Anna M. Aquino

In the mornings, I typically drive to drop my daughter off to school. There is this one corner that that police love to wait for unsuspecting parents who might be going slightly over the speed limit. That same man will walk out on the street and step in front of your car to stop you and ticket you. He pulled me over once several years back. Fortunately all I got was a strong warning and a fix-a-ticket. (A fix-a-ticket is a rather inexpensive fine and I had to go get a new proof of registration because the one I had in my car was out of date.) He could have really fined me but choose not too. Every time I pass that corner, I think of how the police like to park there and pick the parents up on the way to school. So having my history, and knowing their like that I purposely drive very slowly at that corner. I do not want to be pulled over again. This morning there was a police officer out there waiting, but because I know they like to wait there I am overly cautious there. However, like ...

It’s been a real treat to have my mom visiting us in Florida the last few days. Yesterday I made a carrot cake from scratch and it wasn’t done in the center, and had to bake it a little longer after we tried to eat what could only best be described as “carrot pudding”. My mom and I got to reminiscing about some of my baking excursions over the years. There was one particular event that made us laugh that I thought I would share today. When I was around ten I decided I wanted to bake biscuits. However I refused to look at a recipe. I don’t know what I was thinking, but both my mom and my sister tried to get me to follow one, yet I refused to follow it. I threw all sorts of ingredients in a bowl and was sure I would be the next greatest “super chef”. In anticipation I watched and waited as my mother took a tentative bite into my creation. She silently chewed. I was sure these had to be a culinary masterpiece, but instead she couldn’t eat another bit. “I’m sorry Ann, I can’t.” She choked ...

I want to thank all of you who prayed for me this last week as I went to the radio interview/book signing. It was an awesome experience. I am very grateful to have gotten to do it, and have been invited to come back next year. God is so faithful! I kept thinking all last week about when I was a little girl and I would ride on the motor scooter at my grandparents’ house for hours around their yard. Sure when I was not trying to make the thing flip or run into the grape harbor, I can remember pretending that I was being interviewed. Perhaps that is not an uncommon thing for kids to do, but I remember setting on that motor scooter burning a path around grandma’s house and talking to a fake person. Its funny doing with my life what I am doing today, is so far outside what I thought as a child I would be doing. I remember when God called me into ministry I inevitably figured I would be a missionary somewhere in Africa. I would have never thought I would have moved outside of Ohio. ...

Hey guys, This is just a reminder to all of you if you can listen to me live on the radio tomorrow, March 18th. I am supposed to be at the station from 10am-noon. I know their interviewing me as well as having some other callers, so when all I'll be on the air that I'm not sure, but tune in. The guy is very interesting to listen to. The website is www.goliathradio.com then click the listen live button, or here's that link http://www.goliathradio.com/level2/listenlive.aspx . I will then be having a booksigning after the radio interview in Peggy's WholeFoods in Ormond Beach. Keep me in prayer tomorrow. God is faithful! We're continuing to believe that God opens doors that no man can open and closes doors He wants closed. Smiles,

Yesterday I had to travel across town into an area that we used to frequent but sense we moved six years ago closer to Dan’s job and church we’re not over there nearly as much. As I passed one particular building I had to laugh. I remember when Dan and I first moved to Central FL I had been trying to apply for jobs and this one company had called me in for a sales job. After doing research about them I discovered that it was a pyramid that appeared to me to be a cult at its top. I declined the interview. Something didn’t seem right about it. About a year after that Dan and I were in a place where I had looked around again and a company with a different name asked for an interview so I went in. What I found was a group presentation situation, and I was seated at the front of that presentation. The more the woman in front of me started to talk the more I realized it was the cult company. They had just changed their name. I looked around the room there were at least 15 interviewees in the...

My parents had this thing about not writing on the window of a car with your finger. I’m sure all of you can picture it. It can be hard seeing out the windows of a car when the temperature changes and the windows fog up. Their complaint was valid, they said that often no matter how many times they tried to clean the window after we’d doodled when the windows fogged back up again they could still see our doodle. I remember getting in trouble for my friends then going into the car and scribbling on the windows. Many people live their lives about sin like the doodle on the windows. Their convinced their lives are forever scarred by sin they’ve committed. People go around their lives trying to make up for their mistakes. They live their lives in fear that something will happen and that sin will be able to be evident. While there can be consequences for our bad choices on the earth. When we ask Jesus into our heart, and we’ve confessed and repented, he wipes the window completely clean. Whe...

As many of you know, I have a sister 5 years and 11 months older than me. When we were growing up, she had a coloring book that I was not allowed to color in. It was hers and she did not want my juvenile scribbling in it. It did not matter how many coloring books that was put before me, I wanted to color in her book. It was something that greatly bothered my immature mind. Why couldn’t I color in her book? I wanted to, that had to mean something?! The inhumanity just seemed so unfair to my little mind. Truthfully, I’d forgotten all about this until yesterday. My youngest and I were coloring and I thought briefly, “I wonder whatever happened to that coloring book?” So often in the body of Christ, we act the same way towards our bother and sisters in the Lord. We want to do what they get to do. We set around and focus on how it just seems so unfair that this person or that person gets all the breaks and we don’t. We wallow in our own self-pity so much where it seems life in ...

Recently I was reflecting on something in the kingdom that I wanted to share. We hear it preached over and over again that saying your in faith isn’t enough to please God. The Bible is pretty clear about this. James 2:26 (NIV) For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. This really if you think about it this concept makes perfect sense. It’s not really faith unless you’ve moved forward and acted upon it. People do these kinds of things all the time. When you talk to them they might say they are believing God to do a mighty work in their not doing anything about it. For example, I could feel God’s calling me to be a doctor, but I have to go to medical school for that to happen. Also the Bible is pretty clear that we need to show love and compassion to the world around us. It’s not really showing our faith or living out our faith if we have five extra dollars with no purpose in our pocket and we see a bum on the street and we’d rather kick hi...

When I was in the 4th grade, my grandparents blessed me with a motor scooter. I was too young to drive it on the street legally. Instead, I drove in circles for hours around their yard. I put miles and miles on that aqua blue piece of fun over the years while my grandmother ran out and re grass seeded the worn path I created. Once I had a stupid idea that I was going to go fast and put on the front brakes to see what would happen. If you know anything about motor bikes, you have to know that was not a good idea. I was curious and I wanted to try. The bike and I did cartwheels together and it came out on top. Another time I decided to break too late and I went headfirst into my grandmothers grape harbor. I not only put miles on that bike but wrecks as if it were notches on the seat. I loved that bike. It was not the wisest choice to use the front brakes, or run into the grape harbor. Why is it when we make stupid choices do we think its okay to blame God for them? Really, it...