Anna M. Aquino

My family and I have taken to going on bicycling rides around our neighborhood when we can. It’s good family exercise and we’ve been enjoying it. However it can be a challenge to do this with my youngest. She’ll be 6 soon, and sometimes she still has problems riding up on the sidewalk or watching for cars. What usually happens is I usually lead and my husband usually rides at the end so that he can watch out for her. Often, I don’t even realize they’ve stopped until I’ve turned around. She’s stuck in the grass, her wheels have turned, and she wasn’t going fast enough over the bump in the sidewalk. Dan’s already there helping her, and I’ll stop and we’ll all wait until we can get moving again. Sometimes it turns into a cheering season where we all start chanting “GO! Go! Go! You can do it!“ Stopping like this can get a little frustrating, but our youngest needs the help. I was thinking about this as we were out riding the other day, and how it relates to the church. Ideally ...

After the drama of having my radio interview reschedule on me last week. (The interview/book signing is on April 13th now), I had my first Books-A-Million book signing for my book. (I’ve done them before with another project but this was the first one for this book) Going into a secular bookstore for this book, I knew would be an interesting adventure. But armed in prayer, I was up for the challenge. It went really well. There was one gentleman who bought my book that didn’t say much to me when he did. Because he was waiting for the rest of his party to be done in the store, I hadn’t known he had gone back to the store to read it. About an hour later he came up to me to thank me for writing it. He was Catholic, and the mentions of the body of Christ coming together and loving each other really blessed him. There was a set of pastors from South Florida that randomly stopped by. It ended in a delightful conversation, and I hope to hear from them again. I had another woman who...

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Yesterday was a very long day. A few days ago, I thought it was a great idea to get all the boxes of books and take them from the garage to the house myself, and managed to twist my back. I had not been sleeping well because my brain sometimes needs to be reminded it is time to rest and my back hurt so bad. Then yesterday morning we had the kick off of my ‘Southern Book Tour’ at Freedom Life Church (which went well! Thanks to everyone). Then right after that we had plans to drive to a resort in the touristy district because some extended relatives of my husband were in town. It was very nice of them to cook us an Italian dinner. In theory we knew we’d be running a tad behind in time. But we’d get there to the hotel eventually. However Dan and I took a very quick look at the map and assumed that when we reached a main road we’d turn right when we were supposed to turn left. We traveled down International Drive for the longest time. The Florida sun is already starting to think it’s summe...

Yesterday I’ll admit to having a few moments. The book releases a week from yesterday. I have felt like such a ball of emotions, and let me just say that not being run or controlled by my emotions is something I work on. I call myself an artist with words. My background is in the theatre. Most of the time artsy people can be a bit dramatic. I can hold my own in this area. However in the realm of the spiritual being a drama queen can have a downside. Often God will have you in situations where you can’t be run on your emotions. The life of a power-packed spirit-filled believer is often a life of trusting what you can’t see. Thus, I confess I’m working on it. Not that emotions are bad in anyway, but being controlled by them is. It makes God excited to make what looks to be the impossible become possible. I kept hearing the scripture, Psalm 46:10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” In fact I even t...

This afternoon Dan, the girls, and I found ourselves behind the counter of a Firestone store/shop. The time had long since come for us to replace the front tires on our car. Tire buying is up there with one of those ‘necessary grownup purchases that one has to make but who really wants to’ with me. I mean I know I’m a guest minister with a book tour coming up and the idea of keeping bald tires on the car isn’t a good idea. So we bit the bullet and went to get them replaced. The funny thing is that as we left the car there and walked to the mall, I had a flashback of another time where we spent a lot of time in a Firestone store. It was Christmastime 2000. I think it may have been only a few days before Christmas and I sat in the uncomfortable waiting area almost in tears. Dan and I had only moved into Central Florida a few weeks prior, and the likelihood we were going to have any family or friends to spend the holidays with was slim to none. We’d gone to a Firestone to have ...

Many of you have heard me tell the stories of how I trained in high school desiring to cheer for OSU one day. The girls in the high school squad were not huge fans of mine. If you have read my work any length of time, you will soon realize that politics, cliques, and fake friendships have never been my strong suit. We had try-outs coming up and while I was the only tumbler on the high school squad I decided I would perfect my standing back tuck for tryouts because I needed it to get on the Ohio State’s squad years later. So, having only done a standing back tuck either spotted on the ground, or on a trampoline I decided to set up a VCR camera and record myself performing this feat on a carpeted concrete floor. I still have that video. I ended my cheerleading future in the moment. I made that back tuck three separate times, but at the end, I fell forward and hit my wrist. Years of tumbling had done a number on my wrists to begin with so much that I remember wrapping them tight ...

I am sure at some point I have probably shared this story but yesterday, I really felt it stirring again, and wanted to retell it. When I was just out of high school, I was a camp counselor for a small bit of time with LOMO (Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio) it wasn’t a long time or even a full summer, but I did a few small bits with them and actually really enjoyed it. I had known that I was supposed to work with them, and I can remember waiting for their phone call. The phone call felt like it was never coming and I was getting frustrated. I can remember asking the Lord what to do. I knew these people were supposed to be calling me any day. “Pack your bags” the response seemed odd to me. I tried to argue. Why would I pack my bags if they don’t want me to work for them? The Lord’s response was a consistent “Pack your bags.” So after arguing and insisting what I was doing was nuts, I packed my bags preparing to be a camp counselor. Within a few days I ...

A few days ago my mom, dad, and grandfather arrived on a long car trip from the North. They didn’t stay long and sadly left our house this morning. On Wednesday I was trying to set up the air mattress for my mom and dad. Years ago when we first moved to Florida, my parents and my in-laws both bought us air mattresses’ so they could sleep on them when they visited. We finally came to the conclusion if you put one on top of the other it makes for a decent mattress. So on Wednesday, I rushed to set up a bed for them. The first air mattress went up smoothly, and in the midst of doing what felt like fifty things at once I started to plug in the pump of the second. However, there was a problem. The motor turned on but nothing was happening. I watched the mattress start to inflate, and then like a sigh drift down. I started getting bummed. This had been such a good air mattress for us, and it appeared it was dying. I was tired. Thoughts kept piling in my head. I started to get...