Merry Christmas & 2018 Highlights From Freedom House Ministries
2018! Can you believe it’s nearly finished?! I am drinking in all that the Father has done in 2018 and I thought I would give a little refresher and share how the Father honored His Word, and many others, in my life in this last year. Below are just some of the prophetic words that were given to me.
Surely, Positively and Most Definitely Seen in 2018 – to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) – Father said He would release on His wings thunderous awakening in and around your life. Yes, he did this in my life, Tommy’s life, and the lives of our Freedom House Family:
2018 Highlights
1. Tommy Returned to Freedom House from stepping down a couple of years ago due to burnout and depression. He is now back counseling, teaching, and leading in the Course 201 & 202 Schools. A story of God’s grace and mercy and comeback in his life can clearly be seen. Surely, definitely, positively, absolutely and certainly God has a call on his life. This serves as a reminder that God has a call on YOUR life as well.
2. My Mom’s Health – She had several stays in the hospital and it didn’t look good on many occasions but the Lord surely has been with her with each step along the way in 2018 and has strengthened her and has recovered her so many times. On January 18, she will be 88 years old! What a blessing to so many and particularly ME! (Rose Marie and her long-time ministry partner, Laverne Smith, at the 2018 Fun-raiser.)
3. New Board Members – Rick and Sheryl Schmidt have joined our board, a Godsend of His grace and love. Sheryl had already taken over being the In-take secretary and has been doing a tremendous labor of love and is now also my new Event Coordinator. What answered prayer with the best of the best serving in excellence!
4. New School Leaders for Course 201 & 202 – We are enjoying new leaders, like Rhonda Reed, in this new school year. In addition, we have many new students ranging from the young generation of 20’s through the mature generations of 80’s. What an honor to be able to have so many young, middle, and senior ages in our Schools!
5. Many FHM Events This Last Year – Mark & Maureen Sandford, Dr. Boaz Johnson from North Park University, Ruth Fazal, Joseph & Heather from Z Ministries, Esther’s Retreat in Lake Geneva, Laughing Your Way to Healing Conference, and our annual Fun-Raiser on November 17th. Wow – what a year of His glory and love lavishly bestowed upon us!!!
6. Invitations to Teach and Minister in the Prophetic – I always consider it a great honor and privilege to walk in these gifts and to minister to others this last year and I already have 2019 dates booked.
7. Global Outreach – This last year I was counseling and ministering via Skype to: Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, Australia, Africa, Ireland and just 2 weeks ago – India! WOW and WOW! The Father is faithful to His word. “Surely, Positively, and Most Definitely Seen in 2018!” Freedom House has indeed gone Global.
8. New Webmaster & New Website – Our faithful Webmaster Nate Tubbs informed us a few weeks ago that his business has exploded and he’s needing to step down from the day-to-day maintenance of our website. Thankfully, the Lord already lined someone up even before we had a chance to pray in a new Webmaster. Her heart is to serve Freedom House and to bless us with a new, fresh contemporary website and to help with social media. And, it’s at a price that can’t be beaten! God is awesome!
9. 2018 Annual Fun-Raiser – This year it was a great success and the Schmidt family (mentioned in #3 above) outdid themselves with baskets that were overflowing with beauty and abundance of every kind. It was a festive night with old friends and new friends enjoying the beauty, the fun, and the fellowship with a chance to lavish funds on FHM!
10. My Staff – Mother Teresa Said: “It is not how much you do, but how much love you put in doing.” That is exactly what I feel about Freedom House’s staff. They go above and beyond because of their love for the Father and Freedom House.
11. Our Daughter & Son-in-law & Their Two Boys – Karin Marie and Roger are expecting their 3rd son in March. Oh, did I mention this will be our 3rd grandchild joining Bram and Emerson?! Being a grandparent is over the top joy and then some. They are settled in their new home in Wheaton as of this last year. A home of love, comfort, and joy.
12. Our Son, Fillip is Home from Norway – What a blessing and answered prayer for a mother and father! Fillip has been living in Norway by Tommy’s family for 9 years, and of course, he came home several times throughout the years. But now he has a reason to stay home here in the US: a young lady he has known all his life—literally the girl next door and his best friend’s sister—Karen and her daughter Somer, 4-years-old, who by the way is our grandson’s age. Fillip has settled into a very good job and has great potential in every way to begin his new journey back in the USA.
13. Our Youngest Son, Markus – He is still living in Utah and works in North Dakota, on the oil rigs, and he’s the delight of our hearts, a hard worker, and one who makes mom and dad very proud of all his ways.
