From Mary Ann's Desk...

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised...”
Luke 4:18

Greetings in Jesus’s wonderful name. I hope you are doing well in all your life’s endeavors. As I write this newsletter all of east coast Florida is watching hurricane Matthew in hopes that it bypasses us by going out into the Atlantic. On the other hand, we are praying for all those who will be so adversely affected by its devastating powers. May God be gracious to us all.

WOFF MISSIONS CONVENTION

Mary Ann Praying for Abdul

Last month, my home church, Wings of Faith Fellowship, celebrated its 22nd Annual Missions Convention, the last Wednesday – Sunday of the month. Each night three or four missionaries were given five minutes to share their work with the congregation. I was scheduled for Friday night. On Wednesday night the Lord impressed me to share my testimony of how He called me to missions as a pre-teen at eleven years of age. Since this would be a departure from the approved plan, I shared this with my pastor. With his blessing I shared my testimony at my appointed time. God anointed me mightily. While speaking, I remarked that I knew there was someone present that was meant to hear this testimony because the Lord had told me to share it. 

After the service was over, Yakubu Paul Abdul, a northern Nigerian who moved to Russia ten years ago to further his collegiate studies and is now married and working there, came to me. He is also the interpreter for the Russian pastor who was the main speaker Friday night, and is also the Youth Pastor of that church. He told me that he was the one who was supposed to hear my testimony and that God had been dealing with him about going into full-time missions ministry. He asked me to pray for him that God would give him a double portion of the anointing upon my life. 

Upon hearing this, I was reminded of a time in the second year of our ministry in Nigeria when a young man went to Bud and asked him to pray for God to anoint him more for ministry. Bud said the Lord spoke to him to “give his anointing away” to this young man. Upon remembering this, I felt that I should do the same as I prayed for Abdul. At the beginning of my prayer, he was standing. Suddenly, he fell to his knees.  

Abdul then stood to his feet and told how amazed he was at the ways of God. That God would send him, a northern Nigerian, to Russia to become a part of the church in Russia, whose pastor would be invited to speak at this church in Ocala, Florida, USA, to hear my testimony and be touched by God for further ministry.

Our God is an amazing God. 

And just think. He used this little great grandmother full-time missionary to accomplish His purpose. 

Because there are over 4.4 billion people in the world who still need Jesus, I remain

Yours in missions,

Mary Ann Cassidy