My name is Nick Vander Ploeg. I am currently 27 years of age and married to a wonderful woman named Kayla. I am employed as a youth pastor at a Christian Reformed church in London ON, Canada. I just completed the course work of the Getting Started Class at CLI. I have never had any formal ministry education and so CLI has helped me so far to increase and test my knowledge in Christian Basics. I am excited to continue to grow in this way through further study at CLI in hopes to be fully ordained as a pastor upon conclusion.
I have been a Christ follower my entire life. I grew up in a Christian home, and have felt a calling to ministry for a long time. I completed my formal education to be a school teacher in 2011 but God made it clear that He wanted me in ministry instead and so I have been running the youth program at my church since my graduation from Teacher’s College. The Associate Pastor at my church kept putting the bug in my ear to take this position of Student Ministry Director and it has been the best decision I have ever made in my life. I have loved every minute of my calling so far and so have begun this education process so that I can learn more and be more effective as a church leader to the point of being fully ordained as pastor someday soon. My wife is also in school to be a nurse and so we simply could not afford for both of us to be in school while I am working and so CLI has made this dream possible for us through free education.
In Canada, we have a culture much like the United States, but I would argue that our culture is less influenced by Christian values in everyday life. God is seemingly more important to a larger number of people in the United States than in Canada. Atheism is a growing and large belief in this country. This makes church work a little less accepted I think by a lot of people and so makes it challenging to say you work at a church to non-believers. They simply do not understand why I would choose this route rather than follow my education background as a school teacher. I believe wholeheartedly that God has put this calling on my life to be a pastor and a lot of non-believers in my life have a hard time accepting that. This is a challenge that I have accepted though and it has not stopped me from loving my calling or from wanting to pursue a higher education.
The church that I work at has completely supported me in my current position running the Student Ministry and also in my goals to become ordained as a pastor. The staff at our church is truly like a family and they are excited for me in my pursuit of this education. My wife and my extended family are excited for me as I continue in this journey and support me however they are able to. I also think that the people that really know me in our congregation support me in this adventure. We have a very large church population and so it is difficult to know everyone, but I am getting support from the people that I am blessed enough to call my family and friends in this journey.
I am extremely excited to continue in my studies at CLI and work towards being fully ordained as pastor (hopefully someday soon). This has been very good at enhancing my knowledge already and I am ready for this to continue as I go further in my studies. I forgot what the life of a student was like since I have been out of school and I have really enjoyed becoming one again here at CLI. Thank you so much for making this possible for me! Thank you CLI for the blessing you are to people from all around the world and for those of you that have read my story. Please pray for me as I continue in this education!
My name is Isa Monteiro. My family and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I am a language teacher by trade, a student by nature and am passionately in love with my Maker, His Word, my husband, and my daughter who has just entered her first year of residency at University. Glory to God!
As far back as I can remember I have considered myself to be, and have been labeled by others, an “extraordinary” optimist. Amid many horrendous wilderness moments throughout the course of my life, I have refused to stay down for very long, even while battling severe on and off bouts of depression for nearly 35 years.
I was born in Lisbon Portugal and immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my young parents at the age of five. I was not raised in a Christian upbringing but my parents were both loving, moral, dedicated to family, and believed in Providence.
Although an over achiever, I struggled with an emptiness and heart wrenching void that was inexplicable; I hungered for and was in constant pursuit of truth. I was married for 15 years to a highly respected lawyer; a brilliant “intellectual” mind; and very ironically, an atheist! Upon reflection, I make sense of the loneliness, void and the misery that accompanied the absence of God in that relationship. I was able to bypass an excruciatingly painful divorce and emotional breakdown.
It was not until the Lord miraculously and most unexpectedly blessed me 11 years ago, with the gift that is my current husband and mighty man of God, that I was introduced to and began to seek an intimate relationship with my Maker. I had always sensed the Lord’s hand on my life, so to speak, but I had walked a very secular walk and had not known Him personally.
