My name is Kristina. I was born in the United States and grew up in Pennsylvania. I am thirty-five years old with an amazing family and a close unit of Christian brothers and sisters. I currently live in Miami, Florida and have resided here for the past thirteen years. I often ask myself how I got here, and where I’m headed. This is my story of how the supernatural power of God has anointed my life.
Growing up in a small town and remote area of the United States was at times very difficult for me. I often had the feeling that I had to get out, however, I had three siblings and two working parents that helped. My mother is of Italian ancestry, and my father of Polish and Russian descent. Both were second generation immigrants, however, they brought their Catholic faith with them and raised us in the Catholic church. We were all baptized as babies, went to mass every Sunday, catechism and progressed to be confirmed Catholics, but God had other plans for my family. When my second brother was in college, he had an amazing encounter with Jesus Christ. Jesus showed him that He was the only way to God. He then came home telling all of us about this “Jesus”, that we thought we always knew, but never really did. He told us that we could actually feel Him and have an intimate relationship with Him that would go beyond just saying a prayer. I didn’t believe him. It seemed too difficult to have to change who I was and stop doing the things I liked. I was stubborn and couldn’t believe that Jesus was more than going through the repetitive motions of a Catholic mass or that He wasn’t just a God of judgement. But then, God began to touch each one of us, and one by one my family experienced the salvation of Christ. I began attending a Non-denominational, Bible-based church where I got water baptized and baptized in the Holy Spirit. As I grew I realized my view of God had been all wrong and that He was in fact an all forgiving, never failing, loving God.
God began to reveal things to me about who I was to become and what He intended to do with my life. While attending college for the performing arts with a dream of singing opera, He began to open my eyes to the supernatural world. At first I saw angels which then progressed to seeing demons as well. I did not understand what was going on because none of the churches I had ever attended spoke about this. It seemed surreal and frightening. I was also living in sin at this point so I thought I was being punished in some way. I begged God to take it away. I was scared and living in fear of what I would see next. I continued to love God, go to church, and read the Bible, but I knew I was missing something.
A couple of years later, I relocated to Miami, Florida, to live with a man I had met while in college. I waitressed, bartended, and pursued my music career as best I could. In the meantime, I still attended church and loved the Lord. In Miami I experienced a multitude of cultures. There were people from the Caribbean, South America, and Europe, as well as many who practiced religions like Catholicism, Voodooism, Santeria, and Islam. God allowed people in my life that practiced these religions, which in turn, exposed me indirectly to their beliefs and potential attacks. During that time I had to deal with fear, anxiety, spirits moving objects in my home, mental torment, physical pain, trials and monetary attack. It wasn’t uncommon for strange things to happen in my home. I remember late one evening I was alarmed by a loud noise coming from the back of the house. As I got closer to this frightening sound, I realized that it was a small metal cross hanging from my bedroom doorknob. It was being pushed back and forth but not by any wind, fan, or air conditioning. This spirit paralyzed me with fear. I didn’t know what to do. I had never been taught how to deal with anything like that. I immediately thought of my time in college and all of the old fears came rushing back. I remembered what demons felt like, smelled like, and the fear they brought. But that night, I refused to be controlled by any evil spirit. Not anymore! Not this time! Shaking uncontrollably, I raised my hands, spoke loudly and said, “In Jesus mighty name, I rebuke you! The God of peace will crush you under my feet! Leave my home now and never return! In Jesus’s name.” The cross immediately stopped moving.
This type of thing continued in my home for years. There are too many to list, but each time I would seek God’s wisdom and He would help me know what to do to get the victory. Eventually, Jesus released new gifts in me that helped me to not only deal with my own personal attacks, but also to help others in need of personal or home deliverance. I began to seek God’s face, to pursue Him like I never had before. I found the courage to ask Him to give me back the visions of prophecy and discernment that He had once blessed me with and because our God is so big, He did just that. In addition, because of His wonderful mercy and grace, He generously added healing and deliverance to the list.
