Beauty for Ashes, Anna’s Testimony

My husband and I met at Bible school and had much in common, including both being from Maine. Our class scripture was Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”
Both of us felt a call to evangelism and this scripture meant a lot to us. We fell quickly in love and wasted no time before we became engaged. I knew about his past and how God had delivered him from drugs, alcohol and pornography. He told me about his struggle with lust, but I naively moved forward in our relationship with high hopes. Before long, we began to struggle with staying pure in our relationship physically and we fell in to sin. This was the beginning of bad seeds being sown into our relationship that we would later reap in our marriage.

After we were married, we both eagerly wanted to be used by God and started ministering at my local church. Soon however, I began to see changes in my husband. Lust took on a new meaning in his life and our marriage began to hemorrhage from sexual sin. The painful ups and downs of his unfaithfulness were devastating. My life, at times, spun out of control and our relationship was unhealthy. Finally, he entered the Freedom Fighter program with Free Indeed. My husband was finding true repentance! He went from being an unavailable and ungrateful husband to one that loved God and adored me. Things were finally starting to get better. But a secret hid lurking in the dark. It reared it’s ugly head and struck with vengeance. As a result of not coming forward completely with his double life, sin came knocking at his door again. He delved deeper than before into sexual sin and I was completely devastated and broken. Everything began to turn to ashes that was once being healed. I questioned if I could even go on.

We re-entered the Follow-On Program with Free Indeed and Bill Irwin, the blind hiker, became our coach. With his encouragement and discipleship, we slowly began to see healing. Little by little we began to experience true change. God restored our marriage and did above and beyond what I could imagine. He set my husband free from sexual sin and me from unforgiveness and bitterness. He gave us a burden for others going through the same struggles that we faced. Soon we both became leaders with Free Indeed. I became the first woman’s coach in the 14 year history of Free Indeed. We now provide support for wives damaged by their husbands betrayal. Soon after Bill’s passing Ted was named Executive Director. God turned our sorrow into joy, and gave us beauty from ashes. Now we work, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to set the captives free, just like our class scripture. To God be the glory!

Anna Robinson
Women’s Head Coach Free Indeed