Shalom! My name is Ceapha Richelieu Anthony Cooper II. I was born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia. I am one of 6 children and known by most as CR from my childhood days growing up in a small city known as Key Hole, Old Road in Liberia. My parents, Ceapha Richelieu A. Cooper I (now with the Lord), and Rose Tete Cooper raised me in the things of the Lord and taught me His ways as a child. I was about 3 years old when the brutal civil war began that changed my life and that of hundreds of thousands of Liberians. I spent 14 years of my life in multiple homes, in and out of school and consequently fleeing to a refugee camp in Ghana until my family and I were granted asylum to come to the United States in 2006.
Those years that would scar many for life (and rightfully so), helped develop a life of faith and appreciation that makes me who I am today. My late grandfather Bishop Augustus B. Marwieh played a major part in my walk with the Lord from his life of service in the Kingdom, as well as my parents and older siblings who made sure that we had a nightly devotion while growing up regardless of how intense the war was around us. Little did I know that those devotion nights were the small beginnings that would lay the foundation of a life of prayer, faith, and unbreakable hope that I live with today.
Upon coming to the U.S in 2006, I briefly attended San Jose State University as a mechanical engineering undergraduate. It was there that, for the first time being away from my family, I went astray and began to indulge in heavy drinking and smoking as well as a party lifestyle. Midway through, I dropped out and started working because I didn’t feel like I was meant to be an engineer, but always knew that God had a plan for me.
In the mid 2000’s, after intentionally trying to run from the Lord, I began to start hearing from the Lord and having the same dreams I had as a kid, of being a man of God that would impact the lives of many. What amazes me today as I look back on those years in college where I thought I was wasting my life; I can see the hand of God leading me through those experiences that I can now relate to as I proclaim God’s Kingdom.
Then came February 7th, 2020, when I got a plane ticket to come to Washington state. I was in a confused state of mind due to a difficult season of my life. Arriving in Kent, Washington, broken and confused, I didn’t know what to do. I had just quit my job, left my car at the airport, and could honestly say I felt like the prophet in 1 King 19:4.I didn’t feel worthy of living. But my mother and older sister Kaddy began to pray for me and asked me to stay just a little while. One day turned into weeks, and by the end of February, during a week of prayer in which I challenged God in my anger and bitterness to prove to me that He was real, I heard Him speak to me as clear as day.
On the chilly Saturday morning of February 29th, 2020 I heard God say to me, “CR MY SON, 3 THINGS WILL ALWAYS REMAIN; FAITH, HOPE & LOVE, BUT KNOW THAT THE GREATEST IS LOVE AND I LOVE YOU” (1 Corinthians 13:13). That was the beginning of an Apostolic journey that continues today.
I followed the voice of the Lord and started a YouTube channel that birthed the ministry He has given me today (Kingdom Pathways International Ministries). I began to remember encounters like one I had with a man on the train in California who asked me “Have you ever thought about teaching at a Bible School?” I also remembered another dream I had when I saw the Master and He called me directly by name to declare Him to this generation That dream started to unfold as I began to rebuild myself in the Lord, and eventually took the advice of my current shepherd Bishop Elect George H. Everett to consider going to Seattle Bible College where I could gain the practical knowledge I needed for my calling.
Today, nearly three years after coming to Washington state as a broken man, I have found a Godly wife, and I graduated as valedictorian of my class this past June.
SBC has changed my life in ways that words cannot express. From my first interview with the loving and kind Dr. Kathy, that made me feel so valued and welcome, to my first courses there, and meeting Kingdom minded and Spirit-led people like Pastor Chris Ward, Father Dan Hammer, Mother Shirl DeBay, Pastor Andre Benjamin and Pastor Jim Beirne (just to name a few), as well as a host of other students and mates that love the Lord, my life has never been the same.
SBC has taught me what it means to be a Godly husband and father, and a servant leader that lives with integrity and the absolute fear of the Lord. I have had several challenges, but my classmates have supported me and uplifted me in prayers and words of encouragement like a true Christ-like family.
I intend to be an ambassador for SBC and give back all that have been poured into me by pursuing my Masters degree, establishing a Kingdom Living Center in my beloved country of Liberia that will teach and train Biblical entrepreneurs to be Kingdom workers, as well as plant churches here in in the United States and other parts of the world. I also intend to teach at SBC one day and work with future students to further the work of the Lord, and go to the unreached parts of the world to tell them about the Kingdom of God.
As the calling of God is now manifesting into my life, when I look back at the early stages of my journey, I can see how the Lord has guided and protected me from death, from being raped or forced to be a child soldier, to now having a burning passion for this Apostolic commission He has entrusted me with to transform humanity with love and help people to stay focus on Him in this unfocused world. Shalom!
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