am presently serving as the minister of discipleship at Ridgecrest Baptist Church in Greenville, TX. While I had studied the Bible and taught SS and led small groups for years I had no formal ministry education. That was ok for a while but as I made the transition to a part time paid position, it became clear that If I wanted to grow in my work and really do the job God was calling me to, I needed to find a way to go back to school. Well with running my own company with AST-AV and working part time at the church there was no real way for me to go away to school. Obviously, that is where CLI has come in to play. To say that CLI is an answer to prayer is an understatement. Not only are the classes excellent, but the decision by CLI to now offer the degree program has been a perfect fit for me.
My goals are to complete the program and pastor a church. I work in several areas within the church. I head up the Care team and teach the young adult class on Sunday’s. We have a small group that meets on Tuesday nights and I work as a Chaplain at the local jail a couple of nights a month. In addition I handle a number of the benevolence requests that the church receives each week.
The challenges in our area are not unlike probably any other in the states. While we live in the so called Bible belt the truth is a sense of apathy and such has settled into many peoples lives. it seems as though people only really look to God when there is a crisis. That being said we still are seeing fruit from our efforts. Just not to the extent that we believe we should.
God has been really working in our ministry. He has continued to bless with opportunities to see numbers of people come to faith in Christ and numerous others get actively involved in our SS and Small groups. I find the material extremely helpful to me as I teach and continue to minister to those God puts in my path. I am looking forward to taking the class on Church Planting as soon as it is available as that may be a step we look towards. Please pray for God’s continued direction and blessing as I continue in Texas Ministry Training with CLI.