Tribute to Annie

I will be sharing with you stories of the power in His word, the power in prayer and letting go, the power in Jesus name, the power in praise, God’s provision, and much more.
When I reflect on my life, it is all about God’s grace and His mercy. I was always insecure and fearful growing up in an unstable, super dysfunctional home. We were very poor, I did not have nice clothes, and I did poorly in school. I was subject to ridicule and humiliation.
My mother was a Baptist; she took us to church, and worked hard struggling to make ends meet for me and my two brothers. She and my father were constantly fighting for he was an alcoholic and abusive to her, eventually she succumbed to alcohol too. Due to an accumulation of tragic events, my mother committed suicide when I was in my twenties.
It was around that time that I had my first encounter with God. I was on my motorcycle in downtown Milwaukee. I suddenly hit gravel as I made a sharp turn. The bike fell on its side and I flew into oncoming heavy traffic. Suddenly, I was picked up by an invisible hand and lifted back onto the bike, in an upright position and back into motion without a scratch. I said, “Thank you, God”, and did not give it another thought.
I married, and had a daughter named Kimberly who had a severe mental disability due to a very botched delivery. We lived in the hippie culture on the East side of Milwaukee, drove a Volkswagen, smoked pot and partied a lot.
My husband left me when I was three months pregnant with my second daughter Sarah, who was normal and healthy. He took off with another woman. The cupboards were bare; the ribs on my body were visible. I had no job, no money, no rent, no real friends, nothing.
Kimberly’s behavior was out of control due to her condition. My life was out of control from day one. I decided to commit suicide while I was pregnant. I couldn’t bare bringing another child into the world while in my circumstances. In utter despair, I went to the lakefront and sat on a bench to pray. “God if you are real, reveal yourself to me because I am going to take my life!” I heard an audible voice telling me about Jesus Christ. I don’t remember all the words but I do remember the incredible presence of love that enveloped me.
A woman came to me and said, “There is a light all around you!” God’s presence stayed for several months. At times my feet felt as though they weren’t on the ground. He taught me Scripture because I did not have a Bible. A time came though that He lifted His presence. I cried and cried saying why?? And He answered back, “the just shall live by faith.” So I began a long difficult journey.
I prayed in another language called “speaking in tongues” and wanted to meet other Christians. I learned of a Charismatic prayer meeting in my neighborhood and went; it was so crowded. At the end, a lady came to me and said she was moving to Florida and could I use some food. The next day she delivered a van full of groceries and an envelope of money. In it was enough for my rent, and more.
I lived on the second floor in a four family house. There was an extensive power outage that covered my area one night. Of course, everyone in my house was in the dark, except me. God knew I was afraid of the dark so my light stayed on.
One bitterly cold winter night, the furnace broke down. All four apartments in the house relied on that furnace to pump heat through our vents. It was the weekend and the landlord couldn’t get it repaired until Monday. All of the tenants were in the basement banging on it, but nothing happened. When I went upstairs I felt heat pouring through my vents while nobody else did. I was never cold.
I unplugged the phone cord one day and threw it on the floor because I did not want to talk to anyone. Well, I nearly freaked when the phone rang and I talked with the person who called. I think I heard the Lord laugh when He said, “nothing is impossible with Me.”
I didn’t own an umbrella so when I went out in the pouring rain it would stop and when I came back inside it started pouring again.
Being that I was a single mom, pregnant and with a young daughter with a disability, I went on welfare. It was a humiliating, degrading experience. Yet, I tithed my welfare check and never lacked for anything. One time I prayed for two hundred dollars because I wanted to bless others at Christmas. I went to the mailbox that day and found $200 in an unmarked envelope. These are just a few stories of the many that I have experienced regarding His provision.
When Kimberly was 6 or 7 years old I prayed for her healing. She couldn’t understand words because the sounds she heard were all jumbled due to the auditory disability she sustained at birth. She attended a school for mentally challenged kids; they said she had one of the worst disabilities they had ever seen because she could not communicate. A team of specialist’s worked with her and they agreed that Kimberly would never go to normal school or high school. She had temper tantrums, was very moody, and the kids in the neighborhood made fun of her. Because her daddy was gone, she would sit by the window waiting for him to come home, but, he was not coming home.
I asked the Lord to heal her so that her life would be easier and so would mine. I heard him say, “Won’t you accept her the way she is?” I answered “I am sorry Lord, if this is what you want, I will accept it. I trust in you, and I let go!” The next week I got a call from Kimberly’s teacher who said, “Something has happened, Kimberly understands everything!” She went on to a school for the gifted and talented, and graduated from college with a degree in journalism. God healed her mind but I needed Him also to show Himself to her as the Father because her earthly father left.
The night that I prayed, she came running out of her room shouting, “Mommy, mommy, I just saw Jesus! I asked “what did He look like, Kimberly?” She answered, “His face was as bright as the sun and His eyes looked like love. He had on a white blouse and white skirt, a gold belt and He wore sandals. He did not have hands like you and me, for He had holes in them. He said to me, Kimberly, I love you and I will never leave you, then He went through the wall.”
The next day my landlord knocked on my door and told me my daughter was telling everyone she saw Jesus. There is power in prayer and letting go.

