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Zion
Bible Institute
Juleen Pataro
No fear:
discovering a call to ministry
At 21, Juleen Pataro
thought her life was just the way she wanted it to be. The “good
money” she made as a hairdresser allowed her to rent her own
apartment in Lagrangeville, N.Y. Pataro seemed to be on course for
a hairdressing career. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Although Pataro grew
up attending Faith Assembly of God in nearby Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,
as a teenager she abandoned her relationship with God. She rededicated
her life to Christ at a 1997 youth service and knew she would never
be the same. By age 23, her relationship with Christ deepened.
“I got filled with
the Holy Spirit and God began changing my heart,” Pataro,
now 27, says. “I no longer felt I was where I was supposed
to be.” She began seeking the Lord’s will for her life,
but fear lulled her search for more than a year.
“I didn’t
know what was going on,” Pataro recalls. “I didn’t
realize God was calling me into ministry. I was so settled on being
a hairdresser.” Soon Pataro began feeling a passion for ministry,
and she decided to visit Zion Bible Institute, an Assemblies of
God Bible college located in Barrington, R.I. At a 1999 service
during Zion Experience, a school tour for prospective students,
Pataro received the assurance she was looking for.
“One of the verses
I had been leaning on was, ‘If anyone would come after me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matthew
16:24, NIV),’ ” Pataro says. “That was one of
the verses the speaker used at the altar call that night. I knew
Zion was exactly where God wanted me to be.”
Today, Pataro, a junior
at Zion, says her Bible major and missions minor are preparing her
for overseas ministry. She says becoming acclimated to campus life
at Zion was the first step toward life on the mission field.
“Zion is a place
where if you choose to say, ‘God, work on me,’ you can
do that,” says Pataro, a resident assistant and junior class
secretary. “It’s a refuge. When you go to chapel, be
prepared to meet with God.”
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