“My job is very much pastoral: shepherding guys basically the same age as me, and calling them to Holiness. I have been spurred on lately by Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” The burden God has placed on my heart is to call everyone around me to righteousness. There is no time to waste in life pursuing meaningless activities, so I want to be seeking God’s heart daily, and calling others into that with me. I don’t have a clear idea for long-term pastoral ministry right now, but I know that God has called me to this ministry and this neighborhood for the time being. The local church I came from is supporting me financially, and I am currently being mentored by one of the pastors. As a ministry we have a good relationship with the churches in our neighborhood, and I have started attending one of them regularly.” – Joshua Stowie, student of CLI
Pastoral Love And Care From One Who Knows Pain, Brokenness, And Loss
My name is Joshua Stowie. I was born in 1994 in Grand Rapids, Michigan to my parents Gary (a fellow CLI student) and Kathy. I am the second youngest of 5 (three boys and two girls). I was raised in a Christian home by loving and God-fearing parents. As a family we attended church every Sunday, and I was a part of the middle school youth group. In the spring of 2008 we lost our house and moved into a rental home farther out of the city. At the same time we left our church of fourteen years and started looking for somewhere else to attend, all while transitioning from middle school to high school. It was during that summer between that I was introduced to the church where I have been attending for six years (I took out the now), and where I committed my life to the Lord.
My older sister and I became involved with the youth group there and was plugged in with small groups. Over the course of that year we built a great relationship bond and spurred each other on. That fall I committed my life to Christ on a retreat with the youth group. In June 2009 we went on a missions trip to Newark, New Jersey, which is where my passion for missions and love for Jesus birthed. Later that summer my sister and I decided to get baptized together by our youth pastor, Derek Taatjes. That marked the beginning of 5 very crazy, emotional, and transient years leading me to where I am today.
January 2010, 5 months after my baptism, I got a call early in the morning from my sister’s friend telling me that she couldn’t find Kristin (my sister). I woke my parents up, and we started calling around. Later that morning the County Sheriff came to our house to tell us that Kristin died in a snowmobile accident early that morning. That began the hardest week of my entire life. I look back on the week and know that the love and comfort of Jesus is the only reason I made it through the week, and the reason I can look back and still bless God for the time I had with her. After her death I went into a time of finding my identity in girls: the ones that would give me attention, and the ones that I could manipulate. This went on until the following summer when I went on a mission trip with the ministry for which I now work. From that trip on it has been a journey of learning to respect women and stepping up as a man of God.
The spring of 2011 brought about another tragedy in my life, and in our church. I woke up to my friend breaking into my house to tell me that our youth pastor passed away in a house fire early that morning. I knew him well, so it weighed on me a lot when I realized that both people I was in the tub with when I got baptized had now gone to be with our Father. Derek’s wife asked me to speak at his funeral, which was terrifying, and one of my first times speaking in front of more than a thousand people. I realized that day that I have had a unique experience with losing people close to me, and I have a message to share. It is these two events that have prompted me to pursue ministry; realizing that there isn’t time to waste in this life: Jesus is coming soon.
Throughout my high school years I was connected with the Bridge Street House of Prayer in Grand Rapids, and after I did one year of College, not feeling a direct calling, they asked me to come staff the mission school they were starting. I am now working there full-time, raising my own pastoral support over the past two years. My job is youth discipleship, and maintenance for our facilities. Our mission school is a discipleship training school; it is eight months long. The first phase is teaching and living in our community, the second phase is global outreach to either Guatemala or India, and the third phase is back in our community: being prepared to be sent out to live a life of mission.
I am going to be in pastoral ministry in some form for my entire life, and pastoral ministry training from CLI would provide me with the teaching that I need to be effective in it. Pray for me as I follow the Lord’s calling for my life. I don’t yet know if I am going to be in this same pastoral ministry next year, or if God is calling me to return to school full-time. In this time be praying also that God would provide me with the financial support to keep doing what I am doing, and not need to worry as much about whether or not the money will come in each week. God is good, and He has set my path before me.
