Journey to Minister Ordination
Journey to Minister Ordination
My name is Edith Onome Matthew, and here is my journey to minister ordination. I was born in 1973 in Lagos, Nigeria. After attending the College of Education in Nigeria, I taught for ten years before migrating to the United States in 2008. I now live in Everett, Washington, and attend River of Life Christian Center International. Presently, I am a Sunday school teacher and a women’s leader. Being a Sunday school teacher helps me to study and prepare lessons every Sunday. I also organize programs for women’s ministry.
Sometimes, it is hard for the people you are leading to be on the same page as you. However, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are often able to reach an agreement. I learned that being a leader is similar to being a servant. You are not there to boss people around, you are there to serve people, and that has helped me to build trust among the women.
My Journey to Faith
I was born and raised in a family of idol worshippers, so my first time going to church was with my grandmother at the age of ten. That very day, I fell in love with God and serving Him. I didn’t even want to go home. Even though I didn’t know what it meant to be born again, I experienced God’s peace. After the service, we went back, and my grandfather, as usual, had begun preparing offerings for the idols. It was mandatory to eat the same food given to his gods, and if I had refused, I would have starved. That was really tough for me.
However, as time went on, I made my grandfather understand I would no longer participate or eat the food given to his idols. That was when I started praying and believing God to fight for me. Since then, my life has been a testimony, I gave my life to Christ and went for deliverance, and everything before that became history.
My Journey to Minister Ordination
By the grace of God, the pastor is now planning to ordain me as a Deacon Minister. The leaders asked me to take some online classes before my ordination. That is when my husband introduced me to the Christian Leaders Institute. I am so happy to learn about this online training. I have gained a lot through the Getting Started Class, and I’m hoping that the Lord will give me the grace to go further. The fact that the classes are free makes things easier for me. Otherwise, I would not have been able to afford school fees and get the training I need.
It is essential to see ordination as a beginning, not a graduation or completion. Being ordained means, I am now beginning a lifelong journey of living out my baptismal covenant in a circumscribed way. The Holy Spirit empowers me to do this work for the rest of my life.
My Ministry Opportunities
The ministry opportunities that are before me now are the Women’s Ministry and helping the widows in our church. I am an introvert and tend to distance myself from people, which gives me time to observe and understand people and their actions. It could improve my leadership by utilizing my observations to reach out to the people. I need to know who they are and what sets them off before approaching them. The ministry can be a little tough to handle sometimes, but I will overcome with the help of the Holy Spirit.
My ordination was in March. However, it is now postponed until further notice due to the pandemic the world is facing at the moment. Nevertheless, I will forever be grateful to CLI and the Christian Leaders Alliance for this opportunity they provide for people all over the world. My thanks to CLI and Professor Henry Reyenga. God bless.