My name is Sari Tjokro and I was born in Indonesia, but now I live in Melbourne, Australia. I came to Australia in late 2007 as an English student and Australia has been my home since then. I completed my Bachelor of Computer Science and Software Engineering in 2010 and I graduated from Master of Multimedia Technology in 2013. I mostly involve in the student ministry and serve in multimedia department in the church. I was born and being brought up in Christian family, but I did not believe in Jesus and His word. Even during those times, I considered the Bible as the most boring book that had ever been created. I did not really love the idea being Christian because of the misconception and misunderstanding of the way my parent introduced me to Christianity.
However everything started to changes when I began to study abroad. I have experienced miracles and wonders throughout that process. He gives me dream as one of His tools to communicate with me. Although, I experienced all of that, I still didn’t believe that God is there all the time looking after me. Even so, a week before I flew to Australia, I was so determine that I will not go to church in Australia and I refused to be a Christian back then.
Obviously, God have His own ways and He understands and He loves us uniquely. He knows how to win our heart in the specific ways. I flew to Australia with my parent and they just stayed for two weeks. During those weeks, God used it in mighty way. I was forced to look for a church. I went to the church where my cousin went to. During the service, there were a lot of questions about the existence of God and why I have to be in the Christian community. I was asking God (in my heart) what makes Christians so different than other religions? Surprisingly, the worship leader answered that question publicly.
Since then I surrendered my live to Jesus Christ.
I am not quite sure yet about my dream in ministry, but I know that I always have a dream to have and be in multicultural community. I don’t know, somehow I love the idea of diversity, especially when they believe in the same God as I do. It gives me the feeling that God is not bound by time, space or geographic area. I guess I love to call myself as evangelist and I believe that every one of us who called themselves a Christian, they are evangelists too. I think because I know how bad I was before Jesus saved me, John 3:16 become a Rhema in my life. I am not comfortable talking with people as I am introverted, but somehow when I see multitudes of unbeliever especially from different nations, I feel compelled to build relationship with them and share about Jesus and what He has done in my life.
Our comfort zone is the biggest challenge in our ministry in Australia. Australia is such a good place to live, with all the comfort and luxury facilities that we got, sometime it hinders us to do ministry because that is outside our comfort zone. My local church has been a great place to support me physically and spiritually. One of the examples is our student ministry in campus that we called MSF. MSF stands for Multicultural Student Fellowship. This club exists in 3 different universities across Melbourne. It has been a great tool for me to know a lot of people from many nations and share Jesus to their lives.
A scholarship with CLI is essential because I want to equip myself with theological education to support my ministry, but currently I am jobless and I am not able to afford any course if I had to pay for it.
I never pictured myself to be able to live overseas. I am still looking for the specific calling and life direction upon my life. As I am still fighting to get my permanent residency in Australia, I would like to request a prayer of guidance in my life, wisdom and understanding as I study the word and dwell in the word, God can reveal Himself and His secret plan in my life even more, and use my life testimony to bring more people to Christ. Pray for my spiritual growth, character growth and strength to obey God at any costs.
I was born in the United States of America. I attended church with my praying, loving father each and every sunday. I have seen how the talents of one person or many can be a great thing to use in the house of GOD. God gave us our talents to use in glorifying him and bringing about his kingdom. If you could sing, you sang. If you had spiritual gifts, loved Jesus with all your heart, you took your personality, your experience and you worked to bring others to Christ. I had always grown up around the gospel of Jesus Christ. My loving father had been a local minister and traveled with a gospel quartet of his school peers he had known as a teenager in school. I am grateful he was able to share all that with me growing up. I have always since I can remember, felt I had the calling on my life to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to others. I kept hearing the voice of God telling me to go beyond my testimonies, my teaching Sunday School and Preach. I kept doubting and staying “middle of the fence” just in service to God but not giving myself to him completely.