I have a poem called, “Broken Dreams” that I’d like to read, the author is unknown:
Broken Dreams
As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God
Because He was my friend.
But then instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
With ways that were my own.
At last I snatched them back and cried,
“How could You be so slow”
“My child,” He said,“What could I do?
You never did let go.”

I taught my daughters to call out to Jesus if ever in trouble. Kimberly was in our back alley when an enormous white dog lunged at her in the air while bearing its teeth. She screamed, “Jesus!” and suddenly the dog dropped to the ground yelping and ran the other way. The name of the Lord is a strong tower and the righteous run into it and is safe (Proverbs 18:10 ).
There is protection in the name of Jesus and there is power in praise! This leads me to my next story. I was sitting on my bed with my back against the wall while I was talking to G-d, when suddenly appearing in the right corner of the room was a gigantic figure all draped in a black hooded cape garment. He was as tall as the ceiling with yellow beady eyes; I knew it was satan himself! As he started towards me, there appeared an enormous ball of light on the left side of the wall by the bed. The light left the wall, and traveled in front of me then went out making the room very dark. That evil figure moved closer and closer. I then heard the Lord’s audible voice saying “Praise Me!” I answered: “If I praise you I will be doing it out of fear!” “Praise Me anyway,” He repeated, so I frantically said, “I praise you Jesus, I praise you Jesus, I praise you Jesus!” The evil figure shrank to the ground and turned into a small whining black animal on a chain and ran through the wall. The Lord then spoke: “I inhabit the praises of my people even if they praise me in fear.”
While on this journey, I backslid. I did not like the lack of mercy in Christianity. I heard a lot of talk about love but saw very little of it. I knew some who spoke in tongues and had the powerful gifts but still lacked love and had no fruit. Due to the cruel judgment that I experienced from His born-again believers, I was made to feel rejected by the Creator Himself. It seemed to me that I received more acceptance and love from the unbeliever than from the believer.
My heart broke for myself and for others like me: outcasts, the rejected who have no place to go, and no family earthly or in the body of Christ : we don’t belong to either. I went back to the party lifestyle were I was accepted and drowned my sorrows in the bottle. I did not like myself, hate would be more accurate. I saw myself through other’s eyes for there seemed to be no hope for me.
As strange as this all sounds, while I was high on drugs, I witnessed a lot about my Saviour and saw them moved by the Holy Spirit. I learned the Savior can work though anyone in any situations!
I waited for eight years for my husband to come back, he never did, and then we finally divorced. Another rejection in my life! I did marry again after having lived with the man for four years and having a daughter by him named Johanna. When I was three months pregnant with her, it was discovered that I had a large tumor on my ovary the size of a grapefruit. It had to come out immediately because it could burst. I was informed that I would spontaneously miscarry because no baby could survive this kind of operation. Well, she did survive but I would need a series of ultra sounds. I had eight and it was determined that I was carrying a child with multiple deformities. I was advised to get an abortion. I said: “No, she is in Gods hands.” Two weeks before her birth the strong presence of the Lord came to me as I laid on the bedroom floor wailing with grief. He held me tightly in His arms saying: “Yea, this child is not normal but I will heal her”. We named her Johanna and I later learned that her name means God’s gracious gift. Johanna is a beautiful, very normal, vibrant college student.
Another healing that I consider having a vital message is the healing of my back. I was literally crippled and in excruciating pain. My nerves were pinched and the slightest movement was agonizing. This went on for a long time. I went to healing services, had the devil rebuked from me, fasted, and went to chiropractors.
Nothing worked. My friends cried when they saw me. I was lying in bed in agony when I cried out, “Lord, if I can best serve you from this bed of illness I will accept it; I want you Lord more than I want the healing”. It was then that the presence of the Lord came into my room. I leaped out of bed and ran down our driveway rejoicing in the Lord.
Earlier, I spoke about my mother taking her life. There were Christians who stated as fact that she was in hell. This story is one of hope for those who have experienced this tragedy. It was during the day time that I was on the phone with a friend. She was one of those who flatly stated those awful words. In our conversation she said that we had to pray about my mother because I needed emotional healing. Shortly after we began, she started crying and shouting, “I see your mother standing next to Jesus.” It was then that the vision was given to me as well. Heaven opened up in my living room and Jesus said that I could not talk with her but that He would give me her words, they were words about me that only I would have known, like her pet name for me. She was so beautiful and radiant and smiled and then the vision ended.
I need to finish but I have an important message that I am making very short to emphasis the power in His word.. One of my daughters left Wisconsin for Colorado with a guy with whom she later found out had given his soul to satan and was heavily into hallucinatory LSD type drugs. She was given drugs and under his control. It was a terrifying nightmare. I proclaimed God’s word over her. “Though hand, join in hand, the wicked will not go unpunished but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.” (Proverbs 11:21). Shortly after, she was free.
I am going to end this with a bang. A few winters ago I was stranded in a fierce snowstorm. I was in my car and it was late at night. I had no visibility, white out conditions, thick fog, and heavy snow falling. My car was at a stand still on a deserted county road. I had no idea where I was and I had to stay warm on this freezing night so I kept the motor running. Suddenly, I was air borne; the wheels were not touching the road. I was flying! My comment to God was; “Far out!” His angels took me safely home.
Matthew 19:26 With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible!
To end, I would like to read the words of a song composed by Andrae Crouch called “Through it all.”

