Trainers and students will return to the Pastor Training Center at Abaana’s Hope on May 11! Please pray for safe travels and for the Lord to continue revealing his Word to these pastor students. Our 81 PTC students are broken into two cohorts or groups. Cohort A will begin their lessons first, which will be taught by Training Leaders International trainers Mike Evans, Larry Szyman, and Stu Dix. On May 17 – 19, Cohort A and B will go through the 9Marks lessons, taught by Dr. Nathaniel Pearce. Afterwards, Cohort B will remain at Abaana’s Hope for TLI lessons led by several African trainers until May 24.
“The church is like a hospital,” Nathaniel said. “People come because they are sick, and they come for guidance in many different issues, whether it’s marriage, family, career, parenting, or interpersonal challenges. What they desperately need is for their pastor to become skilled in the hands of God’s Word to connect their heart and their challenge with the Word of God.”
Nathaniel grew up in the inner city of Kingston, Jamaica, with a single mother and two older siblings. His mother was adopted as an infant, but her adopted parents abandoned her at boarding school when she was in third grade. By the time she was pregnant with her third child, Nathaniel, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Nathaniel grew up watching his mother grow in her faith, spending many hours at night praying on her knees.
When Nathaniel was about seven years old, his mother suffered from depression and schizophrenia and was admitted to the hospital for several months at a time. Nathaniel and his two older siblings had to survive on their own until their mother returned home. At the age of seven, Nathaniel got his first job and gave his life to Jesus.
“Looking back, except for some of the pains and the scars that it brought, I wouldn’t want anything to change because those difficult circumstances helped me to understand my need for Christ, my need for the Savior,” Nathaniel said. “It has given me a unique outlook on life, and my love for the Word really blossomed out of those moments.”
Nathaniel’s Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Cynthia Beach, also had a big impact on his walk with the Lord. He remembers her sharing the message of the gospel and leading him to faith in Jesus. After a brief spiritual drift, he rededicated his life to Christ on January 7, 1990.
“I sensed God was calling me back to himself. The life I was living in the world did not please Him, and He had a particular purpose for my life,” Nathaniel said.
He began serving in various ministries inside and outside of the church and eventually outside of the country of Jamaica. In 1998, he traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, to continue his education.
“I was not one of those kids who in Jamaica we would describe as foreign minded, which means you’re dreaming about leaving the third world country. That wasn’t me, but the Lord convinced me at the end of my first year at Bible college in Jamaica that He was calling me for ministry outside of Jamaica,” he said. “I tried to hide, to outrun God, but that did not work. I learned that I needed to submit my life to his will.”
This led him from Midland Bible Institute in Jamaica to Carver Bible College in Atlanta where he focused on learning Greek. Next, he attended Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest where he earned a master’s in divinity, master’s in counseling, master’s in theology, and a doctorate with a focus in counseling and leadership. While attending school and afterwards, Nathaniel served in various roles including an elder, worship leader, Sunday school teacher, senior pastor, and more. He’s served in ministry roles for over 30 years and in more than 15 countries.
By 2010, he began teaching at New Life Theological Seminary, which has been renamed to Charlotte Christian College and Theological Seminary, in Charlotte, North Carolina. He started as an adjunct professor and became the vice president of student affairs. He taught Greek, counseling courses, leadership courses, and cross-cultural anthropology. In 2015, he left his teaching position and began serving full time with Calvary Church in Charlotte. For six years, he served as the pastor for adult discipleship then began serving as a pastor of family ministries.
When Nathaniel travels to Uganda in May, he’ll teach the PTC students about biblical counseling, which is one of his favorite topics. His interest in counseling stems from watching the challenges his mother had with mental illness. He chose to pursue a master’s in counseling because he wanted to better understand how the human mind works and address these mental challenges with the Word of God.
While his mother was in and out of mental hospitals, Nathaniel recognized a pattern that his mother’s health spiraled on the heels of a tragedy or stressful situation. In the midst of the difficulty, she struggled to process it. In 2014, the last time she suffered from this mental illness, Nathaniel returned to Jamaica to care for her and walked his mother through a study in Matthew 6 encouraging her through scripture to not worry but instead to trust in God.
“I had the joy of helping my own mother to process the importance of trusting God rather than worrying about the challenges she had. As a result of that, my mother has not been back to a mental institution,” Nathaniel said. “I've been able to see up close the difference that wise biblical counseling can make in people's lives. Sometimes the medicine is needed, but there is a plethora of research that will tell us the medicine alone is insufficient. Biblical spiritual care is critical.”
Nathaniel and his wife, Cheryl who is also Jamaican, have been married for 25 years, and they have two daughters, Ruth-Ann and Hannah. With their youngest daughter about to leave home, Nathaniel and Cheryl have been seeking ways they can better serve the Lord. Nathaniel was connected to Four Corners through one of the FCM board members, Tim Nabors, who also serves at Calvary Church. They discussed Nathaniel’s passion for teaching and preparing the next generation of church leaders, missionaries, and disciples.
“I’ve enjoyed going to places and helping brothers and sisters in the Lord particularly in parts of the world where they might not be able to afford to pay for the level of education that I may have,” he said.
Following the instructions outlined in 2 Timothy 2:2, Nathaniel is committed to being a disciple maker. In this passage, Paul tells Timothy, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others,” (2 Tim. 2:2).
“I believe it’s my call, and it’s also part of the Great Commission, that God is calling me at this phase of my life to intentionally be a part of equipping the next generation for ministry,” Nathaniel said.
After the training in May, these 81 PTC students will return one more time to Abaana's Hope in September for graduation. This will mark the end of their three-year training period, allowing them to then be sent out to make disciples of all nations, strengthen churches, and establish new churches.
