Certification Congratulations to Yvonne

We congratulate Yvonne Ward on completing her certification process in Exchanged Life Counseling with Grace Fellowship International. Here is her testimony:

.

The Grace Fellowship International certification program has been one of the most positive and beneficial experiences in my Christian life. I did exchanged life training in the mid to late 90’s through a related ministry in Tennessee. While I learned much during that training, I feel the training I’ve received from GFI has been a deeper and more usable.

Since my certification with them almost twenty years ago, I’ve done a lot of Biblical/ discipleship counseling. The reason I chose to go through the GFI work was two-fold. Mainly, it was because I wanted to review and gain new insight for my personal life, as well as my counseling ministry. Through this process, I feel better equipped to share through the Spirituotherapy materials and training.

Personally, I’ve been reminded of my own identity in Christ. I lost my husband (to cancer) three years ago and found that I wasn’t sure where I fit anymore after my husband was gone. No longer a wife, a missionary, and not ministering alongside my husband was heartbreaking. I believe part of personal healing has been through the Holy Spirit using the truths I’ve been reminded of during my training with GFI.

Currently, I am serving in my church as a Biblical/discipleship counselor.  I don’t know what God has in the future but my desire is to continue to minister to hurting women through the means of the Spirituotherapy methodology.

Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the ministry at GFI. I value the friendships I’ve made and hope to continue them.

Yvonne
yvonneward50@gmail.com

The Value of the Exchanged Life Message: A Testimony

The Holy Spirit is our Teacher and Guide.  Kate K. shared her testimony of how God worked in her life through the 12 week Cross to Life Discipleship discipleship process:

“I know the proper place to start this testimony is with praise to the only Sovereign Lord of this universe, who, by His love and grace, is also the Shepherd of my heart.  With His faithful leading in my life, I have had the blessing of learning and growing in amazing ways in the past few months that only He could allow.  I am humbled when I reflect how I even got started at Biblical Counseling (CTLDM) at Grace Church.  While I was a HR Manager at a company last year, I was calling to find resources for an employee of mine.  After learning about what was offered at Grace and helping my employee get set up there, I felt a tug on my heart, that maybe I should consider this for myself.

“Going through Discipleship with Marilyn, Jan and Shirley, was an incredible blessing! These three sweet women, who love Jesus, reflected His grace beautifully by listening and continually pointing me to Jesus – the true author and perfecter of my faith (Hebrews 12:2).  I learned that regardless of my struggles or how I felt about myself, the only one who can define me is my perfect Savior! This was so freeing, knowing that my sins are in the past and I am one of a ‘chosen people, a royal priesthood’ in His eyes (1 Peter 2:9).

“Over these past few months of Discipleship, I feel that my heart and ears are more in tune with my Savior, and that I am more sensitive to His promptings as I have grown deeper in love with Him.  My desire to be in His Word and in prayer with Him has increased exponentially as well.  Because I am spending more time with Him, I feel that I am starting to see life more in light of eternity.  I am asking myself how situations and circumstances I am going through relate to what God wants me to learn and how I can respond to Him out of obedience, knowing earth is not my home.  I recognize that life always has disappointments and struggles because we are not with the Lord. – Yet!!

“I recognize my feelings for what they are – feelings.  Specifically, when I am upset and frustrated, my first question isn’t always ‘Why?’, rather ‘What is God trying to teach me?’ and “Do my feelings reflect a godly attitude that would point others to Him?”

“In John 17:15, Jesus prays for believers, asking them not to be taken out of the world, but protected from the evil one.  In Ephesians 2:10, we are told that we are the Lord’s handiwork, created before time to do good works, which the Lord Himself prepared for us to do.  Considering those two verses, we have a wonderful purpose and work to do in this world – which will be difficult, yet beautiful – and He has prepared it for our good, and more importantly, His glory.

“While I still have a lot to learn about my sweet Savior and how I can respond obediently, I have learned through Discipleship the importance of leaning into Him every day and even more so in the trials.  He is a good and faithful God, who loves me and desires for me to be transformed to be more like Him.  I thank the Lord for using this Discipleship to pull me closer to Him and allowing me to recognize my true identity in Him. And I am so thankful for the three beautiful and obedient women who showed me the Lord’s abundant love by teaching me more about Him and His truths! God is so good!!! ” – Kate

From the e-letter of Cross to Life Discipleship Ministries (crosstolife.org)