Even though I had a lot of personal issues growing up, I always seemed to be concerned with the welfare of people around me. I was tentative to their emotional, social, and eventually spiritual growth and I would often reach out to people and minister to them. Today I am a Lay Minister, at CRCG ministries in Flatbush Ave. Brooklyn. I work with my senior pastor and staff. Working with the members of the church is tedious work. It takes a lot of time, patience, and the love of Christ to work effectively for the members as well as the visitors in our community. In closing, I realized that God has allowed me and guided me through the phases of my life to strengthen, empower, and to equip me for Pastoral Ministry. God has called me to claim the lost sheep of Israel. Honestly this task is a task not for the faint of heart and I know if God be for me who can be against me! Today I am glad to learn through Christian Leaders Institute in their free tuition program. This is something I’ve been searching for some time now. I plan to support this ministry as I continue my courses.
My name is Donslow Brown. I am a resident of New York City. When I look back at my life (Now being 26 years old) I can honestly say I’ve been through a lot of personal struggles. Some were even emotional and spiritual. To people, I was either a ticking time bomb or damaged goods, not ever looking into the real me (as if I’d even let them). I was an enigma even to myself at times. Friends (and the ones I would acquire along the way) knew I had baggage but just didn’t know how to deal with me.
During my teenage years, I was known by some of my peers as Mr. Emotional. Everything seemed to either bother me or worried me. I needed help and even though I was attending a Haitian American church on a weekly basis, I knew of the God that was preached in a ritualistic/religious way but never had I realized the opportunity of being in a relationship with Him. I decided to take the Lord more seriously. I began praying more. I threw away CD’s and other worldly music. I attended more youth functions in my church and slowly God began peeling away at the tough shell I put up and He began to show me times in the past where old friends or teachers would tell me powerful things such as: “You’re going to change the world some day” or “You look like you can be a pastor.” He even showed me a time when I was in elementary and I was ministering to a young man about Jesus, and praying every night before bed. I’d realized that God was using me.
But as a teenager I had no intention of being a pastor, let alone in pastoral ministry of any kind. So I continued my walk with God into my 20’s and God started to speak to me about faith and how powerful it is. He spoke to me through preachers, scripture, and real life scenarios. I exercised my faith as the Bible states and I was baptized in the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, and realizing a portion of God’s power in my life. Looking back I realize even now that God has always granted me a big imagination as well as big dreams. Dreams that were bigger than the $1.50 in my pocket. I thank God that He was growing my faith because if He hadn’t, I wouldn’t be on the path I’m on now seeking a diploma in pastoral ministry.
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Hello, my name is Cynthia Jacobs. I live in HopeMills, North Carolina, USA. I was blessed to be raised with church, however, please don’t mistake that for automatically having a relationship with Christ. Having knowledge of Christ and having a relationship with Christ is very different. I longed to have the relationship I saw others have at church, but I didn’t know how to get there. I thought the more I learned the closer I would become to being able to feel some sort of actual relationship with Christ. Don’t get me wrong, knowledge is a powerful tool but I was still feeling lonely and lost.
I came to know of the Lord at a very young age, but didn’t fully understand what a relationship with Christ was all about until my late 20’s. I turned down many wrong roads looking for what I thought I needed. After making many less than desirable decisions I began to feel guilty and ran. It’s amazing how you can be completely surrounded by people buy still feel very alone. Long story short, I was in the pit of loneliness and decided to look up to the Lord. When you are at rock bottom you are at the best place to look up and see the light of the Lord. I decided that I needed to take the knowledge I had learned so many years ago and apply it to my life. It was hard but it was the only thing that seemed to work. I had a lot of relationships to fix. One of the most important of which was the relationship with my children. I wanted them to know the Lord and his love and have their personal relationship with Christ.
I have now been back in the arms of Christ for about 7 years now. It is by far the greatest place to be. I love to help others that struggle with things like what I have been through. I want more than anything to help others during their suffering. To help them see feel and understand the meaning of a relationship with Christ and the Joy of the Lord that is my strength.