CLI’s Pastoral Training Program
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“My Pastor, as good a friend as he is, does not know all my story, he does know about my calling. I did my best to explain it to him. He knows I am doing an online ministry course, but does not know the extent of it yet, but he soon will. I will be telling him as much as I can about the online ministry course, and, as I am asking you also now, I will ask him for a prayer for the strength and wisdom to continue in the right direction, with Jesus’ help of course.” – CLI Student, Darin Pearman
Online Ministry Course- Getting Past the Spiritual Attacks
My name is Darin Pearman. I was born in London in 1961, I was not raised as a church-going child. My parents, ex-choir members, insisted that my brother and I attend Sunday School, but I rebelled so they dropped the enforcement. Religion and its associated melodrama, was no more than a source of ridicule and jokes for myself and my “friends.” Later I became the object of their bullying and ridicule and the school punching bag for the first nine years of school. (This led to some psychological issues which were only dealt with recently.)
In 1975 our family moved to Montreal, Canada. My father, a Technical Design Engineer, accepted a new job with Brown-Boveri. Unfortunately, the level of education he required meant he was hardly ever at home. Like his dad before him, he didn’t show any affection to his children either. So although I knew my father growing up, he was not available to me as a loving parent. Anyway, once we had settled into our new life I resolved never to allow myself to be bullied again. Unfortunately, that had the reverse effect, and I became unapproachable to many. This carried over to my college years until I flunked out in 1981. During that time I turned to the drug culture and rock music while I worked my first real job.
About then I met my first wife, we dated for two years before we got married. (She already had a son) By this time my rocker lifestyle had cost me my job so I was unemployed. We survived another two years, having had a daughter by this time, when she left me for my best friend. I managed to get custody of my daughter as she had to work for a living.
After a few failed relationships, I thought I had finally found ‘the one’, and after getting a payout for a back injury at work, we moved back to London, England, to start a new life in 1992. I got a job working as a salesman for a large electrical retailing company and worked my way up through the ranks to become a manager within two years. Unfortunately, my partner had become mentally abusive to my daughter, and because I was often away from home, I didn’t know about it. By her fourteenth birthday, she had discovered boys and booze. I found myself having to go and fetch her from school, quite drunk, whilst in the middle of a stock audit at work. After getting into yet another relationship to try and get a mother figure in my daughter’s life, she ran away from home. I didn’t have any real contact with her for six years.
The new relationship I was in became like a prison sentence. The woman I was with became more and more mentally and emotionally domineering to the point where I was being slapped and beaten in front of her children and brother. I was living in fear of her, and her father and brother, since she had convinced me they were quite capable of murder as they had both done it before. By this time, I had resigned from retail, and had become a bus driver. I had risen to the rank of supervisor, when I finally snapped, I couldn’t handle the emotional abuse at home anymore. I was, quite literally, sitting on the bedroom floor with a 100 antidepressants in one hand and a glass of water in the other when a still small voice stopped me. Six months later, I went out, stood in the middle of a field and shouted out, “God of the Universe, Whoever You are, take me away from all this!” I was totally broken. (Summer 2006). I carried on in this relationship for a another ten months when I made up my mind that I was going to leave whether I lived or died.
So in May of 2007, I found myself with no wife, no family, no daughter, nowhere to live, and as far as I knew, no future. I was still working and had a little money with me, but I didn’t even have a bank account. This is when God began to change my life for the better. Unbeknownst to me, the lady who was running our canteen at work had somehow taken a liking to me, and had offered to put me up in the house where she was staying. This Christian, African (Ghanaian) lady actually wanted to help me. Even though I briefed her on my situation, she still said yes, and, within two weeks, we had become more than just friends. In those two weeks, she had gotten me to go to her church and my daughter had called for a reconciliation! This wonderful lady and I are now married (2010), and I have, along with my daughter and her partner, two wonderful grandchildren. God is so good!