I felt as though I was being called to a bigger purpose; a purpose of finally putting Him first in every area of my life, and also to go to Bible School. Initially I questioned if I was hearing Him correctly. There I was under constant attack from witchcraft and voodoo and He was asking me to study? I decided to go with this crazy notion and God began to move when I would step out in faith. I would be out having dinner and complete strangers would approach me. God would then use me to encourage them with a word of knowledge or prophesy, lay hands on them, or minister healing. I remember walking with some friends one evening and feeling led to speak with a man waiting to catch the bus. While my friends were in a store, I prayed, “God, I feel you want me to speak to this man, but I doubt what I’m hearing is from you. If you have something to say to him through me, please let him walk up to me.” At this very moment, he walked toward me. My heart was racing with anticipation of what the Lord was about to do. My friends came out of the store and were rushing me to leave. I asked them to wait just a moment and began to minister to this man. God showed me some trauma that had occurred on the left side of his brain. I asked him what had happened as a child to this part of his head. He then explained that when he was a toddler his father would regularly beat this side of his head with a bat. A terrible sadness rushed over me as I stood listening to his story. Then I felt the Holy Spirit show up and say, “Reach forth your hand Kristina, I am going to heal this man.” I asked him if I could pray for him. He looked and saw his bus was there, but said he would wait for the next one because he wanted prayer. I reached out my hand and prayed healing over his head. At the moment, his eyes turned from brown to blue. When the prayer was finished, they returned back to brown. There were witnesses on the street watching this amazing moment. He cried, hugged and thanked me. I let him know it was because God had not forgotten about him, and that He wanted to see his life move into a place of healing. I also shared that God wanted to restore his personal life with his family. What an amazing moment that was for this man!
I learned that night to always obey God when He wants me to speak to someone because He will do great things for those who will receive it. This became a very common event for me; speaking God’s mercies, miracles, and love into people’s lives while they were at bars, restaurants, clubs, or on the streets. Through me He was giving these people hope, while at the same time, He was building my faith and showing me that He really does want to use me in this lifetime to walk as Christ once did with the anointing of His Holy Spirit.
These are but a few factors that prompted my desire of a ministry for God. CLI is giving me the opportunity to live out God’s purpose for my life with access to this online school, and the scholarship will allow me to get it done now. I firmly believe finding this school was a divine-timed appointment. Although it is just the beginning of my formal study, I believe God will use this school, my learning of the Hebrew language, as well as all of the meaningful things He has taught me in the last eighteen years of being born again for His ministry. I feel that God is moving me into a ministry of deliverance, healing, and prophecy through evangelism. You could all pray that this ministry will reach the lost in the Miami nightlife scene, the homeless on the streets, and eventually reach many nations. Africa and the Middle East are on my heart, but the Jewish people and the land of Israel particularly weigh heavy on my heart. There are so many people that need God’s amazing miracles, love, supernatural encounters, and much more that he has to offer.
My local church is behind me on this purposeful adventure. I meet with the pastor’s wife as she mentors me through this time of my life, and I also have the support of the worship pastor, as I am a member of the worship team.
In conclusion, my story is but a small piece of the body of Christ and CLI is a tool God has given as a blessing to use me in serving His ministry. I am grateful to have the opportunity to pursue God and His work with all of my heart, soul, and strength.
My name is Crystal Anlage. I currently reside in the United States, where we are free to worship in any manner we choose. For that, I am forever grateful! I can openly share my faith, share the word of God, and bring others to faith, by sharing my story, and sharing God’s love.
As a small child, I was taken to church by my grandmother, but in my teen years, after some terrible experiences in my life, turned away from God. I stopped going to church, reading my bible, even doubted everything I had ever learned. I lived that way, denying God, for about 16 years. After the loss of my father to cancer, I was in a very bad place emotionally and spiritually. I can look back now, and see that even then, God was stirring something inside me, shaping my life. This year, I had an experience I can only describe as divine intervention. I was at a very low point in my life. While I had a good marriage, it wasn’t “great”. My husband and I, like most couples, got into an argument over money. It wasn’t major, and we resolved it before he went to bed. I stayed up, needing some time to myself. I felt the immediate need to pray, which was something I had not done in over 15 years. In that moment, I felt something happen inside me, something changed. I felt a presence around me, I felt warm. Once I started praying, it was like someone flipped a switch, pulled a plug. I let every hurt feeling, emotion, thought just came flooding out of me, and I wept uncontrollably. I prayed for what seemed like forever. When I finished, I felt somehow changed, different. I felt at peace, I felt totally calm. I called my brother, who is a pastor, and asked him what had happened to me. He told me that God heard my prayers.
My dreams for ministry would be to reach out to others, just like me, who were far from God. People who feel like they aren’t good enough, they are too damaged, too unloved. I know how it feels to have that kind of shame. The outcasts, the tattooed, young, old, criminals. I am not scared or ashamed to share the love and grace of God with ANYONE, near or far.
I think I identify more with the word Evangelist. It means a person who seeks to convert others to the Christian faith, especially by public preaching, preacher, missionary, gospeler, proselytizer, crusader. I want my life to be able to encourage others that it is never too late. God is merciful and will forgive you, no matter how far you think you have fallen. It’s never too far for God.
Before my baptism in October 2014, I was asked to speak on camera about my experience. The video was shown on baptism day. I spoke about my life before Christ, and how my life had changed since I became born again. I didn’t realize the effect that sharing my story would have on other people until after that day. To hear from others that they identified with my story, they understood what I had been through, and how far I’d come. I never knew that MY story could help others. That is what fueled my drive to become involved in ministry, and I was accepted into the ministry internship at my church.
I live in a major metropolitan city, where it seems that crime and worldly living have taken over. The emphasis on Christian living has been greatly pushed aside for money chasing, drug selling and other worldly activities.
My local church is Elevate Life Church in Jacksonville, FL. They have encouraged me from day 1. They have allowed me to lead in areas at church, volunteer, and accepted me into the internship, where I have grown in faith. Without their support, I don’t know how I could do this.
My family’s role in my ministry calling has been HUGE. My husband is my biggest supporter. He encourages me to follow my heart and do what I love. He was also baptized with me, by my brother, in October, and is also growing in his faith. My brother has been named campus pastor at our new location, as we are branching out all over our city! My mother supports us both.
The scholarship is incredibly important for my ministry dreams. Without it, it wouldn’t be possible for me to follow my heart and persue my dreams. I have a crippling amount of student loan debt, and I can’t afford to apply for more student loans. It’s great to be training for ministry in Florida where I live.
Please continue to pray for me as I persue my ministry dreams. This will not be easy, as I have to juggle a full time job and home life, as well as my internship responsibilities.
Shari Kasten
MI USA
Christian Leaders Institute
I was born dead on January 21, 1974, after coming out feet first. A Christian nurse on duty ran in the hall to beg my dad, who was waiting in the hall, to pray while she attempted to resuscitate me. Twelve to fifteen minutes later my pulse started up again and I began breathing on my own.
I don’t know if this is why I loved God from my earliest days. Maybe I met Him for a moment before I came back.
I am the fourth of five children born to a Vietnam veteran and a former elementary school teacher. From a very young age I remember contemplating God, loving Him, and praying to Him. As a child I sang my best in church and practiced at home singing like Christian contemporary singers and knew that I was always singing to the Lord and if he wanted to use me more in that area, He would do it.
My favorite class in the Christian school I attended was Bible class. My teacher in grades Kindergarten through four was very good at making it exciting while going through the history of the Bible. She had us memorize many details for the tests. Grades Kindergarten – 4 were in the Lower room while grades five through nine were in the Upper room. Even though I am only forty years old, I was taught in a two-room school house, even in the freezing cold winters of small town Minnesota.
I was baptized as a baby into a Reformed denomination (and also baptized as an adult in January of 2014 for the sake of other Christians who desired it.) My two older brothers are in ministry. One of them is a senior pastor while the other is in leadership teaching seminary classes to inmates in prisons. My oldest sister is an elementary school teacher with five children, while my younger sister is a home-maker with five children. I have been primarily a home-maker for 18 years. God has blessed me with seven children and three step-children. The last two years I have been taking classes at Grand Rapids Community College and at Christian Leaders Institute.
