Anna M. Aquino

I don’t know about all of you, but for me 2009 has been both a great year and yet one of the hardest years I have ever faced. On a professional level, I’ve walked through some doors this year that I have been believing to walk through for a lot of years. On a personal level I have felt as if I was running the last few miles of a marathon with fifty pound weights strapped to my feet. Back at the end of 2008, I was prophesied to that 2009 would by a year for me to shine. I’ve seen that word come to pass, but I didn’t expect that in order to shine there would be a lot of darkness I’d walk through. About two months ago I felt as if the Lord spoke the words to me, “2010, It’ll be better than it’s been.” I know that it rhymes and it sounds good. But I continue to hear these words time and time again. Two weeks ago I felt directed to go to a particular scripture in the Bible. Thinking it was an odd place to be led to read, I found the verses. On the pages the words jumped to my spir...

Recently I have found myself walking through a situation that makes no sense to my natural way of thinking. God has made His will and path before me quite clear, but I’ve been trying to reason it all in my head and honestly, I’m quite baffled by the whole situation. I began to reflect on this. I began to realize many times God puts us in situations that may not make sense to our own way of thinking. Sometimes God will tell you to do things, and it’s easy to think “but God, that doesn’t make sense?” Isaiah 55:8-11 in the Message Bible says, “8-11"I don't think the way you think. The way you work isn't the way I work." God's Decree. "For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don't go back until they've watered the earth, Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food f...

If you’re one of my faithful readers you’ll remember a story a few weeks back about my friends and me sneaking out of the house in high school. Again, not condoning sneaking out, but this makes for a great illustration. I guess you can call this blog part two. There was one night in particular that we snuck out and met up with another group of friends. I really think that it was more about if we could do it, not what we were going to do once we managed to sneak out of our perspective houses. I grew up in a small town and after a certain time there are very few things open. So the plan was that we were all going to sneak out and go eat at Denny’s. In our high school minds this made sense at the time. But shockingly Denny’s was the place to go at 2 in the morning. We drove by the parking lot and it was packed. So having very few options, we opted to go to a Meijer’s. Those of you who have never heard of Meijer’s it’s like a Wal-Mart and it’s open 24 hours. This was when my fr...

I’m going to shift gears a bit for today’s blog and do some prophetic teaching. This is a message that has been on my heart for sometime, but the pieces had yet to be put together. When God is trying to bring revelation to me about something in the word, usually I’ll continue to get that scripture until I get from it what He is trying to tell me. This revelation is a result of years of being baffled about one particular passage of scripture. Matthew 22:1-14 (NKJ) says, “The Parable of the Wedding Feast 1 And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, 3 and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ 5 But they made light of it and went...

My dad tells stories of his time in Vietnam. As a grunt soldier he has often told me of one story in particular. He’d been out on a mission in the jungle to go from village to village. The soldiers were to figure out what village was hiding the enemy and the enemies stuff, and what villages were innocent. One particular day came where dad was leading his troop and he happened to come across this community out in the middle of the jungle. He could tell that it had been painstakingly removed from the other villages. There was a crude fence all around it. He led his men to the door of the compound to see Vietnamese writing on the door. He didn’t speak Vietnamese. He didn’t read Vietnamese. His interpreter wasn’t with him. So he walked into the village. He tells me stories of going through that village. “It was as if the whole community must have been napalmed or bombed,” he says. As he walked into the compound puzzled faces watched him. Several were missing limbs and dad just figured they...

When I was in college I was dating a gentleman that lived right beside me in the dorms. One night I’d gone and purchased several single serve chocolate milks and left them in his refrigerator. The next day I was back in his dorm and suddenly I had the biggest urge for chocolate milk. So I opened the refrigerator and grabbed the first one I saw. Knowing I had just purchased three the night before I didn’t question opening up the small carton. A doubt never crossed my mind as I fixed the cardboard spout to my lips and expected a cool chocolaty refreshing drink. Instead, I got a mouthful of a taste that is beyond description. If foul death could be contained in a small single serving cardboard container I had just tasted it. Sour chocolate milk filled my mouth. I gagged, and ran to the restroom to spit it out. Quickly I searched for a cup to fill with water. When finally I could get the taste out of my mouth, I was able to laugh at this experience. The gentleman had several single serve c...

