My
Gift from God
In January 2001 I asked the Lord
to take me to a place of peace and quietness for my
personal restoration. I needed to find a place of solitude
for spiritual guidance. As I humbled myself before the
Lord praying, writing and asking questions, the Holy
Spirit began working in my life.
There is great power in choosing to surrender completely
to God in the midst of suffering or difficulties in
our lives. I asked God for His gracious love to awaken
my spiritual passion. Christ calls us to come to Him
when we are tired, and to find hope when we are discouraged
as I was. My failures and weaknesses had discouraged
me. I needed a life changing hope. I found hope in God,
which was independent of my hopes, that He would work
in a particular way through me. I realized my hope in
Him was secure even though life was not. And I remembered
Psalm 71:14 “But as for me, I will always have
hope.”
I always looked at my life and was thankful that God
had blessed me by being a proud mother, grandmother
and for having a wonderful husband who supports me in
all that I do. However, the question that kept coming
to my mind was, “What is my purpose in life?”
I knew somehow I could serve God in my own special way
even though I am not a preacher, a teacher or a public
speaker.
God states in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the
plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to
harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”,
and I took comfort in this verse. As the days turned
into months, I called out, “Oh, God, will You
answer me? Please give ear to me and hear my prayer.”
And God did again and again showing me the wonders of
His love.
On March 30, 2001, I went to buy a card for a friend
who had cancer, but I couldn’t find a card that
appealed to me. There were hundreds of cards, but I
left without making a purchase. After leaving the card
store, I had to drive over an overpass and on that bridge,
the most awesome blessing happened to me. God spoke
to me in a whisper, but in my thoughts it was as if
the whole world had heard it! He said, “Wouldn’t
it be a wonderful idea to have 'A Scripture Talking Card'™?”
My heart was beating fast, I was crying and I could
hardly catch my breath. I couldn’t get home fast
enough to tell my husband, Ross, and call my son, Jonathan.
When I arrived home, Ross was on the internet and crying
I asked, “What do you think about 'A Scripture Talking Card'™?”
“That’s a great idea!” he replied.
“Is it out there?”
“God spoke to me and said those exact words”,
I answered.
My husband then said, “Sylvia, that is your Gift
from God!”
I knew then that in order to “hear the voice”
I had to be willing to turn around and listen. My life
became like a radio dial with signals coming from all
directions to the tune of God’s voice. His voice
was loud and clear even in a whisper. Right away we
thanked God for THE GIFT. We prayed for guidance, we
prayed for His footprints to carry us through, we prayed
for direction not to let God down, and we prayed for
Christian attorneys to help pave the way. Day in and
day out God’s voice was everywhere, working in
our minds, taking us through this spiritual journey,
and reminding us to live and work by faith.
I had "A Scripture Talking Card"™
in my mind, but I needed to bring
my vision to life. My hand and God’s Hands worked
together in making this prototype card. Each day on
our way to work, God began working through my husband
and me. It was as if we were both having the identical
vision about this beautiful trademark.
Our trademark is, “ANGEL EXPRESS
® .”
It consists of a young angel coming out of heaven on
horseback to deliver scripture talking cards. Angels
to me are messengers, glorious guardians, and bearers
of blessings. This angel is smiling, happy to spread
the news. In the brown ANGEL EXPRESS
®
bag, he carries the cards. The sky is a beautiful blue
and white, just as I saw it on the day that THE GIFT
was given to me. There are twelve stars on the bridle
representing the twelve Disciples. The halo shines with
hope and heaven’s power lifts the angel’s
wings. Many who have seen these cards say that it touches
their spiritual senses.
Thank you for letting me share my testimony. May you
too be blessed by God and share it with others. My prayer
is for all of us to become ambassadors for Christ and
one day citizens in heaven.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A special thank you to those who have daily lifted our
ANGEL EXPRESS
®
project to our Lord and Savior in prayer and have continually
given me and my husband, Ross, words of encouragement.
Your support and prayers were essential in taking this
gift from vision to reality. I am especially appreciative
to our Christian family and friends:
Mary and Doug Graham, who knew about “The Gift
From God” from day one, who always encouraged
us whenever one door would close and another would open,
who prayed with us, believed in us, and kept the faith.
George Helfrich and Svein Lassen, our business and patent
attorneys, for their counsel and guidance and for believing
in us and encouraging us to go forward.
Jolyn and Mike Rivenbark, for their openness to our
project and their friendship and prayers.
My cousins, Rhonda Cundiff Richardson, Will Richardson,
Rachel and Tommy Jefferson, Jone Hearp, Vicky and Flint
Tingen, Rick and Anita Woodfin and Donald McAllister,
who cheered us on, prayed for us and couldn’t
wait to see our project work in other people’s
lives.
My pastor, Lynwood Wells for his prayers and friendship.
To all my friends and family who took the time to listen
to my testimony, and to my brother-in-law Frank D’Angelo.
To
Christy Kuhnle, for composing "Whispers of the
Angels" for us. The music and title "Whispers
of the Angel" is owned by Angel Express Greeting
Card Company.
To
Bob Gurske, engineer, Winter Sound Recording Studio,
Gloucester, VA 23062, for his skill in optimizing the
audio effects enhancing the spoken scripture and the
underlying music.
Scripture taken from
the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®,
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible
Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
reserved.
Scripture is taken
from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982
by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.
The actual bible appearing
on the front of the
ANGEL EXPRESS
®
Greeting Card was a gift from my father
to my mother.
To
Rita J. Calver and Carl White who's inspirational voices
intensify the dramatic, inspirational feeling achieved
when someone experiences
"A Scripture Talking Card"™.
To our dear friends
Billie Hetrick, Father Gregory MacGregor and Joesph
Hudson. We are grateful for your opening your hearts
and sharing your gifted spiritual voices for our
Angel Express ministry. