by Jervae Brooks
The prognosis in 2013 looked bleak.
It was the kind of news that would devastate the most optimistic person. Test results appeared hopeless. The bone marrow was taking an alarming hit; ten percent of the white blood cells were functioning, ninety percent were cancerous. Cancer was threatening to rule over the patient’s body, overwhelming her immune system, seeking another victim before her time.
But cancer’s prey in this situation was no mere standing target. This patient was a warrior, determined to stand strong with God and fight this battle. Now, ten years later, in February of 2023, cancer finally cried “uncle.”
Ann Jackson, one of our own here in Sonrise, has experienced victory over cancer. Halleluia!
On any given Sunday morning during the service worship time here at Sonrise Christian Center, you might see my friend Ann, a pretty woman with a vibrant smile, worshipping in dance with hands held high in praise to God. You might think, she is so beautiful and free. I’m sure doesn’t have any worries in her life to be able to worship like that.
But behind that grace and beauty is a true warrior for God. Ann is a woman who has risen from a troubled past and has walked through the deepest trials. Hers is a story of rising above life’s circumstances and persistent faith to believe for miracles.
The Ann of today is a product of God’s lovingkindness
Ann and Greg Jackson (today a Superintendent for WG Clark Construction in Seattle) were high school sweethearts, meeting as seniors at Pasco High. They will be married for 44 years, as of May. The couple are parents to three daughters and one son, and grandparents to nine grandchildren ranging in age from 22 years to a toddler of 2 ½. Theirs is a busy household, with some of their children and grandchildren living with Ann and Greg at times. Ann also loves training with her Border Collie, Amos. Together Ann and Amos spend happy hours learning the commands for herding sheep. Ann says the Lord has been using this training with Amos to teach her how to operate in Godly authority. It is a sight to behold watching Amos run like the wind to follow Ann’s commands and move the herd of sheep to the desired spot, then lay down and look to his owner for approval. That exercise brings joy to them both! (watch her work here).
Ann has always loved animals of all kinds, getting her first horse when she was only 14 years old. Although she doesn’t have a horse now, horses have been part of her life ever since… as well as dogs, cats, birds, rabbits and keeping fish tanks!
Besides this gentle love of all God’s creatures, He has also given Ann beautiful creative gifts. She has been involved in choirs since grade school, and been a member of worship teams at several churches over the years. Ann sang with the Sweet Adelines Pacific Sound Chorus and Voices Northwest of Everett for five years before Covid halted their practice sessions and travel.
“I dance during praise and worship at church. But at home, in my living room and while I go about my daily chores, I really express my praise in the dance” Ann explained. She also loves to sing over her grandchildren as they grow, in both English and in tongues.
Alongside her joy found in song, dance, and working with God’s creatures, Ann loves to draw and paint. In high school she used her talent in drawing cartoons. She was accepted into an art school, but did not end up attending, as her art teacher unwisely told her that “cartoonists are not artists”, and Ann took that to be truth. She forgot about drawing…until her youngest daughter was 16 years old and, for a school project, produced a pencil sketch of a horse and her foal, so realistic, Ann said, that it “seemed you could reach into the picture and touch them.” Ann wondered, “where did my daughter get that ability?” and suddenly remembered her long ago love of drawing and realized her daughter’s ability came from her! The enemy of her soul had tried to kill that God-given creative gifting, but God redeemed it. She has enjoyed drawing and painting ever since! Do not let Satan or human opinion disguised as “wisdom” rob you of gifts God has given to you!
Ann’s early life was filled with violence and fear
Ann was born in Soap Lake, Washington, the second of four girls. Her biological father was an engineer whose job called for multiple relocations. They lived in many places in the US, as well as in Newfoundland and England. As an infant Ann journeyed to England with her mom and older sister on the ship called the Queen Anne.
Unfortunately, her father was also a violent alcoholic, whose addiction brought a great deal of conflict and cruelty to her mom, to Ann and her sisters. Ann remembers sitting outside on the steps with her sisters, hearing their father beat their mom and break things in the house. Just before her 5th birthday Ann’s father abandoned the family in Alabama. The violence in their home left Ann fearful and emotionally damaged. After his desertion, the mother and girls moved several times, eventually living with her grandmother, who told little Ann about Jesus and helped her attend Vacation Bible School.