Well, those are just some of the highlights of 2018. There are so many I don’t have room or time in this letter without boring you to pieces. Needless to say, it didn’t just come into step without hiccups and some places of challenges, emotional and personal growth, and most assuredly soul-searching disappointments. Each above point came with lots of prayer and sacrifice.
This road is not an easy one when the world says one thing and the Lord is saying another and so many things are pulling in different directions. And yet, I know no other way than to hold fast to His garment and cling on for dear life.
Running a ministry—directing AND counseling—wearing many family hats—a wife, mother, grandmother, daughter—and maintaining friendships is all quite challenging. I simply can’t express it enough: I am SO dependent on the Father for my peace, grace, trust, and hope. It takes a lot to do all that the Lord has called me (us) to and I (we) need your help in all these endeavors.
I want to say thank you to all who have been faithful in their prayers for us, faithful in their giving, and faithful in their serving Freedom House. Without you, we could NOT do what God has called us to do in this last year and, God willing, in the year coming up, 2019.
As we move into the next New Year, I pray that you will catch the vision of Freedom House and come along side of us because Freedom House is going places full of adventures, full of new experiences, and filled with great new heights and depths of His love.
A Sneak Preview of Early 2019 Events – Watch Your Email For Details:
- Prophetic Word for 2019: Most Satisfied in Him – Clean, Lean and Pristine in 2019, emphasizing Psalm 119. God wants you to be satisfied, blessed and delighted so that your eyes will be fully engaged and opened to see His miracle-wonders in 2019. Details coming soon!
- January: Altar’d State is a boutique retailer with a faith-based mission. There will be an online purchasing event and an Oak Brook Mall event where FHM will host an evening to “Give and It Shall be Given” fundraiser in Oak Brook Mall at their store. Dates TBA.
- February: Second Annual Esther Retreat in Wisconsin. Dates and place TBA.
- February 1, 7:00-9:00pm: Hosting a Prophetic Party at the Hope Center in Bolingbrook.
Prayerfully Consider A Year-End Contribution:
As we are approaching a close to 2018, I’m asking you to consider a year-end gift – a GREAT BIG GIFT that will close the books on 2018, so we can open a brand new book for 2019. Two options to give:
- Use the enclosed envelope to mail in a check, which must be postmarked by Monday, December 31 at midnight to count for 2018. OR
- Give online at FHM’s website, where you can use PayPal and/or your credit card:
www.freedomhouseministry.com/make-a-donation/
I thank you again from my heart to your heart!!! May this Christmas have Christ in all that you do and you’ll experience overflowing peace, joy and goodwill.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Blessings
Mari Anne
Director, Freedom House Ministries
Thank You from FHM - June 2018
Here we are in June, and all of our natural senses are jumping into new tunes of freshly mown lawns, sweet smells and arrays of colors, dazzling dancing flowers popping and flourishing. Aww – the summer season filled with children’s’ laughter, dogs barking, and that wonderful tune of the ice-cream truck cruising ever so slowly around teams of children. Delicious smells of barbeques floating through the air seemingly arriving right to our backyards giving way to our stomachs that are calling out for grilled hamburgers, fresh squeezed lemonade, and freshly picked strawberries. Summertime – summertime for swimming, fishing, playing until the sun sets later in the day, family outings whether it’s vacationing or taking trips to concerts and fests. So many smiles, hand-wavings, and loud voices of children playing their games with jostling excitement and ever so sweetly songbirds singing, while nightly crickets unendingly chirp away. Aww . . . summertime! As Shakespeare once wrote in Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Summers in a sea of glory.” How apropos and appropriate – summertime truly is a sea of glory, beauty, and wonder.
We are now already six months into the halfway mark of the Year of Our Lord, 2018. As I was praying and preparing for my June support letter to you, I sensed a couple of thoughts from the Father’s heart and He wanted me to remind you as well as myself of our promises for 2018.
Surely, Positively, and Most Definitely Seen In 2018 – “To do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
“The Lord is great and is clothed with unlimited splendor and boundless majesty. Surely, positively, and most definitely, the Lord wraps Himself in your life as light and love that shines and stretches from His Heavens as a covering of love upon you. Surely, positively, and most definitely – YOU will be seen in 2018. Surely, in 2018, He will be releasing wings of His Spirit to carry and convey His thunderous awakening in and around your life.”
I sense in 2018, the Lord is going to set things in motion that have been on hold, have been stuck, or have been in transition. You will be like an arrow in the hand of the Warrior, Jesus, ready to hit the target. You will be His arrow and will be propelled forth like lightning.