My Grandpa is who prompted me the most to do ministry. He always taught me the importance of helping others. My Grandfather was a missionary to Haiti. It brought him great joy to serve those people. I loved to see his happiness in doing this. I too want to experience this joy.
I identify most with evangelist. I want to help people see that they don’t have to give up! I believe God has given me the gift of encouraging others and I want to use that gift to the fullest. I want to work with young people. My local church encourages me in many ways. We help in our community as much as we can. My church is actually the one who told me about Christian Leaders Institute.
My ministry dream would be to travel to different places encouraging people not to give up. Telling them that there is nothing that can separate them from the Love of the Lord. I walked into a drug rehabilitation center recently and felt nothing but sorrow and darkness. It was full of people that didn’t know that Jesus would love them just as they were. I believe drug abuse is becoming an epidemic and while I do believe we need to spread the gospel all over the world we also need to spread it to those who may know it but feel like they don’t deserve it. I have seen over the last year a great need for the young people of America.
I have a wonderful family that consists of my husband, my greatest supporter, and my three children. We are all walking this out together and learning new ways to help others in their relationship with Christ. As I grow in the Lord I find that helping people makes me feel good. It makes me excited to lead people to the Lord. I want to continue to grow in that. I believe my family plays an important role in my ministry as they are a part of my testimony. They are a huge part of the encouraging story that God wants me to share.
I will go where God wants me to go. Challenges in my area would probably consist of ways to set the stage for people to hear the Word. A scholarship to CLI would help me because there really isn’t a big Christian school close to my home that is affordable. I want to be home with my 3 teenagers as I feel this is an important time for me to be home helping them become good adults and learning their relationship with Christ.
Please pray for God to soften hearts of people to hear his word. Pray upon hearing his word that they would feel an abundance of Love so they will keep coming back for more. Pray for God to open doors for His Word to be shared to those that need it in my area.
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Jesus…the Ultimate Minister of the Gospel
We can learn a lot from observing Jesus and how he was a minister of the gospel. He spread the Good News of God’s salvation to many. Some regarded him as the true Messiah while others laughed and scorned him. With many examples given in the New Testament on how to be a minister of the gospel, we are enlightened to how we should respond in a Christian way to others who accept Jesus and those who do not. The Lord has been a great encouragement in strength knowing we are never alone, He is our faithful witness. Spread the gospel! Become a minister of the gospel to share Truth with the world!
Called to be a Minister of the Gospel
My name is Vernit S. Holder living in Boland, South Africa. I am a 49 year old Cartoonist & Sign-maker by trade (which is my income job) and a Minister of the Gospel at every opportunity. I am a Spirit filled, Messianic Believer of the Scriptures.
In South Africa it is quite a daunting task to share the simple Good News of the Salvation of God through Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
We have many traditional churches and smaller non-denominational churches and groups that have a different agenda than just the Gospel. Some want to make money out of very poor people, some want lots of congregants to give them better status. The religious authorities are very opposed to gospel workers, as they think we are going to take their people away from them. It is not true. Yet, we have religious freedom and can be minister of the gospel to people without fear of government persecution.