Because of my past, my wife and I went through some very rocky patches, but with the help of our faithful, loving Pastor, we are still together. We still argue from time to time, but the events are less frequent, and less eventful, except for the beginning of this year (2014). Due to what I can only describe as spiritual attacks, I found myself having thoughts that did not fit my current lifestyle (as a Christian, having given my life to Jesus, God having audibly told me during my morning shower that I am forgiven which was very weird, having been baptized, and now speaking in tongues). These thoughts caused an immense conflict in me, and caused a rift between my wife and I. This has since been repaired fully. But at the time, I was very close to breaking down emotionally. After a short prayer, it would seem that God had also had waited long enough, and showed me what was meant for my harm, He would now turn for my good, and showed me just what His Love was all about. It would be very difficult to even try to put that into words, so I won’t.
He also showed me a staircase of fourteen steps, and explained to me that each step was a test, that I would pass the test, but He also showed me that with each new level, there would be a new devil. That trial was the first step, and I had passed. He told me to teach and preach the word of love, but I would need to go through these things in order that I am ready for the ministry. All this took a matter of minutes, but it seemed like ages, and I will never forget it. Hence, I am now going through your online ministry course, and preparing myself for the battle ahead. He did not however, show me where I was to do this, but I am sure He will.
Enroll in CLI’s Free Online Ministry Course
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It has been my cry for so long to study the Word of God so that I may be able to “rightly divide the Word of truth,” that I may be able to lead well the flock which the Lord has entrusted to me. But because of the financial challenges, I couldn’t afford to. CLI ministry training for free is a great miracle to me and an answer of prayer. It is of great importance to me because it will help me be equipped with the right tools to accomplish what has been laid in my heart by the Lord.
CLI Ministry Training For Kenyans
My name is Chenze Jacob Ndune. I live in the city of Mombasa in the country Kenya. I am married to Stella and blessed with two boys, Jacob, 14, and Nathaniel, 11. Kenya is a land where people are hungry for the word of God. They love God a lot and this makes it a good place to do God’s ministry.
The Lord got me back in September 20, 1990, when I was stranded. My mother and father had died earlier in 1988 and 1990 respectively and I was left with a heavy task of looking after my younger sister and brother while I was still young and without a job, we suffered a lot. So I had to become a robber so as to earn a living. We had no one to take care of us, so medication became a difficult thing to get. My brother had to go to the dumping place to look for food from garbage, where later on he took poison and died. My younger sister married while underage. Life lost its meaning and I didn’t see the reason for living. I decided to commit suicide and there is when Jesus sent His servants, preached to me and I received Him as my personal Savior. Life changed, I was healed and it dawned on me, thank you Jesus for rescuing me from this great damnation. I went to church and He gave me a family who loved me and made earth a better place to live again.
In me grew the zeal to live for God, to know Him and serve Him. This zeal led me to have times for fasting and praying that God used to guide my life. One time, in July 12, 1991 when I was in a three days fasting and praying before God, He appeared to me and told me “Lift up my name and I will draw people to myself.” After that the zeal to serve Him grew so intensely which led me to be ordained as an Evangelist and was sent out in 1994. Later on, I was ordained as Pastor and founded a church known as, Siloam Pool Missions, which I Pastor.
Our dream is to reach out to the unreachable with the gospel and plant churches where there are none. Our major challenge is resources whereby it becomes very hard to fulfill what God has laid in our hearts because it takes very long to achieve minimal. The speed on fulfilling one’s calling is very low, the church tries to support the vision but because of poverty challenges, they can’t do it to the maximum and this becomes a great discouragement to many ministers of the gospel in our land which leads others to quit the ministry and do other things. My family has been so supportive to my ministry calling which has been a great encouragement to me and has kept me moving this long. They are always contented with the humble life of faith we live and this makes me to greatly thank God for them.
I pray that CLI will pray for me and my ministry that God will give us the right resources so that we may be able to carry out and fulfill the vision in right speed and time.
Join CLI Ministry Training!
To begin your free online training, click here, where you’ll be redirected to our enrollment page! Fill out a quick and easy form and gain immediate access to the Getting Started class. Reach different graduate levels from CLI ministry training! But rest in comfort knowing all training is provided free! We welcome all to donate if possible. If this is not something you can do, do not worry! Continue with your studies under the grace of God. God bless! And welcome to all who has joined CLI ministry training!
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