I started playing the trumpet in the fifth grade. Initially I had a natural talent for it. Of course, I wasn’t perfect. My dad tells stories jokingly of making me practice in the back of our wooded land, but at first I enjoyed it and I seemed to pick it up quickly. At some point in middle school, our band director decided it would be a good idea to have me and another trumpeter do a duet in a score in for a Christmas performance. As the parents, family, and friends piled into the middle school gym the words “stage fright” were an understatement. I freaked out. I tried to put the trumpet to my lips but the only notes that came out were shrill, wrong, and loud. An entire gym full of people witnessed my trumpeting downfall. Because of this particular incident I had an aversion to playing in front of people all throughout the years I played the trumpet. It was a fear that I didn’t care to shake. I lost my interest in the instrument and though I still played it in bands for many ...

I took a part time seasonal job this year. About a month ago I went to work deciding that I was going to wear one of my favorite pair of shoes. They were these burgundy wedges that I’d had for probably nine years now, but they were really comfortable. I should have known the shoes had worn out their use when I was in the parking lot going into work and the strap broke. But always trying making the best out of everything I got up to my department and stapled the strap back on thinking that they would at least last me until the end of the evening. We had a customer call in the store and he’d lost something in one of the dressing rooms. I didn’t bother to look in my lost and found log and instead transferred him to the department in which the item was lost. He called back I transferred him again. Long story short eventually while he was holding for this other department I figured out that I’d had his item. I went running through the store trying to find where I’d placed his call. I had no...

When I was in high school my friends and I used to sneak out my parents house by climbing out the top story window and down the TV antennae. Why we didn’t just go out the front door I’ll never figure out, but it made sense at the time. Once a good friend got half way out the window and got scared. She was trying to make it to the TV pole and wasn’t too sure about leaving the house. She started to freak out and yell at us all who were already waiting for her on the ground. To which we were trying to shush her because we were trying to sneak out and be as inconspicuous as possible. Finally after a lot of convincing she made her way down the antennae. I was thinking about this story laughing the other day. We were pretty loud. I’m NOT condoning sneaking out, the story is just a funny memory. :-) Life can be a lot like feeling like you’re stuck in a window. We go through a series of transitions and sometimes it can feel like your half in the old and half in the new. Having that...

I had been in desperate need for some hair help. About a month ago, I was finally able to make my appt with Judy. It was to be last Thursday. I was excited. I saved money. I had the perfect morning planned. I figured out that in the hour between taking my oldest daughter to school, and my appointment that I would take my youngest daughter to McDonald’s for the morning. Somehow, in my head I thought I am doing a good parenting deed. I am taking this child for some mommy time, and nothing could possibly go wrong. I had my time all planned out. It was going to be a perfect morning! Everything was going to work out great. My youngest was very excited to find out that mommy was going to treat her to a McDonald’s breakfast, and let her play on the playground. So we have our breakfasts, and she was playing. I am watching the time, and we were doing well. At about ten minutes before we had to leave, my daughter comes down from the slide telling me she has to go potty. So I take h...

About nine years ago I was working selling high-end jewelry. There was a man who came into the store who wasn’t my customer. I happen to overhear him mention to my coworker that he’d been in Vietnam. So I waited until his sale was being taken care of and I went over to shake his hand. We got to talking. Turns out he’d been in Tet Offensive. I studied this Marine before me. He was a large man that looked like he was still pretty tough. But the mere mention of Tet Offensive mixed with me shaking his hand was too much for his emotions. He broke down in tears. He politely took his purchase and left the store. His tears and brokenness have always stayed with me. It’s a reminder to me as to why I do what I do. The Veterans have lived circumstances that only Jesus can heal. After I wrote my first book “Come, They Told Me” the way I looked at Veterans changed. This yet-to-be published book based on my father’s tour in Vietnam struck me deep to the core of myself. I may never wal...

This week is a real important milestone in my family’s life. Nine years ago, Dan and I put everything we could fit in our car to move across country from family and everything we held dear. I was only a few weeks pregnant with our oldest daughter, and I puked part of the way here. Why do you ask we left? It was because I heard God tell me where we needed to move. So we did. Next to asking Jesus in my heart and marrying my husband, this choice still stands as one of the more defining moments in my life. In those nine years, we have been through a battle to stay where we know God has wanted us. For four years we lived an hour from our church and most Sunday afternoons you would find myself, my husband and oldest daughter picnicking in the back building of church and napping there because it was too far to travel twice in one day. For about a year and a half my husband had several jobs, the work would run out, and he would have to find another. I have testimony after testimony of...

