“I Was Lost, But Now I Am Found”

Free Ministry Study

I am so excited to have this opportunity for free ministry study at Christian Leaders Insitute. While growing up, I was not part of an active Christain household. I came from a broken family. My parents were divorced when I was four years old, and though they did fight over custody, my grandparents raised me. As a child, I did not go to church. I do remember that I would ask questions about the very old leather Bible my grandparents had in my room. My questions where always answered, but I was never actually actively taught.

The first real teaching of the word I ever experienced was in 5th grade. My best friend had been going to a local Baptist church for Awana meetings, and she had gone through a night where they asked for everyone to bring a friend. I loved Awana classes. Even though I had started very late in the program, it lighted a fire in me. I was devastated to learn we could not come back next year because they didn’t have the resources to take on 6th graders or older kids for their summer programs.

Shortly after that, both of my grandparents passed away, so I was living with my mother again. I believe the next time I was exposed to God was quite a few summers after at a county fair. A local church had a booth set up, and they were handing out pocket Bibles to the youth as they walked by. I read through Matthew and Mark, but at the time, it left me with more questions than answers. I didn’t have a real outlet to ask questions about Jesus to anyone that was willing to answer.

Though I didn’t truly understand much of the Bible, I did begin to pray regularly. However, it wasn’t until I was 21 that I started leaning on God. My husband and I had just had our son, and we learned he had a very rare heart defect that required him to have open heart surgery at one-month-old. With being so powerless over the situation, all I could do was pray. God carried us through it. After my son had recovered, I vowed I would read the Bible in its entirety.

The next half a year I spent several hours a day reading the Bible from start to finish. I made many realizations about myself and my life in those few short months. The biggest was the realization that even though I didn’t know Jesus, He knew me and loved me. I started to see parts of my life that He had touched. Most notably was the morning of my son’s surgery following an entire month of emotional turmoil and praying and begging God to save my son. The morning of the surgery I remember this full feeling of calm. I didn’t understand why then. I remember thinking to myself, “Why am I so calm? This is a serious life and death circumstance!” I know now it was Jesus. God loved me enough that He was there for me at the hardest moment in my life.

Since then, my husband and I have joined a church that we have been regularly attending for the last three years. They have helped us tremendously as we continue to grow as Christians. I have made it my mission to bring others that were lost like me to know God’s unconditional love. I was over the moon when I found Christian Leaders Institute with its free ministry study opportunity. I truly appreciate the fantastic work CLI is doing. This education opportunity they are providing is truly helping create leaders that will seek lost people like I was and bring them to know God. Thank you for all that you do!

Learn about ordination at Christian Leaders Alliance.