When I pray for Ana (and I pray for Ana often), I can’t help but think of the first time I met her husband, Emanuel — because that was the first time I prayed for Ana, before I knew her name.
I was new to the Every Home for Christ ministry and traveled with my husband to a ministry conference in Turkey. There, we met Emanuel, who was leading an Every Home team in the Middle East at the time. Gathered around a dinner table, we joined our hearts with other staff in prayer for the Lord to bring Emanuel a partner in life and ministry.
Ana and Emanuel have their own story, and I have watched the smallest glimpses of it unfold over social media and through ministry updates over the years.
No one’s story is perfect (or it wouldn’t be a story). We all experience struggles and suffering. And Ana and Emanuel are no exception. But from a distance, I see threads of the Lord’s faithfulness in Ana and Emanuel’s story. I see the way he calls forth all that is good, true, and beautiful in them. I see their faithfulness, their passion for the gospel, and their love for people. I see their tender hearts, bravely open to Christ and his family. I watch the Lord bring them the broken and broken-hearted because they are safe — because they host the healing presence of Jesus through their authenticity. And I witness the way their story, every good and painful part of it, held with open hands before the Lord, touches the stories of so many others.
Last year, Emanuel and Ana opened the doors of Mediterranean Gospel House in the nation of Cyprus, including a ministry specifically for women that Ana named Woven Women’s Ministry. For their first year of ministry in 2021, they prayerfully chose Psalm 68:5 as their theme: “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”
This theme shaped the story of their year as the Lord opened doors for Ana and Emanuel to serve the fatherless, the widow, and those in need of defending.
They encountered lonely, single mothers: domestic workers navigating a foreign country, alone. They offered hope. They offered the love of the Father. They baptized women and dedicated babies.
They encountered couples navigating the difficulties of marriage. They wept with them; they rejoiced with them. They offered the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
They opened a clothes ministry. They offered children’s Christmas gifts to mothers who needed support during the holidays. They partnered with other ministries and churches to be the hands and feet of Jesus to people in need.
Week by week, they gathered, worshiped, prayed, and loved well. In and through them, God was Father to the fatherless, defender of widows.
Emanuel and Ana’s story is a holy dwelling place for the presence of Christ. It continues to unfold as the Lord leads and moves. It is an invitation to encounter the healing love of Jesus — an invitation to everyone they meet and to whom they minister. Their story is a ministry in Cyprus and around the world.
Like Ana and Emanuel, we all have stories. Our stories are woven together in the love of Jesus and lead us to hope — to redemption. And they are often the way we are able to offer the hope of redemption to others. Our stories are our ministries.
I have never met Ana in person, but I have been deeply encouraged by the simple, holy parts of her story she has shared. Her story is a ministry to me, just as it is to many women in Cyprus. May we all offer one another the gift — the ministry — of the love of Christ alive in every broken and healing part of our stories.
Buen día Dios les bendiga. Han sido hermosas historias que edifican “tejido” podemos tejer con los hilos (dones) que Dios ha puesto en cada uno, somos mujeres llenas del poder de Dios, ordinarias pero cuando hacemos algo en Nombre de las Buenas Noticias, somos extraordinarias. Gracias por compartir estas hermosas historias de mujeres reales.
Carla Yelamo, base de Datos Venezuela.