Divorced and married again since November 2008. I have two grown-up children and my wife has three. My life change started in June of 1985 and my relationship with my Creator started in August of 1985 when I was a young blaspheming, cursing sailor in the S.A. Navy. I used to follow my own multi-religious philosophy (everybody serves the same god). I tried Buddism, TM and traditional Churchianity. I was hitch-hiking to a friend and a man stopped and picked me up. He introduced himself in a very friendly manner. I thought he was gay and wanted to molest me. At that stage I had just finished reading Hal Lindsay’s Book, “The Late Great Planet Earth.” It scared me. I was unsure of my salvation. I was fearful of death and many such worries went through my mind …and then the “gay-guy” …
Well, he was not gay and immediately asked me, “Do you know Jesus?” I got such a shock. I was stammering and couldn’t answer. I tried to explain that I used to go to church and so on, but it was not a satisfying answer for him. His next question shocked me even more, but it was straight to the point, “Do you want to know Jesus?” I thought of jumping out a moving car, but the question grabbed me; it held my mind. With all my being I longed to know Him. I answered, “YES!” and we stopped and prayed the sinner’s prayer. He then continued to visit me for a few weeks, but I asked him to not come anymore as I started to doubt. Yet, I bought four Bibles shortly after that. A KJV, NIV, 1933/53 Afrikaans and a “Nuwe Vertaling” to help me understand. As I read and started understanding the Wrath of God and the Judgment that is coming, I just started becoming more and more depressed and fearful to the point that I did not even want to cross the road!
One night in August 1985, I was woken by a dark cloud that jumped on me and started choking me. I could not breathe; it was shaking me and slamming my head against the wall. I tried to scream, but not a sound. I realized that I had to pray. I opened my mouth and only the faintest whisper escaped my lips, “J…e…s…u…s!” It was like lightning and the cloud fled the room. I got up out of bed and fell to my knees and prayed, “Dear God, I am so sorry for my sins. I am so sorry that I did not believe in your Holy Spirit, yet I believed in spirits. I am so sorry that I disregarded Your Son and what He has done for a lost world. I accept Jesus as my Owner and Saviour….but please give me deliverance from my blasphemy and my cursing and place new words on my tongue, place Your Word in my mouth. The deliverance will be a sign that You truly saved me. Amen!”
Well, by the end of that day I realized I had a brand new vocabulary and I could remember Scriptures from my younger years in Sunday School.
Since then the desire to bring the GOOD NEWS has burned in my being and I have preached, taught, evangelized, led Home Cells, played in Church Bands, created gospel tracts, written hundreds of letters, prayed for the sick, counselled drunks, drug-addicts and sex-workers, encouraged people to go into ministry, ministered to those in ministry, and for four years (2008-2012) been pastoring a home based church of about 30-40 people. Since 2013 I have been translating Scripture from Aramaic to Afrikaans and scaled down to leading a Home Cell of about 5-8 people. Our Home Fellowship had to break up due to everybody and us moving all over the world to different towns and countries!
We have seen a need amongst the rural people of the area we live in at present. A need for proper Scripture based teaching. Truth. Powerful deliverance is needed for the poverty stricken, drug-abusive, alcohol-enslaved people of South Africa. There is a tendency amongst our local preachers to want to use their church as a money-making scheme…we disagree aggressively. There is great poverty due to unemployment. So, we even try to help people by employing some and paying them a weekly small income to be able to put food on their tables for their families. Some families have only one person working to feed six to eight people.
We are going to start a larger fellowship for believers and those wanting deliverance from their addictions. We already council people weekly.
Here I am at this stage of life, doing some sort of “official” study. I identify with calling of Pastor, Teacher, Small Group Leader and Fellowship Planter. To many people credentials are important and I have been advised to get some of those credentials. It may sound disrespectful, but it is not meant that way. I do have the earnest desire to study and be an example to the people we are busy ministering to and those we will be ministering to in the future. It is the decent thing to do; the right thing to do and the Godly order to do things.
Becoming a minister of the gospel would be a great blessing to me. Since we do not earn a high income to be able to afford ministry and living and studying in Africa, CLI’s free internet courses are a big blessing. Perhaps if I were a young man again, someone would consider sponsorship…therefore CLI is truly a Godsend. Please pray that we can press-through in planting a Scripture Teaching fellowship amongst the rural people of South Africa. A fellowship with a Mentor Centre where these poor people who also are called to be a minister of the Gospel can receive this training from CLI. Please pray that we can uphold the employment that we provide for a very few people to help them live and feed their families. Shalom in Yeshua, the Messiah (Jesus Christ).
Become a Minister of the Gospel
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