Apostle Marie Berbick’s call to minister to the broken

Over 70,000 lives touched through her Ministry

Although she is from a family of pastors, Apostle Marie Berbick initially scoffed at the idea of following in the same footsteps as her great-grandmother, grandmother, and her own mother, Frederica Berbick.

“The first time that I was told that God had a great assignment for me, I rolled my eyes because I was wondering, “What assignment could that be?!!” and I believe that was way back in 2007,” she recounted.

“My mother gave me a Word at that time, and I didn’t really take it seriously because I really wasn’t serious about the things of God at that time in my life. Even though I was baptised at around 10 years old, you know how it is, you get baptised as a child, and by teenage age, you come out of the church, and I did the same thing—I came out of the church,” she told Freedom Come Rain.

THE WORD CAME AGAIN AND AGAIN

Then, in 2012, Apostle Steve Lyston and his wife Michelle told her that there was much that the Lord wanted to do with her. They didn’t tell her at the time that she would be a pastor. Berbick did not learn about her specific assignment until around 2015, when a prophet who was visiting her church called her out of her seat and said that she was going to be a “frontline woman of the gospel.”

Another prophetic Word came in 2017. This time, the message was that God was ready for her. At the time, Berbick, who is a communication specialist, was assisting her pastor, Bishop Romeon Facey, with a radio programme started by the local church but broadcast externally. She had no ambition of starting a ministry, as she was content with being of service to her home assembly.

But in April 2018, she started experiencing some personal challenges that drew her closer to God, and it was around that time that her mother’s pastor in the United States, Bishop Roland Binda, reached out to her. Both maintained contact, and after a series of divine events, she was ordained in July 2018 as a pastor and evangelist under the covering of Touching Your World Ministries in Queens, NY, by Bishop Binda, whose death in March 2020 devastated her.

Fast forward to today, and the mother of three has surprised even herself. She now has a global ministry that reaches over 70,000 people on her social media platforms. She has been hosting healing and deliverance services every Wednesday online for the last two years and has recently started Sunday services on Zoom. The services that are carried on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Youtube have become a staple for many who share their testimonies with her.

“I do know that there is a huge women’s ministry that the Lord has placed in my hands, and I don’t take it lightly at all. I have seen the fruit, I have seen the seeds, and I have seen the difference that it has made over the years in the lives of women. With me being somebody who has come back from brokenness, I have my own personal story of triumph over trauma, my own personal story of overcoming, and God has used those personal experiences to help me be as effective as I am right now,” said Berbick, whose book, Still Standing, documents some of these experiences.

SOME REJOICE BUT OTHERS…

Although she is certain of her calling, the journey has not always been easy. For one, she has had to deal with the condescending attitude of some of her male counterparts and people generally who question the fact that she is a woman pastor. Some of the male pastors refuse to call her by her title, and she recalls being on platforms with a few who refer to her as “the young lady.” Some people use scripture to justify their attitude towards her.

“They are not looking at the fact that the Lord says that in the last days, I will pour out my spirit and that his sons and daughters will prophesy. They are just looking at one scripture that speaks to women not being able to speak in the church, and they are not looking at the context within which that scripture came,” Berbick shared.

Apart from ministering to her online audience and travelling to different states and countries to preach, Berbick is also a coach who is accessed by women from around the world who seek this service.

FAMILY MATTERS “GOING TO THE CHAPEL AND WE’RE GONNA…”

The single mother still has to find time for her teenage sons, who live with her.  “The challenges can be much when you are a single mother, you have children to take care of, you have a ministry and people looking up to you relying on you and at the same time you are trying to do your business, so that you can pay your bills,” said Berbick who will be getting married soon.

The self-proclaimed workaholic is still trying to find balance so she can do the work of God without sacrificing her family obligations. She is gradually improving in this area.

“I am at a place now where I have come to understand that I have a good heart, but I am not going to be everything to everyone, and especially not at the same time; it’s not possible,” she said.

Berbick was the 2020 recipient of the Young Achievers Award for the Most Influential International Motivator of the Year from the Exclusive Entrepreneurs Foundation (EEF), and in August 2022, she was commissioned into the office of an Apostle. Despite her busy schedule, she is involved in many charities and supports other ministries. 

“My journey has been long, but it has been a fruitful one, and I have seen the Lord do some amazing things in a short time,” she said.