ALUMNI TESTIMONIES

Cheryl Ricker, 1994 CFNI Grad

OLD SEEDS PRODUCE NEW CROPS

When a lady on York University’s campus approached me, she had no idea how I’d prayed that morning: “Lord, I’ve narrowed it down to five Bible colleges, but I’m stuck. Please send someone my way who will tell me the name of the school where I’m supposed to go!” Since my parents don’t believe God still speaks to us, my decision didn’t exactly provoke the hallelujah chorus. But after they saw how much I grew that 1993-94 school year, they couldn’t help but change their tune. Besides, it gave them the most incredible son-in-law! Dwight and I met over a school advertised production of The Passion Play. We then took our passion to the Institute Building where we worshipped with Kevin Jonas. Next, we conveniently signed up for CFNI’s “Marriage and Family” class. I used to walk around the track with Mom Lindsay, but Dwight became my new walking partner—and he was easier to keep up with! We enjoyed witnessing together on the evangelism team on Fridays and attending a Messianic ALUMNI congregation on Saturdays. Naturally, we chose Israel for our mission’s trip. God clearly used CFNI in our marriage to teach us how to make Him our shelter. This proved vital when I was diagnosed with cervical dystonia, a neurological condition that’s like Parkinson’s disease. Involuntary movements made it difficult to stand, sit, and eat. Spasms from overfiring cranial nerves made muscles on one side of my neck become contracted with spasms, constantly forcing my head to the far left. This began our six-year journey of pressing into God for healing and recovery. I’ve learned to praise Him like my sanity depended on it.

Regardless of everything the enemy stole, I discovered that when everything’s stripped away, God is still more than enough!

Against the doctor’s predictions, my health began to ever-so-slowly improve. Friends tried to comfort me, “You’ll someday write your own story.” It’s hard to imagine reliving the nightmarish details, but I trust Him. And in the midst of my ongoing healing journey, writers began reaching out to me for help with their publishing dreams. I never planned it, but the next thing I knew, I found myself in the role of a literary agent. From there, I became a screenwriter manager, dreaming bigger and bigger with God, all the while still suffering—and abiding. Then God connected me with worldfamous artist, Ron DiCianni, who nurtured a lifelong dream to see his art in the Bible. As only God can do, he joined the pieces of our God-sized dreams together. The Masterpiece Edition of The Passion Translation is now available on Amazon for preorder.

The message is as simple as personal: God’s love and power in us through Jesus is limitless.

My personal miracles came differently than expected. They popped in like joy bombs brightening my days. Dwight and I have two wonderful sons—one graduated from the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry and the other from CFNI. What a joy it was to visualize the same place from where Dwight and I first held hands decades before, watching our son receive his diploma. Old seeds can produce new crops.

Cheryl Ricker has written several books, including A Friend in the Storm, Rush of Heaven: One Woman’s Miraculous Healing Encounter with Jesus, Josiah’s Fire: Autism Stole his Words, God gave him a Voice, The Good Gift Giver: 31 Days of Unexpected Blessings, and The Masterpiece Edition of the Passion Translation. 16 THE VOICE WINTER 2021

Scott Miller CFNI Grad 1983-1985

The healing process continued as God led my wife and I to adopt a child that needed a home. There the Lord began to find a landing place for the fatherly emotions that were birthed when I learned that I was to become a father. These were emotions that remained unconnected until the Lord brought healing into my life, where I was able to walk out the calling of fatherhood.

I was a Christ For the Nations’ student back in the early 80s. At that time, I was suffering from the reality that my child’s life had been taken in an abortion about five years previously. At an eleven o’clock morning chapel one day, the guest speaker asked for anyone who had been involved in an abortion to come down to the altar. At first, I Mellinda, Scott’s adopted daughtercouldn’t even lift my head. I was so full of shame and guilt. However, I became curious as to whether anyone else would respond to the altar call. To my surprise, the altar was packed—200 to 300 students of the 1,000 student body had responded to the altar call. I responded then as well, and was ministered to by one of the staff who prayed for me. You see, I was suffering from the loss of a child to abortion, and while I knew God had forgiven ALUMNI me, I did not know how to walk in the restoration that He had for me. Since leaving Christ For the Nations, with the spiritual strengthening I received through that experience, God has walked me through an even deeper sense of restoration. From being barely able to get myself to the altar during chapel, God, through a process of healing and transformation, has allowed me to speak in America on the subject of healing for fathers of aborted children. The process of restoration has included walking cooperatively with post abortion healing ministries and being involved in establishing one in my home town. This venture has resulted in allowing post abortive people in my community to access God’s healing grace through a weekend of restoration.

God furthered the healing process by allowing me to become a part of a board that started a new maternity home for pregnant women. Through God’s grace we have been able to help save the lives of at least seven babies. At a gospel revival meeting, I will be introducing one of the babies who was saved. This little girl’s mom chose the maternity home over an abortion clinic—she is four years old now and just a bundle of energy. To be a part of experiencing the fruit of this kind of ministry brings a healing that only the Lord could orchestrate.

Today, I am a chaplain in a federal penitentiary, and I share with the fellows from personal experience that the Lord can make the crooked paths straight, and He can bring light into whatever darkness they are currently going through.

I thank God for His goodness in sending me to Christ For the Nations, where I learned that God is a miracle working God and that His power to save is still available to all. CFNTheVoice.com 17