Since then (2003), I have been on an exhilarating walk with the Lord and am testimony to His consuming love, grace, mercy, miraculous power and unwavering faithfulness. I find myself, without fail, the one that others run to for encouragement, support, a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, someone to laugh with until their stomach hurts, when all else looks bleak. Before surrendering my life to the Lord, I had always felt “alien like”, as if there was something uniquely different about me. I was able to separate myself from the natural world and realize that all was temporal, that all was as it should be and that there was a “mighty power source” in control of everything. In addition, I have a heart that not many are able to relate to; I am incapable of focusing too long on anything that distracts my ultimate feeling towards anyone but love. I am able to discern past flesh; see the spirits at play behind the scenes, and continue to love everyone unconditionally. There is nothing that gives or has ever given me greater joy, then the intrinsic love I feel to love. Satirically, this has been a great cause of heartache and feelings of disassociation, for unconditional love is clearly not of this world, yet it is my deepest yearning for all mankind.
It’s crazy interesting (God’s ways are awesome) that it wasn’t until I was in my first year of University, enrolled in religious studies, that a Muslim student, in one of our seminars, told me that my name, “Isa” meant Jesus in Arabic. I thought at the time, it super cool, as I was exploring all things spiritual; reading and learning about different religions and philosophies, but I somehow majored in psychology and English :). Nearly three decades later, not that I would ever dare refer to myself as “Jesus”, I can see something quite spiritually symbolic about my namely connection to my Lord; just wanting to be more and more like Him and a reflection of His love.
I compare my optimistic nature in the natural, or what I often refer to as my “alien like” faith in the spiritual, to the Roman Centurion in the Bible. God’s Word tells us that Jesus “marveled” at the faith found in this man while basically saying, “Lord do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof…
The Centurion had so much faith in Jesus, that he recognized the powers of Jesus’ very words! I believe that there is no greater faith than to trust the WORD of God! It has never ever let me down!
This unwavering belief in the every Word of God, and an unconditional heart of love, are my heavenly gifts; gifts that wholeheartedly inspire me, and of which I am committed to sharing with all the world.
Throughout the course of my walk with the Lord, I have been prophesied over numerous times, and many a time in reference to the church that I will plant and pastor; confirmation of the vision God has planted in my heart.
Currently at the age of 48 and an empty nester, I am eternally grateful for a scholarship at CLI which will help to equip me with vital respected ministry tools necessary for the fulfillment of this fervent call.
I am eager and fully committed to proclaiming our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to be found in Him all the days of my life.
Love and all things beautiful unto all God’s children is my forever prayer.
<3 Isa
My name is Christine Harris. I currently live in Midwest City , OK. A suburb of Oklahoma city. I am a mother and a wife first and foremost and a teacher second. I am blessed to live in a country where we are free to practice religion without persecution but sometimes that makes us too laid back as Christians in our own ministry to others. I have always felt a yearning to learn more about the Bible and its teachings and it was in this passion for knowledge that I felt the Lord calling me into ministry. It was like a voice told me ” I gave you this passion to learn, now use it to teach others about me, ” I believe when the Lord calls you pick up and go. “Here I am Lord, send me.” And so it was with this goal in mind that I began my search for knowledge. I prayed everyday for God to show me a way to be able to serve Him in ministry. As a mother of 3 I knew funds would be tight and I would have to have a scholarship to go to ministry school and I knew God would lead me there.
That is when He led me to Christian Leaders Institute. Christian Leaders Institute was a gift from God. Through the in depth ministry training I was ale to study at my own pace, at home with my children, for FREE! God was telling me I had no excuse. I dove in head first to absorb all the knowledge I could and now I find myself have achieved my first goal of Ordination. By being ordained I feel I will be able to better serve my church and community and lead people to the word. I feel that this ordination will be the key that opens the door to being a minister of the word near home and hopefully abroad. My passion is children. I feel like my focus will be working with children and teaching them the word of the Lord and leading them down the path of righteousness. I have always worked with children in my career and by now being ordained I will be able to lead with a knowledge and support that my education will provide. I ask for prayer as I continue my journey of education all the way through the classes offered with Christian leadership institute and that I will be a tool in whatever way the Lord see fit to use me. Thank you again for this wonderful gift off knowledge. None of this would be possible without Christian Leaders Institute.