You are God’s divine blessing, and He crowns you with His success, His favor, and His rest in your being blessed. 2018 is the year that due diligence of your calling will be unleashed and unhindered to hit the mark of God’s glory.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, …. Are shot out with great strength; come with much force, and do execution, and do not return in vain; with which men defend themselves, and annoy their enemies; see Jeremiah 50:9.
For the Lord is going to set the record straight once and for all in your life – surely, positively, and most definitely – you will be seen in 2018.
Strength will be your inner and outer garment, beauty and glory will be your crown of royalty, and peace and rest will be your most prized possession—your ammunition of defeat to keep standing in the place of blessed assurance and assertion.
Surely is a word the Lord wants YOU to have branded in your heart for 2018. Surely is something important within your spirit for the Lord is confirming clearly, precisely and confidently that you will be seen in 2018. Whether it is the job promotion, whether it is validation that you have been speaking truth, and confirmation that what you heard from the Lord is yes and amen!
Surely means: definitely, positively, absolutely, certainly, confidently, assuredly, and completely.
In this new season of 2018, God is calling for the Micah’s: “to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
I pray that this word would encourage you, strengthen you, and give you His blessed assurance that SURELY He will do what He has promised YOU and me so that this summer you will not just find the natural senses springing into life but the spiritual senses being activated greater, deeper, and richer.
This summer you will explore, travel, and visit new places in His Spirit: small winding roads calling you into a meadow of quiet rest feeding your soul and receiving greater revelation and deeper transformation. May you see before you an open road flooding your spiritual eyes with a wider view of heaven’s horizon filled with new and fresh visions from your Lord. May your spiritual appetite become hungrier and hungrier for tasting how good our Lord is by abiding and dwelling in His secret place. Your hearts and spirit will be beckoning you more and more just because you’re curious and wondrous in knowing more of His love. “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.” – St. Augustine.
Summertime naturally and spiritually speaking is a time to peak our curiosity for open spaces to laugh, dance, and find freedom with hearts of vitality and connectedness—hearing sounds of music, laughter, and thunderous roars of heavens applause for us to contemplate and meditate on God’s goodness and greatness.
The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree. (Ps 19:7-9 The Message)
We pondered your love-in-action, God, waiting in your temple: Your name, God, evokes a train of Hallelujahs wherever It is spoken, near and far; your arms are heaped with goodness-in-action. (Ps 48:9-10 The Message)
So precious friends, let me challenge you this summertime: “Don’t rush!” for kingdom living is not hurried or harried and give yourself “summertime” naturally and spiritually speaking by leaning into His Sabbath summer being still and knowing He is your God, your salvation, and your hope soaking in the “Son-shine and Son-rays” of His warmth and presence.
Your financial support has certainly warmed my heart and allowed me time to lean into the Lord as I prepare for upcoming events and meet ongoing counseling demands. Two small words called “thank you” never seem adequate, but they loom large in my heart when I think of you and your care for and sacrificial giving to Freedom House Ministry.
Current prayer requests:
- An avalanche of students for 2018/19 Course 201 & 202 Schools – August 28 application deadline
- More clients for our prayer counselors • Increased financial support for summer, when giving tends to go down
- Upcoming events:
- Ruth Fazal August 3 & 4 at Vineyard Church at DuPage, Wheaton
- Joseph & Heather Z Ministries October 4 – 6 at Kingsland Properties, Carol Stream
Finally, a few photos and comments from our May 2018 Schools Graduation!
With My Heart of Love,
Mari Anne
Love Can Win!
Graduation Week:
• 11 individuals met with Mark & Maureen for prayer counseling on May 15-17
• 60 people attended the Graduation Ceremony on May 19
• 5 Course 201 & 9 Course 202 students received EH Certificates
• 6 Course 201 & 11 Course 202 students received FHM Certificates
• Dr. Boaz Johnson, Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies at North Park University, Chicago, gave the commencement address totally mesmerizing every attendee with his compassionate heart for those caught in human trafficking from bible days to our day, likening FHM counselors to those who are setting the captives free as an ezer: to rescue, to save, and to be strong. When he finished speaking, the entire audience stood up as one person, giving Dr. Johnson a standing ovation for his address!
• In Hebrew, Dr. Johnson sang the Numbers 6:24-26 priestly blessing over everyone! We were all very deeply touched and blessed.
• Mark & Maureen shared a teaching and prayed blessings over the students, a touching end to the ceremony.
• Celby Hadley, Worship Pastor at Living Hope Church, Elk Grove, provided spirit-led praise and worship.
