A Pastor's Testimony - Crazy about the Bible!
Pastor and Mrs. Oriel Sterling
By Pastor Oriel Sterling*
As a child growing up in Gonaives I was part of a Christian church, and I had a sponsor who helped me go to a Christian school where we always heard the Word of God. When I was ten years old, a group of Christians visited and told us the story of the Lost Sheep. It dawned on me that I was that lost sheep, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior that day.
Right away I began to have an appetite to study the Bible, but I didn’t have a Bible, and my parents could not afford to buy one for me. One day I prayed to God and said, “Lord, I need a Bible. Please send me a Bible.” Three days later I was sitting in class when a car came along and stopped in front of my school. Some missionaries got out of the car and walked toward the school. At the door of my classroom they stopped and called my name, “Oriel Sterling.”
I stood up, and they gave me a Bible and a hymnbook. From that day until now I have been crazy about the Bible! Soon after I accepted Jesus Christ I felt God calling me to preach. My classmates used to tell me, “You look like a pastor,” and I felt the same. In school I participated in a program called “The Bible for All.” Even as a teenager in high school I used to go preaching. After high school I went to the Nazarene Seminary in Port-au-Prince, graduated in 1989, and went to work as a pastor.
Later the Lord revealed to me that he wanted me to do evangelism in the Cap-Haitien area. People began giving their hearts to Jesus, and I have started three churches up to this time. In the fall of 2002 I became the coordinator for Portable Bible Schools in this part of Haiti. In partnership with ICDM and Evangelism Resources in Wilmore, Kentucky, we are training pastors and leaders from many churches.
This program, called the Training Network for Evangelical Leaders in Haiti (TINELH), has trained more than 3000 church workers so far, and our goal is to train thousands more. Some of our graduates are starting new churches, some are evangelists and Sunday school teachers, and some are missionaries to the Dominican Republic.
I don’t have the right words to tell you how important this training is. I used to visit churches with 200 people attending, but the pastor didn’t know how to teach them. PBS is completely changing this, and we are building stronger churches and stronger Christians.
* Pastor Sterling wears many hats. His roles include pastor, evangelist, school administrator, Portable Bible School coordinator and School of Evangelism overseer.
As a child growing up in Gonaives I was part of a Christian church, and I had a sponsor who helped me go to a Christian school where we always heard the Word of God. When I was ten years old, a group of Christians visited and told us the story of the Lost Sheep. It dawned on me that I was that lost sheep, and I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior that day.
Right away I began to have an appetite to study the Bible, but I didn’t have a Bible, and my parents could not afford to buy one for me. One day I prayed to God and said, “Lord, I need a Bible. Please send me a Bible.” Three days later I was sitting in class when a car came along and stopped in front of my school. Some missionaries got out of the car and walked toward the school. At the door of my classroom they stopped and called my name, “Oriel Sterling.”
I stood up, and they gave me a Bible and a hymnbook. From that day until now I have been crazy about the Bible! Soon after I accepted Jesus Christ I felt God calling me to preach. My classmates used to tell me, “You look like a pastor,” and I felt the same. In school I participated in a program called “The Bible for All.” Even as a teenager in high school I used to go preaching. After high school I went to the Nazarene Seminary in Port-au-Prince, graduated in 1989, and went to work as a pastor.
Later the Lord revealed to me that he wanted me to do evangelism in the Cap-Haitien area. People began giving their hearts to Jesus, and I have started three churches up to this time. In the fall of 2002 I became the coordinator for Portable Bible Schools in this part of Haiti. In partnership with ICDM and Evangelism Resources in Wilmore, Kentucky, we are training pastors and leaders from many churches.
This program, called the Training Network for Evangelical Leaders in Haiti (TINELH), has trained more than 3000 church workers so far, and our goal is to train thousands more. Some of our graduates are starting new churches, some are evangelists and Sunday school teachers, and some are missionaries to the Dominican Republic.
I don’t have the right words to tell you how important this training is. I used to visit churches with 200 people attending, but the pastor didn’t know how to teach them. PBS is completely changing this, and we are building stronger churches and stronger Christians.
* Pastor Sterling wears many hats. His roles include pastor, evangelist, school administrator, Portable Bible School coordinator and School of Evangelism overseer.
