My name is Teresa Eads, I’m 49yrs old and I live in East Tennessee, USA. I am married and have two children that are grown. They have blessed me with seven beautiful grandchildren. My husband and I sing and play bluegrass gospel music. We love going to other churches and venues when invited. Many folks tell us that they receive such blessings from our music.
Some of my earliest and most precious memories from my childhood are going to church and my great grandmother reading stories to my brother and me while lying in the middle of her feather bed. I always went to church even though my parents didn’t always attend. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I was 12 although I wasn’t baptized until I was 33. I can remember talking to friends at school and on the school bus as well as other places about Jesus. Even, praying with them during VBS as they accepted the Lord. So, looking back I guess I have been in ministry all along. God has called me even when I was young.
I have served as Sunday school teacher and worship leader in church. I also helped to begin the first home school groups (when it wasn’t popular) in our area. In most recent years, I have worked with the local Women’s Care Center, talking to young women and counseling them against abortion.
The Lord has placed this feeling of “You need to be ministering to people” more and more onto me. It’s hard to explain to folks. The more I try to do otherwise, the more He put someone in my path that needed counseling, prayer, teaching, hand holding, encouragement, etc. People would just come up and tell me, “You should be a preacher”.
I live in the South. The majority here are of the belief that women should not be in charge of a congregation. I kept trying to let it go, but as you know, if God wants you he will get you. We were visiting a church in our area one Sunday and they had an evangelist there that day. While he was preaching and singing and giving words from the Holy Spirit, he kept looking over at me. Yes, he said it. The Holy Spirit told him that I was going to be in ministry and possibly a healing ministry. Holy Spirit told him to tell me to stop overthinking it. Just do it! So, I quit running before God decided to throw me overboard and into the belly of the fish. Amazingly, when I stopped running and said yes, the heavy gnawing gut urging stopped. Amen!!! Hallelujah
I have a wonderful church family, and they do believe that I have been called into ministry. It is a very small Baptist church. However, I really do not have a denominational preference. Our Pastor still clings to the theory of “No Women Preaching in the Pulpit” so I do not expect to be ordained by him or our elders. But I know that God has called me and that is enough.
Right down the road from my home is a Bible College and the tuition is $10,800 per year to attend. Just like many people in our country and especially in our state, the economy has not been kind. On our income we cannot afford for me to take classes there. Our church is very small and could not help me either. So, I began searching for other ways to get more knowledge of what the Lord has called me to do. There are many places online.
Most are not what they say they are and other are very expensive. Then I came across CLI. This is truly a blessing from God.
This is absolutely the plan He has for me. God has called me and I cannot turn back. I am so thankful for the donors and others that have put this wonderful gift of learning together online. Now folks like me can get a more rounded education to preach the gospel to the entire world. What a blessing!!!
Where He leads me I will follow, as the hymn goes. Indeed, God has called me and I would be happy for the Holy Spirit to lead us to more churches and more areas with opportunity to evangelize and do healing serves for people.
I ask all of you to please be in prayer for me to be more open in response to the Holy Spirits urgings. So the He may use me more abundantly.
In our society it seems everybody is clamoring for the attention of our youth. The media puts out commercials targeted toward youth. Christian speech is discouraged with increasing force and frequency. In our modern humanist society, we need called leaders to help the youth find discernment and most importantly to find God.
Dandre Major is Called to Help the Youth
I currently live on Fort Hood TX United States of America. Currently to give ministry I have to deal
with a lot of adversity because I’m in the army it’s hard to discuss religion due to regulation and restriction. I can’t offend someone who doesn’t believe so I’m careful not to do that. It’s great to talk to kids and it’s amazing what activities can be done with ministry. Many lessons can be learned without actually suggesting or forcing a certain idea on children/teens.
The lord spoke to me in both troubling times as well as times of triumph. When I was younger I experienced much pain, I dealt with both physical and sexual abuse as well as emotional. It wasn’t till I got in high school that I found Jesus. He led me to overcome all my triumph. I then joined the army and with prayer and reading was able to overcome a huge obstacle in my life. My dream is to be able to reach out to both people in despair and people at their best. The lord has come to me both at my worst and my best. My trouble times as well as good times I would like to help youth achieve that same enlightenment. I would consider myself a youth leader. I Feel I can help the youth more because youth are more open to things than adults who maybe stubborn and not open to change. Children or teens can be influenced by positive things.
