"The Son of Man will send out his angels..."
--Matthew 13:41  Printer-Friendly Version
On August 29, 2005, a Category 1 hurricane suddenly exploded into a Category 5 over the exceptionally warm Gulf waters. Her name was Katrina, and she made landfall just east of New Orleans, effectively eradicating anything and everything for hundreds of miles. The human misery she left in her wake was described as a disaster of Biblical proportions. Entire towns were turned into heaps of rubble. Oil rigs broke off their moorings and crashed inland, looking like displaced Eiffel Towers rising up out of garbage dumps. Boats were in the tops of trees, houses were swept into the sea, cars were submerged in swimming pools, dead bodies floated down city streets, and everywhere . . . everywhere! . . . there was not only the overwhelming stench of death, but the heavy air of fear and grief, helplessness and hopelessness, desperation and despair. The visual images that were broadcast on one televised report after another were unforgettable. One that is engraved forever in my mind is of thousands of evacuees jammed in and around the Superdome. Men and women, young and old, families and singles, sick and well, black and white, weak and strong, were stranded for days with no food or water, under the broiling sun outside, and threatened by the terror of unrestrained anarchy inside. The whole world watched the not-to-be believed pictures of babies dying in their mothers’ arms, elderly people dying in their wheelchairs, children staring vacantly out of listless little faces and dehydrated bodies, while they waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. |
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In Detroit, Michigan, a city racially divided and financially bankrupt, Just Give Me Jesus challenged women to "look up" to Jesus. In His presence, they were not only united in spirit, but lifted in love as they experienced a fresh touch from heaven.
| I could hardly bare to watch, yet I couldn’t turn away. I wept and wept and wept. When I thought all my tears had been shed, more came. I was angry and frustrated . . . if only I could fly in with a load of bottled water and sandwiches! I would personally hand each of those thirsty, starving people something to drink and eat. And I would put my arms around them, and tell them somebody cares!
And then I realized . . . if I cared about these precious people to the point that I was in tears, in agony, desperate to |
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| find some way to help them, then how did God feel? And how did He feel, not just about these evacuees, but about the whole world of spiritually desperate people? Into my mind’s eye came an image that I will never see on the televised evening news. It was an image of God the Father looking down on the entire world of humanity long ago, and seeing us as I was now seeing the people at the Superdome . . . except that He saw people spiritually “thirsty” and desperate for something to “eat.” And the loving heart of God, living in the security and safety and comfort of His heavenly home, was so disturbed by what He saw that He did something about humanity’s helpless, hopeless condition. He came down. He got involved in the filthy “streets” that were flooded with our sin and its consequences. He came down on His own initiative and gave us His only Son -- the “Living Water” to satisfy our otherwise insatiable thirst for fulfillment and meaning and happiness, and He gave us the “Bread of Life” to strengthen and sustain us on our life’s journey. He came down to shed His own blood to wash away the filth. He came down to send His Holy Spirit to help us, not just to rebuild our lives, but to start over with a brand new life.
| Yet so much of the world is still waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting. They don’t know that relief is not just on the way, it has come! The Living Water and the Bread of Life are here! Jesus is theirs for the taking! Because Someone does care!
Praise God for sending this AnGeL to “hand out” the Water and the Bread in these “superdomes” this year: | 
At the end of the final workshop at A Passionate Pursuit-Tampa, women were given a CD with the outline and worksheets for conducting a 6-week Bible study on the book of Ephesians, along with the challenge to "handout" God's Word in their neighborhoods, churches, workplaces and
schools. We have already heard of many new studies, including one in a local prison!
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| . . . In Paraguay, where women braved long distances and incredible heat to hear God’s Word during Just Give Me Jesus in March, and where my brother Franklin followed up with a meeting a month later that touched many more, culminating in a mass baptism of thousands of new believers. . . . In Kansas City, Kansas and Tampa, Florida where A Passionate Pursuit drew women thirsty for more of Jesus into a deeper relationship with Him. They were equipped and challenged to lead Bible studies, thus effectively passing out the Bread and Water to others. . . . In Detroit, where thousands of women from all over the Greater Detroit area came to the Palace for Just Give Me Jesus to meet and worship the King of Kings Who can serve their every need.
. . . And in Kiev, Ukraine where women from this former Soviet state came freely to be fed and to drink in the Spirit at Just Give Me Jesus in October. We are now standing on tiptoe in anticipation, prayerfully trusting God to empower our new radio ministry, Daily Light for Daily Living, to be life-changing. It’s truly awesome to be “sent out” while staying home and recording radio messages in our own studio, knowing they will be generously scattered like seeds on the airwaves and into the parched soil of people’s hearts and minds. And without leaving my desk, the message of Jesus is going out across the nation through our new gift book, “My Jesus Is…Everything.” It has been designed to help the reader stay focused on Jesus in the midst of life’s storms and stress and struggles. Recording the CD in the back of the book which includes Fernando Ortega’s arrangement of “Give Me Jesus,” was a personal blessing that has helped me keep my focus in the midst of my own storms. My prayer is that God will use this beautiful little book to draw a broad cross section of people to Himself. As we look ahead into 2006, we are praising God for continuing to send us out into the whole world . . . literally. We will take Just Give Me Jesus to Panama City, Panama, as well as to Toronto, Canada. I will also be participating on these key platforms in Europe . . . . . . The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to offer a religious perspective for this annual meeting of world leaders from political, cultural, academic and business communities; . . . “Kingdom Come,” where I will join Ravi Zacharias for the International School of Evangelism in Belfast, Northern Ireland whose aim is to light the fire of evangelism across the country;
. . . The annual conference of the Free Evangelical Church, the main evangelical denomination in Finland, to be held in Helsinki. |  | And we are pouring our heart, mind, soul, and strength into the release of our new book, “I Saw the LORD: A Wake-Up Call for Your Heart.” It will be launched on Palm Sunday with a specially recorded television simulcast that will be transmitted into hundreds of churches. It is based on the testimony of the prophet Isaiah, who said that in the year that King Uzziah died--the year that disaster struck and his life was shaken -- he saw the LORD. We are asking God to use this book to spark the fire of revival in the hearts of His people.
Two thousand years ago God sent His angels to announce to a weary world |
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Like the Samaritan woman at the well, Ann Vanderford of Charlotte, North Carolina has heard the Good News of Jesus Christ and is "taking" it to Iraq by purchasing and shipping more than 1200 copies of the Daily Light to our troops. Who says one woman can't make a difference?
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| “good tidings of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord.”1 Praise God! He is still sending His AnGeLs to a weary world with good news of great joy -- the Living Water and the Bread of Life have come, and His name is Jesus! | | | To print the full newsletter, including information about Anne's newest book, our new daily radio program and upcoming media opportunities click here. |
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