All that changed when my wayward daughter moved in with me and gave birth to my first grandchild who I loved dearly. I would not go beyond saying I loved her more than I loved God. I took care of this precious baby and despite that, family and children services got called in because my daughter had earned a reputation here in town. I knew the person I was and although I had references from my doctor and nurse friends and passed all requirements for having my grandchild, I did not win when the final court date came up. I lost. I was devastated and almost wanted to turn away from God. How could he leave me and not make sure I had my grandchild with me? I became depressed and stopped going to church. I was in a hole I did not want to climb out of and I did not understand how this could have happened. However, God spoke to me on August 10th and told me he had other plans for my grandchild’s life and I had to respect and accept that. I now knew that just because you are a child of God does not mean all will go your way. It all depends on God’s will for your life and the lives of those around you.
I still miss my grandchild with all my heart, but I do get a picture of her twice a year with no other contact. I am thankful for that. God showed me that I loved my grandchild to much and I was obsessed with having her with me. The people that have her now are good to her and all I can do is pray for her but through this experience, I opened up my heart and mind to realize that God wants me to become a minister of the gospel and spread the good news to others who are hurting and need to feel his divine touch.
I have only money sometimes enough to pay my bills and not always do I have that but I am on a mission to do what it is that God asks of me. My church family has done nothing but stand behind me and promoted me from being Sunday school teacher over the children to the adults now. I love all of them. I am thankful for CLI because I have looked for educational opportunities online and found nothing but bible study classes and i have done that and given the certificate to my pastor. It is time I had more to work with. I had no luck at finding what i was looking for online and decided one day to give it one more try and it happened. I was able to find Christian Leaders Institute and have been studying ever since.
A scholarship at CLI would mean so much to me because it would enable me to see my father’s dream come true but I would be doing the walking in his shoes with Christ by my side not him. He has gone on to be with our Lord and never got to preach but a few times in his life. That dream will be fulfilled by me.
CLI can continue to pray for me as I work hard to become a knowledgeable minister of the gospel and pray for my guidance that I will take the gospel with me every place I go and I, myself will always be in prayer for opportunities to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
My name is Amanda and I live in Killeen, Texas. I am 26 and a mother of 4. I have lived a troubled life. Battled physical and mental abuse and mental illness. I was broken. I thought God had abandoned me a long time ago. And then I had my children. 4 beautiful girls, ages 8,7,5, & 2.
My 7 year old daughter was born a with a congenital birth defect. My world fell apart all over again. But as I watched her grow and overcome every obstacle thrown her way, something kept pulling at me. I kept pushing it away and pushing it away. But my heart knew. A little voice in my head always resounded, “this is God. This is God’s love. God’s miracle”. So I opened up a little bit. Still hadn’t fully acknowledge or stepped foot into a church, but I stopped being bitter and started beng greatful for the things that I had.
Then a year ago when I was at my lowest point in life. Medical problems piling up with my daughter, family problems, financial problems, and battling my mental illness. I met a lady via Facebook over a conversation about a homeless man in our city. She and I cofounded an organization to feed the homeless. Everything coming out of our own pocket because we felt this was what we were meant to do. As people heard what we were doing they wanted to get involved. A Pastor of a local church asked us to help with their Thanksgiving meal and when I met him and his wife and attended a service out of respect for asking us to help, I felt at home. Everything clicked. Finally felt what had been missing: God.
6 months ago my partner’s husband answered his calling to become a minister. I followed them to help build and support their church. Our organization and church have combined to 1 ministry. We feed the homeless every Saturday evening and Monday mornings, offer laundry services twice a month, provide clothes and hygiene products, but most importantly we show them His love. Our ministry is in Killeen, Texas, next to a large military instillation. Our church is located in the heart of downtown, where we can reach the most homeless and needy.
I hope to better my education to become a good Christian woman so my daughters have an example to live by, to be able to better serve my community and church, and to be obedient to His calling.
Christian Leaders Institute’s scholarship program is a tremendous blessing because it allows me to answer my calling and better myself without the financial burden. Thank you!