My troubled childhood led me to ministry to help the youth grow. The only challenge I see in my area is lack of religious teaching in the home. Because teaching starts in the home it’s hard to let the village raises the child if the child is taught to not listen to anything positive from anyone besides parents who are not religious. My local church and my local Chaplain have supported me from day one and counsel me on monthly changes and readings to help me better myself as a mentor, leader and minister to help the youth in my area.
My family is very supportive. My husband helps me study. We do readings together as well as bible study and reading bible stories to the kids at night. I believe CLI will help me gain the necessary knowledge and leadership to obtain my goal although I cannot know everything possible. It will still be a learning process but I would like CLI to be a big part of my journey to help the youth find and grow in Jesus Christ.
Dandre’s desire to help troubled youth led her to pursue ministry. Her pursuit of ministry led her to Christian Leaders Institute, where she can get the training she needs to pursue her calling without the usual cost associated with it. Thousands of students like Dandre are joining Christian Leaders Institute every year, and all of them like what they find there. CLI is blessed to have the opportunity to provide this training to Dandre and others who, like her, will reclaim troubled lives for God throughout His world.
My name is Godwin Friday Olaposi. I live in Nigeria. There are three major religions (Christianity, Islam and Paganism). You are allowed freedom of religion and freedom of worship here. Nigerian evangelism is not obstructed by the government or the public. One of our big obstacles is finances which makes Nigerian evangelism challenging. Institutions like Christian Leaders Institute that provide Free Online Ministry Training really help spread Nigerian evangelism to reach people for Christ. Paganism is also on the high side in my area where people claim to be Christians but yet get involved in fetish things. (The BBC reported the killing of 11 women in Nigeria in December of 2013).
I was born into a Christian family. My parents raised me pentecostal. We were brought up in living strictly by the Word of God. We did not drink, smoke or womanize. We also did not socialize with unbelievers in order to reach them. When I grew up I came to realize that Nigerian evangelism was my responsibility. I realized that a walk with God includes more than family and church. I attended a Holy Ghost night vigil in my local church where I received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and since then I have never looked back in serving the Lord. My ministerial dream is to save as many souls to God as I can before I die. Included in that Nigerian evangelism goal is to be used by the Holy Spirit to perform apostolic exploits in deliverance and signs and wonders.
I see myself as an evangelist as a result of my calling as a deliverance minister. I am called to minister freedom to the children of God to those troubled by unclean spirits and to those afflicted with sickness and diseases that medical treatment fail to cure.
Nigerian Evangelism At Practical Levels
I decided to go into ministry to meet the needs of Christians who have spiritual problems, poverty, sickness, spiritual affliction and oppression. This was what I went through as a child. I went through financial stress without a clue as to what was expected in my hard work. I was introduced to a man of God, an evangelist/prophet who helped me understand what I needed to do to break generational pacts and to bring real changes to my life.
The unique challenges to Nigerian evangelism in my geographical area are real! Being a born again practicing Christian is very challenging because I live in an animist area of Nigeria where fetish activities are common. Many professed Christians join the pagans in the race for quick riches and wealth, thereby involving themselves in fetish rituals to acquire wealth. These things affect the faith of true believers in my area.
My local church, especially my pastor, made me realize and follow the call of God upon my life. They supported me both morally and financially in ministry and pursuit of Biblical knowledge. I thank God for my good wife supporting me in my ministry preparation. She ensures that she support me in prayers, in finance and organizing church activities with the church elders as well.
I need Christian Leaders Institute to acquire this priceless Biblical knowledge in order to learn and be proficient in the walk with God and effective in Christian ministry.
In conclusion, I also need the prayers of the Christian community to keep me focused on Nigerian evangelism that I work hard to win souls for Christ. I need prayers also that all resources needed to succeed in my ministry would be provided for me.