Carl Thelemaque was born in Central Haiti, but grew up in the metropolitan area of Port au Prince.

Carl broke away from my home when he finished high school. He had the opportunity to come to America. He holds a Masters degree in Public Administration, a bachelor in Psychology.

A turn of event changed his life forever. While he was on vacation in Haiti, he was with a long time friend. When looked up the skies and he stated, “The skies appear as if something terrible is about to happen,” he did not take him seriously because they joked around a lot. Two days later, the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010 killed hundreds of thousands and he nearly lost my life. At that time, the one word that kept ringing in everyone’s ears was the name of God. There everything became clear to him that he had another purpose on this earth. he quickly engaged himself to rescue and help those in need. He opened up his home which became an operation center to help victims. He spent days not resting or sleeping but it was as if I was being fueled by some other type of energy. God is working!

Carl faced many changes. But a calling to ministry was developing. Carl started Christian Leaders in 2013. He was ordained with the Christian Leaders Alliance in 2014. He now is a key Alliance leader in Haiti. He will mentor those that need help or ordination for ministry.

I, Cathy Byrd, am 68 years old. I was married for 48 years to William H. Byrd (Bill). He died August 2020 of COVID 19 complications . 

 I was raised in a small agricultural community in southwest Georgia. Bill and I met in college at Auburn University.  We raised our 2 children, Billy and Charlotte, in Montgomery, Alabama. We moved to Panama City, Florida in 1994 when Charlotte left for college. Bill worked in broadcasting management. I worked in pharmaceutical sales. Our children are married and we have 5 grandchildren from ages 26to 16. We have one great-grandson. 

I was raised attending a Baptist Church weekly with my family and was baptized at age 12. I became a Methodist when I married Bill and we raised our children in church. I attended a three-day retreat in 1992 and was moved to a much deeper commitment to Christ.  The way I have understood it is that I gave my young and mostly innocent heart to Jesus at 12, recognizing the brokenness of humanity and the need for a savior.  But there were aspects of my young life that had not yet come into being- marriage, parenting, finances, career, and so much more.  At 38 I had a lot more experience with my personal sinfulness and realized I had not intentionally surrendered each area of my life to Christ, but instead was living a compartmentalized life. So I gave my world-weary soul to Christ at 38.  The way I thought about it was that I was actually a religious "churchian" with more of an intellectual understanding of salvation than a fully-devoted follower of Christ until that point.  The next five years I was actively invested in growing in faith through fellowship and study with a small group of older women who actively mentored me.  Coming of age in the 60s and 70s, I had lived with some culturally-inculcated ideas that were challenged by my growing commitment to Scripture. At 43, during a worship service in which the pastor was preaching on Romans, I made a fuller surrender and gave my mind to Christ.  I prayed as I sat there, "Lord, I surrender my need to have all the answers.  I ask you to show me what I need to know by the power of your Holy Spirit, according to your timing and your will for my life." My life was dramatically changed in a matter of weeks and I found myself under spiritual attack.  Satan tried to take my marriage, my mind, and my Christian witness. It was a difficult year.  I spent six days in a psychiatric unit, but felt so profoundly the presence of God and his protection through it all.  It was determined that I had been in a depression for at least a couple of years, having experienced a combination of several losses and major life changes and had decompensated to a point of an emotional emergency. I began counseling with a wonderful Christian woman who became a further discipling influence in my life and my mid-life emotional emergency led to a greater spiritual emergence.  

I started a weekly Depression Impact Group at my church for women and was active in teaching adult Sunday School, helped start Celebrate Recovery in our county, and in 2002 I started working part time as Christian Education Superintendent in my church.  I took a two-year course for paraprofessional certification in Christian Education through Columbia College's eChristian Education program and was certified through The United Methodist Church.  I quit the pharmaceutical sales job and returned to graduate school, receiving a Master's Degree in Counseling and Psychology in 2008, making the decision to give all of my strength for the rest of my life to Christ at age 54.  I began working with women in substance abuse recovery and other life-limiting dysfunctions and families in crisis, becoming Director of Women's Programs at The Panama City Rescue Mission.  I also explored my call to full time vocational ministry through The UMC and started seminary studies and preparation for becoming a deacon, specializing in Christian Education and Counseling.  I served at the Rescue Mission until 2014. A change of leadership at the Mission led to my decision to start a small residential ministry for women, Titus 2 Partnership, Inc.  This 501c3 non-profit and all-volunteer ministry, now in its fourth year, houses 12-15 women each year, providing intensive discipleship and mentoring toward life recovery using a Christian Twelve Step approach, along with other widely recognized Christian discipleship curriculum-resources and individualized mentoring . We refer to Titus 2's ministry as being "low cost, high impact." The ministry has been well supported financially, through volunteer hours, and community participation.  We also do community outreach and case management with families in crisis. 