I was speaking to someone the other day. This girl had just recently made a recommitment to live her life for God and she was struggling with doing what she knew God wanted her to do. It was the age old struggle of “What if I just can’t do it? What if I look like an idiot? What if I fail?” The internal turmoil she was facing is nothing new. I’ve heard these excuses a lot in the kingdom. We think if we wave the fear flag that it will excuse us from doing what we know God wants. Sorry to tell you it doesn’t work that way. Let me tell you a story: When I was a cheerleader in high school, I experienced first hand an embarrassment that taught me a lot. The one part of cheering that I worked very hard in was my jumps. Toe-touches, pikes, double-nine’s, etc I had a lot of power in those jumps. I had heard in years past it had earned me the nick name of the ‘jump queen’. However, I didn’t know what to do with that power. My toe-touches got to the point where I had so much power in them that se...

When I was in high school, I went canoeing with a youth group I used to attend. (If you have not figured out by now I really like to canoe and kayak and if I did not have to deal with the pesky wildlife of FL, I would go more often) We were canoeing along in the water. The person that was with me and I got in a bit more speed than the rest of the bunch and we had pulled away from the group. Somehow, we got caught on a log, and the boat flipped and followed the current and left us there. I immediately went down under the water. The boat was gone, and fear struck deep inside of me. I have always been a very strong swimmer but in that moment, I was scared. I looked at myself struggling under the water and thought of a million movie scenes I had seen of people drowning. I finally got myself wedged between the current and a nearby log. I did not know what to do other than to wait until someone came boating down the river. Fear held me to that log. I was not about to let go of it. It seemed ...

*Thank you to Lottie Rigeaux who came up with this idea and gave it to me for a future blog some months back. If you have ever been to a Build-A-Bear, I am convinced they have got to be one of the coolest toy businesses these days. I wish they would have had those when I was a kid. You go in and can pick what type of stuffed animal you want. Then you have it stuffed but only after you can kiss a little heart that they’ll put in for you and any sound effects. Then you pick its name and can fluff it. Then like a monument to individuality there is a wall of outfits you can pick for your new friend. It really is a child’s dream come true. Many people treat Christianity like a Build-A-Bear. It’s like their in the store and they think they can choose a little Jesus doll and make him into what they think He should be for them. They like the whole salvation thing but they think the concept of sin is antiquated so they choose not to include that into their doll. Maybe they’ll take the grace out...

I recently reheard a story of my families past that got me thinking. My dad was telling me of helping my grandfather and great grandfather dig a well. He and my uncle were expected to dig this well with a post hole driver. I actually had to Google images to see what a post hole driver was, looking at them made me realize how ill equip using one would be to dig a well. My dad laughed as he told me that they went down inch by inch. At what seemed like a snails crawl. Several times they thought that they would hit water to find out it was only a pocket and they had to dig further. Finally, after hours they struck water. I remember many years ago setting in church feeling all annoyed because things in ministry were taking longer than what I thought they should. Pastor Arthur spoke a word from the pulpit about how Navy Seals are sometimes trained to maybe only move an inch a day and it’s so the enemy can’t see that their getting closer and closer to their mark. However, eventuall...

While my grandfather was here over the last weekend he shared a story with me that is hilarious, but I can defiantly teach on. I thought I’d share it with you today and my take on it. There were two neighbors. The first neighbor had a cat and the other a dog. The dog never got along with the cat and one day to the horror of the second neighbor the dog came home carrying the dead cat in its mouth. The cat was a mess. It was dirty and its hair matted. So the neighbor washed the dead cat up, dried it with a hair dryer and brushed its fur so that it was clean. In the night he snuck over to his neighbor’s porch to put the dead cat on the mat in front of the door. He didn’t want to admit to the neighbor that it was his dog that had killed the cat. The days went by. The owner of the dog didn’t hear anything much about the cat from his neighbor and the suspense was eating at him. Finally several weeks later the neighbor decided to ask the cat owner what happened to his cat because he hadn’t se...

When my youngest daughter was only a few days old I remember a particular moment. I watched her sleep and couldn’t believe that she was my daughter. I was in awe of the creation of her. I had been trying to spend some time with the Lord at the time, and finally I said to God, “I’m sorry I’m not getting into prayer like I’m trying to, but I just can’t take my eyes off of her.” I heard the Lord respond to me, “It’s okay, because I feel the same way about you. I can’t take my eyes off of you.” I don’t think many people realize how much God loves us as His creation. Many people have this deceived concept of God that He’s some big guy up there waiting to just slap people or drop a piano on them the minute they make a mistake. That view isn’t true. God loves us. He delights in us. He thinks we’re awesome. John 3:17-18 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son int...