While taking care of children and cleaning the home I listen to Christian radio – about five sermons a day. I like to have my mind busy while doing rote work. I enjoyed listening to Chuck Swindoll as a child, since my mom listened to him. I also listen to David Jeremiah, Alistair Begg, Irwin Lutzer, Tony Evans, Ravi Zacharias, Sinclair Fergusen and many more preachers while doing housework, both local pastors and pastors throughout the U.S. After more than ten years of listening to about five sermons a day from five or more different pastors, my mind has been sharpened and I am able to make (without much effort) short sermons for the children, based on Bible texts, for devotions.
It started with my own children. He or she that is faithful in little is faithful in much. This does not mean that all of my children follow the example I have set. But before God, I did my best. The people I want to minister to the most are teenagers and women. This American culture is only getting more and more difficult to stay faithful to Christ in. I want to help everyone, but especially women and teenagers with their struggles. Especially, I want to help people get up when they fall, and lead them to restoration in Jesus Christ.
I really enjoyed studying with Christian Leaders Institute. This is not the least because I found that my many years of reading Alfred Edersheim, Matthew Henry, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, Chuck Swindoll, A.W. Pink, and other non-fiction Christian books on missionaries and theology while breast-feeding babies paid off. Many of the classes at CLI came rather naturally to me because of the decision I made about twenty years ago not to waste my time. If I was going to read a book, it was going to make a difference in my life. One book that proved to be a huge turning point in my life is, “John Newton, from Disgrace to Amazing Grace” by Jonathan Aitkins copyright 2007. It is amazing. Every Christian would greatly benefit from reading it.
The reason this ordination will help me is because I need more of the prayers of God’s people and the Holy Spirit poured on me and my family as I assist them and others by His leading.
The words that I would most identify with in this ordination would be Pastor of women and teenagers, Youth Leader, or maybe Evangelist to women in prison. I think all of these are possibilities for me.
I felt God’s calling on my life since I was very young, to serve God’s people. I didn’t understand it could be valid in any way, except by being a mother. The turning point was when I read Darius Jankiewicz’s in depth biblical article on Phebe and the early churches’ blessing on some mature women to be in places of church leadership. Women must not usurp the church authority any more than a man should, of course. Deborah the prophetess was also a “mother in Israel.”
I have always wanted to teach my children everything the Lord taught me through devotions. This forced me to learn how not to be boring. Kids will not put up with boring. I read Christian literature voraciously and listen to sermons on Christian radio while I work in the home. I believe God wants me to serve His people. He wants to give me more of a ministry outreach than only my family and children.
Some of the unique challenges in this area of Grand Rapids, MI are that there are so many denominations while there is not always great love amongst each other. There is also not enough support for the large population in Grand Rapids, MI that is divorced and remarried. There is quite a bit of denominational animosity in this city. It is not the greatest soil for new converts.
My local church has supported us by giving us food and lots of it. They have prayed over me and my family and laid hands on me for prayer at prayer meetings. My wayward son was brought back to God with the help of this church.
I have the abilities to help teenagers and women. Because of the ultra- conservative church I was a member of my whole life till I was 35, when I needed support there was no one was there to help but God alone. Older women were not available. I want to be there for women and busy mothers with young children. It is the hardest job. I want to be there for insecure teenage girls and boys. I have five sons, three daughters, and two step sons, and one step-daughter. Most of them are in their teens.
If Christian Leaders Institute wasn’t here, there would be no way of someone judging my knowledge or displaying my abilities to minister to people.
Thank God for Christian Leaders Institute! They have become my spring-board into serving God with all my talents.
Pray for me and my husband, who has a doctorate in Spiritual Counselling, to be a huge blessing to the whole Church in Grand Rapids, MI. My husband counsels male divorcees, teenage guys and parent/teen relationships, while I counsel women, mothers, teenagers and children. Together we do marital counselling. Please pray that the devil doesn’t get between God, my husband, and I, in any shape or form, ever, and that God mightily blesses us to have a faithful and fruitful ministry.