In June 2017 I ended my pursuit of ordination as a deacon in The UMC.  The ongoing political and theological divisions in The UMC led to increasing dissatisfaction with the direction of The UMC.  I had completed all seminary requirements, the residency, and Clinical Pastoral Education training. 

I continue to believe that the Lord has called me to ordained ministry as a deacon for a number of reasons.  But I have also come to believe that my covenant with Christ is independent of the covenant requirements of clergy candidates in The UMC.  

I serve on staff part time at my local church, Lynn Haven United Methodist, working in community outreach and congregational care as needed, teaching a weekly small group, discipling individual women personally, and other tasks as requested by the pastoral staff.  My title is Community Care Minister.  I have enlarged my ministry to other activities with other denominational and non-denominational congregations, community agencies, and other non-profit groups advocating for persons living in homelessness, with mental health challenges, substance abuse, or other life-limiting dysfunctions. I serve on the Community Adult Protective Services Committee of the 14th Judicial Circuit, advocating for inclusion of the Christian perspective to the human services problem-solving processes in our area.

I expect to be engaged as a direct service provider of faith-infused transformational education and counseling ministry and as an advocate for community services that bring Christian principles to bear on local human services needs for as long as the Lord gives me strength. My "spiritual dream" is "to know Christ and to make him known" in every way and in every place that the Lord leads me..  

I am humbled to serve Christ and His church through ordination as a deacon through CLI. Thank you.  

Rev. Cathy Byrd, MS CRSS 

Charles and his wife have walked with God for a long time. They have ministered in the immigrant communities.

Christian Leaders Institute has given Charles the opportunity for formal ministry training to enhance his ministry.

Charles began Christian Leaders Institute in 2012. He has slower taken over 90 hours of ministry training. He was ordained into the Christian Leaders Alliance in 2014 and is one of our pioneer ordained leaders.

He is willing to assist others in their ministry training and their ordination with the Christian Leaders Alliance.

My name is Nathan Vierra. I was born into a lower-middle class family in 1975 as the second of four children. My parents were young and inexperienced in life, but they did the best that they could. I am grateful that I still have both of them, and they are still happily married.

My early childhood years were spent in church, where I first had an encounter with the Lord. I’ll never forget the first time I felt His nearness. I was ten or eleven years old. It was around that time that I had first said a prayer surrendering my life to Him, but honestly, that surrender was short lived. When I was twelve years old, my family moved out of Oakland, CA, and subsequently out of church. From that time and for the duration of my childhood, my family never went back to church.

Throughout my childhood and into my young adult years, I had an awareness of Jesus, but more often than not, I ignored him. I enlisted in the United States Navy at 20 years old and found myself stationed in a small southern coastal Texas town. There, I met the guy who would get me back into church, a solid group of Christian friends, and later, my wife.

I joined First Baptist Church, Ingleside, TX and befriended the pastor, who became my first mentor.

This was when I began to seek God, seek forgiveness, and seek a relationship with Him. His grace met my faith, and He began to change me.

I met Melissa in the summer of 1997 and we were married in January 1998. The following year, our son was born, my military obligation ended, and we moved to Lexington, KY. There, we would end up living for 14 years, having a daughter, and having a shake-up that would cause us to redefine who we were spiritually.

God really began to get my attention in 2006. He began requiring me to grow up and become more than who I was. This was where I really began to understand grace; His ability to accomplish what we cannot accomplish in our own strength. My understanding began to explode, and with that, the accountability came with it. In what turned out to be a six year process, I moved my family to Kansas City, MO, where we currently live and serve in our church.

As I write this, Melissa and I have been married 22 years, our 21 year old son, Zion, is married, and our daughter Natali will be graduating high school in a few weeks.

God has been the absolute center of our lives for several years now, and He’s blessed us incredibly. We’ve gained much understanding regarding the kingdom of God and our (humanity’s) role in it. We serve in several areas in the body of Christ, from mentoring & parenting, to serving (or have served) in nearly every aspect of church services. I have traveled some in ministry and I am excited to walk out my future in serving the King of Kings and the people of His kingdom.

I am grateful for CLI and the programs that they offer. I have been ordained through Christian Leaders Alliance as a deacon servant leader, and I am currently taking classes with the intent to earn an associates degree (and later a bachelor's degree) in ministry.

Clayton Moore has been married for over 30 years. He and his wife have five children. Now they have grandchildren too.

Clayton Moore was raised in a local Lutheran Church. In adulthood, He and his family left the church scene, but God did not leave him and his family. In 2009, he lost his job after his company merged with another one. This event changed his schedule and he started to renew his connections to Christ.

The Holy Spirit began to convict him to reconnect with God. He began to study the Bible. Clayton sensed the call to reach others including his family.

This led Clayton to begin studying at Christian Leaders Institute in 2016. He is close to completing his Bachelor Degree. He has been ordained.

Clayton is willing to mentor any Christian Leaders Institute student or graduate in their journey of ministry training or ordination with the Christian Leaders Alliance.