Yesterday in my time with the Lord, I felt very strongly to go read Genesis 4:1-15. In it is the story of Cain vs. Able. I suggest you go and read it for yourself. I’m going to paraphrase. Basically God is pleased with Able’s offering and not Cain’s. I’ve heard teaching done on this as to why, and for the sake of this teaching I’m not getting into that part of this story. Just that God was pleased with Able and not with Cain. Cain get’s angry and jealous of his brother, and so he kills him. As I read this story it was as if a Holy Ghost 2X4 of revelation smacked me upside the head. Cain and Able’s are happening all the time today in the church as a whole. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” Matthew 12:34 says, “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Luke 6:45 says, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; ...

When I was growing up, my dad had a phrase he used to use on me all the time. It was the classic, “If you don’t quit your crying I’m going to give you something to cry about.” I hated that line as a kid. I was always looking at my dad like, “duh, if I didn’t have a reason to cry I wouldn’t be crying.” It is funny how when, both time as an adult, and having your own children can put things into perspective. I have found myself often saying that to my own kids. Today I think the phrase is pure genius. I mean really how is it that kids can whine over the littlest of things. It is funny but during your adolescence, you think that you are nothing as your parents but the older you get you realize that you have become similar to them on many levels. Don’t get me wrong. . .break the bad habits, but what I’m saying is that you realize as an adult that they really did know what they were talking about on many things. It should be the same with your heavenly Father. The older you get i...

I have noticed a growing trend in our society, and I see it seeping in the church more and more every day. It alarms me. I’m talking about as a culture we’ve stopped truly caring for each other. Sure, we pretend we do. We go to church put on our plastic smiles and pretend that we love our brothers and sisters in the Lord. But deep down we are so concerned about our own issues that we really don’t care. We’re faking it. Understand that I put myself in this category too. I’ve often made this comment about corporate America “that it used to be that when we saw our boats leaking we genuinely wanted to fix the boat and improve it. In today’s culture we want to just throw the weaker ones out into the water and make the boat lighter.” We’ve stopped genuinely caring about our fellow man, and instead only pretend to when it meets our needs. We have become a society who stereotypically will watch a train wreck and never think of the peoples lives at stake. We’ve become so desensitized to the wor...

The day before my last day of fifth grade I was waiting outside after school for my sister to come and pick me up. We’re just under six years apart and since she had her license she would pick me up after school. I was bored, and she must have been running late. The middle school had a submerged first floor so the windows of the first floor were ground level. There are times when you’re bored and you don’t think anyone is watching that you can choose to make stupid decisions and this was one of those times for me. I decided to step down into a cemented off small pit in front of the art room window and wait for her there. But I didn’t stop there. I thought no one is watching. . . I wondered what would happen if I leaned up against this window. The next thing I knew I was in the art room. Shards of glass laid around my body as if confetti. My head throbbed because I’d landed directly on it. No one was in the room and I looked at my hand to see blood already beginning to form in cuts from...

When I first started to try to get published, I remember the night that I got my first turndown. I had gotten two in the same night. I was a crying wreck. Dan did his best to console me. I had never planned on the turndowns. I just figured that when you were doing what God called you to do it would work, and it would be easy. My naiveté makes me laugh now. I remember Dan’s words though. He said to me that one day I’ll be able to appreciate it so much more because of all I had to do in order to get to the place God had for me. Going through the process is hard. However, I believe that it will all be worth it! God called you to be in that place, and the struggle is worth it! In the movie “An Officer and A Gentleman”, there is this scene where the commanding officer is trying to get Richard Gere’s character to give up. He puts him through this very difficult weekend and finally Richard Gere looks at him and says, “I can’t quit because I’ve got no place else to go.” I’ve thou...

As a kid growing up in Ohio, I grew up with an apple orchard not far from my house. Having an apple orchard around that region was common for we all knew that was where “Johnny Appleseed” once labored. Who surprisingly most people do not know, is that he did more than just plant apple trees, he was a missionary. Every year at this apple orchard, they would have an apple festival. Because I knew the owner’s, for two years I worked at this apple festival. What did I do you ask? Well I dressed up in a giant foam apple costume and got to dance around as I shake people’s hands. You would think dressing up like a giant fruit of a loom character as a young girl in high school among my peers would be traumatic, but it was a fun day job. I have always loved harvest time. Being able to see a harvest come in, and know all the labor and toil was worth it is a beautiful site. Jeff Ferguson (Voice of Freedom Ministries) taught an excellent message at Freedom Life last week about God shaking the chur...