Robust Biblical Education

Robust Biblical Education

My name is Iyere Eigbadon and I am pursuing a free robust Biblical education.  I currently live in Lagos, Nigeria. I began to study the Bible at the age of five with my uncle. From my childhood, I have been involved in the things of God in one form or the other. At the age of nine, I made a verbal heartfelt commitment to the Lord Jesus at the prompting of a house fellowship leader who was impressed with my zeal for the Lord. Then I was baptized in water the following year.

As a result of my zeal and my work for the Lord, during my teenage years, I had strong opposition to my faith from a relative that I lived with. This though only strengthened my resolve to serve the Lord. However, in my later teens, I had my faith tested with temptations common with youth. Although I never strayed too far from the Lord, it was a season of backsliding nonetheless. I later rededicated myself to the Lord and His work and was very active during my university days. Sadly, this impacted my grades negatively. What I lacked then was proper mentorship and leadership from those older in the faith to train me in burning for the Lord and excelling academically also. In other words, finding the proper balance and focus that truly glorified God. Thankfully, this is one thing that characterizes the Christian Leaders Institute.

For about nine years now, I have been involved in ministry among the youth. My passion has been to be a responsible mentor steering them in the path that results in a truly fruitful relationship with the Lord, their parents, fellow believers and being fruitful in their life goals. It has been quite a challenge as there are conflicting images available to them of what a relationship with God ought to look like. Quite a number of ministries are involved with the youth and many of them seem to take advantage of the zeal of the young. They want to drive the growth of their ministries at the expense of the other things that will make for success in the lives of these young ones. This is sad as they are so impressionable.

My ministry dream is to give God my best, trusting Him to use it as He sees fit to change the landscape of ministry among the youth in my country. There is a proliferation of churches in Nigeria, yet far too many of us do not reflect the character of Christ. The focus of our pursuit of God, for the most part, is for personal enrichment. When one interacts with the average person on the street, it is obvious that the general impression of the gospel that they have is what is known as the “health and wealth gospel.” This was not the case in our country as little as twenty-five years ago. I know this because it is my story and the story of many others around my age that I know.

The impact of laboring in the things of God, yet coming to realize that I was not doing His will as revealed in his Word led me to do a lot of searching in the scriptures. I kept looking and studying because I was determined not to repeat the same mistakes. I realized that the root of these problems was that too many who started ministry did not take the time to truly understand the things that Jesus commanded us. So we end up presenting a different message and modeling a different life which is not like Christ’s. My studies in Scripture had been an entirely personal effort, but I came to see the need for some specialized training in a robust biblical education that can only be found in a good seminary. I, however, cannot currently afford the tuition of traditional schools. Thankfully, the Lord providentially led me to the Christian Leaders Institute and I am grateful for it. I really look forward to being a Vision partner so that many more like me will enjoy this opportunity at a free robust Biblical education at CLI.

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