Later her mother married another man who was also alcoholic — nice when sober, but abusive when drunk — and the family began to attend a very legalistic and seemingly harsh church in the Midwest. Ann had heard about the goodness of God, learning Psalm 23 in Vacation Bible School. This left her with many questions about God and the painful things she had experienced in her life, but there was no one she was allowed to ask. Growing up in a household filled with only anger and broken relationships she desperately wanted to feel loved. Meanwhile, the pain and anguish of her childhood, the broken home life and the constant moves from place to place caused her self-respect to plummet.
“The only things we were allowed to do when we were kids were to be angry, scream, and swear. You couldn’t have any other feelings,” Ann recalled. “Words of self-esteem didn’t exist” she added, admitting she still struggles with that as an adult.
“I’m not as bad as I used to be, but I wasn’t able to talk to people I didn’t know,” Ann explained. “I didn’t learn to interact in a normal relationship until I was saved, made friends, and watched how they talked to people.”
Ann explained how she had to learn even the most basic interactions we take for granted in communication.
“I have this one friend who’s very verbal and I learned from her how to talk to people, like cashiers, by watching her. I never learned that growing up”
Young wife, mother… and now a follower of Jesus
Two weeks after her and Greg’s first wedding anniversary their first child was born. Ann had loved being pregnant and was so happy to be a mommy, but ten days after the birth, postpartum depression hit. This pattern repeated after all four of her babies were born. The doctor told her nothing could be done to help her. Ironically, Ann found the depression lifted each time she became pregnant, only to return after giving birth.
“I really enjoyed being pregnant, because I felt really good then,” she explained. “Emotionally and physically, I would feel fantastic. And then I would have the baby, and by day ten, I would get severely depressed.”
It was during one of those difficult times between pregnancies that Ann phoned her sister-in-law in California. While sharing her struggles with depression, her sister-in-law told Ann she needed to ask Jesus into her heart. The two prayed over the phone, and after that night, Ann’s life began to radically change for the better. The prayer encouraged Ann to take a next step, and led her to find a church where she gave her life to Jesus at the altar.
From there, Ann began to learn about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Reading Dennis Bennett’s book Nine O’clock in the Morning, was a true turning point in her life. She was baptized in the Holy Spirit and prayed for her prayer language. It didn’t come right away but finally one day after church while she was resting at home, Ann remembers praising Jesus while lying on her bed. That time of personal worship soon turned into her lovely prayer language. She said “I ran downstairs so excited and said, ‘Greg listen! I’m praying in tongues!’”
About that time God gave Ann a beautiful vision that has stayed with her. She said, “I was asleep (on our waterbed) when a warm golden light came out of the left top corner of our bedroom. I sat up in bed and noticed the waterbed didn’t roll and wake up Greg. The light came over me like warm oil or honey and it flowed down the top of my head to the rest of my body. The Lord said to me, ‘Just relax. You are too much in your head.’ The oil/honey flowed back up and out the left corner of our room and I laid back down. And all that time the waterbed never moved.” God knows exactly how to speak to each of us!
Dark clouds and trusting in God’s healing power
In 2011, when Ann was 53 years old, she went to the doctor who ordered some routine blood tests and discovered Ann’s white blood cells were a little high. The doctor sent her to an oncologist, suspecting leukemia while telling her “not to worry.”
Further testing led to the diagnosis of Chronic Leukocytic Leukemia (CLL). But Ann was told this was a slow growing Leukemia and she would more likely die from old age and not this form of cancer. However, as she and Greg continued to learn more about CLL they learned that at 53 she was too young to have it! Usually people in their 90’s get CLL and will die from other causes, rather than this cancer.
From the beginning of her diagnosis, Ann proclaimed Jesus as Lord over her life.
“I decided if Jesus gave His Life for my healing, salvation, and deliverance, then I was going to believe God for my healing! I also learned that only faith pleases God. If I believed God’s Word on healing, then my actions were going to match that. So, I continued taking care of my horse and doing activities as I always had.”
Powerful yet difficult decisions: choosing life
Ann’s daughter suggested she go to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance because she heard the doctors there specializing in all types of cancers were making breakthroughs in their leukemia research.
“God led me to just the right doctor and my dear husband Greg accompanied me to every appointment. I am so grateful for a loving husband so willing to support me and to sacrifice for me.”
Difficult decisions, trials of faith
Two years after the diagnosis, the situation took a severe turn.