Through it all
I’ve had many tears and sorrow,
I’ve had questions for tomorrow;
There’ve been times I didn’t know right from wrong
But in ev’ry situation, God gave blessed consolation
That my trials come to only make me strong.
I’ve been to lots of places,
And I’ve seen a lot of faces;
There’ve been times I felt so all alone,
But in my lonely hours,
Yes, those precious, lonely hours
Jesus let me know that I was His own.
I thank God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys.
I thank Him for the storms He brought me through,
For if I’d never had a problem
I wouldn’t know that He could solve them,
I’d never know what faith in God could do.
Through it all, through it all,
Oh, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus ,
I’ve learned to trust in God.
Through it all, through it all,
I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.
To God be the glory!!
Ann Schulte

I’M FREE
Don’t grieve for me, for now I am free;
I am following the path God laid you see.
I took His hand when I heard His call,
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
I found the peace at the close of day.
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joys -
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss
Oh yes, these things I too will miss.
Be not burdened with times of sorrow,
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life’s been full I have savored much.
Good family & friends, good times, a loved one’s touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief -
Don’t lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your hearts, and peace to thee -
As I go sit at my Masters feet.
Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?
No more pain, crying, nor sorrow
We are only passing through, heading for home.
My service is done; I’ve run the race.
Pick up my banner and carry on.
Sing a new song full of praise.
Father wants me now; He has set me free!
I have waited all my life for this day –
now rejoice with me for I am finally going home!
Annie 5/11/44 - 5/20/2013