Hello, my name is Patrick McCleary and I live in the beautiful “Holy City” of Charleston, South Carolina. I am married to my best friend, Nancy, for over 38 years. I am semi-retired and a fairly recent born-again Christian. I was born into the Lutheran faith but my parents stop attending church when I was a toddler. As I grew older and not having a religious foundation, I became passionate about personal development. This led me into the New Age metaphysical world. In case you do not know what this is about, in this world you are the center of the Universe and you believe that God or a higher power responds to your desires based on your thoughts, feelings and beliefs. It’s a very selfish way of life as opposed to the selfless life of Christianity. My goal was always to know God and learn how to maximize my life, I was simply going about it in the wrong way.
A family crisis involving our two adult daughters gradually broke us and this brokenness peaked in early 2022. This led my beautiful wife and I to question everything we felt we knew about God and the Universe. In search of some relief from our suffering, we started to look for a church to try. This search led us to Seacoast church. We started attending church and never looked back. Our faith grew each week and when we finally accepted Jesus in our hearts as our Lord and Savior, we were baptized in the ocean on June 25, 2023.
I now have a strong desire to serve God but I am not sure what it is that I will be doing. I am contemplating fictional transformational writing. I am open to whatever the Lord has in store for me. Through my journey I was convicted to search for some biblical studies courses so that I can deepen my relationship with God. Because I am not sure what I will doing and being that I’m semi-retired, I did not want to commit to a costly education. I Googled “free biblical studies and theology courses” and low and behold Christian Leaders Institute came up near the top of the search. I was very excited to find it and enrolled into it right away. This gives me the opportunity to take some courses and also become a sustaining Vision Partner at my own pace. I do believe in giving back and helping others. I think it is terrific that this organization provides a path into biblical studies without having to spend any money. I am very grateful to be a student here. I look forward to growing in knowledge and then following God’s will for me to serve others.
God Bless all of you!
Patrick