“In 2013,” Ann explained, “I learned the CLL had become acute, and I was faced with the decision of whether to take a Chemo drug. But because I had lived in fear and depression my whole life, this was very frightening for me.”
Ann had good reason to be frightened. A bone marrow test revealed 90% of her white blood cells were cancerous. Chemotherapy injections began immediately and for 28 days she suffered the side effects of the drug as well as of the isolation from others that was necessary to protect her immune system. With grandchildren coming often to their home it was a difficult time for them all.
At times the doctor’s words to Ann were discouraging and she would find the courage to rise up and challenge them. She proclaimed to the doctor, “I am healed because of what Jesus did for me!” Tears came later as she sat in her car after those appointments. But she continued to hang on to her faith and what she knew was true. Often God would give her songs to sing to lift her spirit. The precious presence of God filled her heart every time.
The day came to learn the results of the first chemo treatment and Greg shared, “The doctor danced into the room and said, ‘How is my magic girl’?’” After that first month regimen of chemo plus other trial cancer drugs, her white blood cells had dropped from a dangerous 190,000 down to 2,500 – a miraculous result, unheard of to happen so quickly.
Ann and her family rejoiced. She continued to receive monthly chemo treatments, but after the fourth one it became too hard on her body with many unpleasant effects, so they were discontinued. For the next several years she maintained, always putting her trust in God.
A second cancer battle
In 2016 the cancer became acute in Ann’s body for the second time. Her doctor encouraged her to begin a chemo medication, but this time Ann wanted to do a more natural approach and found a treatment program in Phoenix AZ. God wonderfully supplied all the medical and living expenses and Greg was given a month off his work to be with her. Even though they were there for cancer treatment, this was also a beautiful time of rest for her and Greg.
About two weeks into the natural treatment, Ann and Greg were in the car driving to the clinic when the Holy Spirit suddenly filled the car with His heavy, glorious presence. Ann said, “I felt God say, ‘When you get home I want you to take the medicine the oncologist wants you to take. I responded, ‘Father, I don’t mean to be disrespectful but will you please send me confirmation.” Ann had thought her healing would come through this natural program and God had provided so completely for it. She felt confused and asked God for confirmation.
A short five minutes later the doctor in Phoenix called on her cell phone and told her he had been researching a certain chemo medicine. He said, “when you get back to Washington, I think you should take it.” Ann was amazed that it was the same medicine the oncologist at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance wanted her to take. She followed the oncologist’s advice and took the medication for the next several years until 2022, always trusting God’s hand to be upon her.
February 2023 – all the blood tests were normal!
Since 2022 Ann’s blood tests have continued to improve. In February 2023 she and Greg were overjoyed when her doctor told her “Your blood tests are normal! By looking at these test results you would think there was no cancer!” Ann immediately proclaimed to him, “That’s because I don’t have cancer!” Today Ann’s immune cells are still on the low side, but she knows in time they will be fully restored. God’s healing power has touched her body and her whole life is a witness to the restoration from His hand.
In Ann’s words – her testimony of faith
“One Sunday morning during worship at Sonrise I was praising God with my eyes closed. I felt hands on my shoulders and could ‘see’ the flowing robes of Jesus or maybe an angel. I wasn’t sure. Behind and to the side of me I heard the words, ‘I’ve got your back.’ Ever since then whenever I feel overwhelmed Greg reminds me – God’s got your back.
“I am still waiting for final test results to confirm what I believe God has provided for me from Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, and all He has done for me. I do believe it is already done and taken care of on the cross.
“Though my life has not been a cake walk, I continue to hold on to God’s truth and move forward. The winds have blown and the waves have crashed, but I do my best to stand and continue standing. I have received a lot of prayer and have wonderful private times of prayer in my home. Through good times and bad times, I so desire to be completely free to love Him more and more. So, no matter what happens in my life, I hope, love, appreciate my Father God and all that Jesus has done in my life and continues to do.
“All that I have shared here just barely scratches the surface of all that Jesus has done for me and will continue to do. Through the process of sharing this testimony I have been able to see even better how much God has been there for me and His kindness and love. Also, how much my husband Greg, my friends and the Body of Christ love me.”
Author Jervae Brooks retired in 2021 after 40 years of service at Aglow International. A long time member of Sonrise, she has authored a number of books, most recently Sustained for the Journey, available through the preceding link as well as at the Sonrise bookstore.
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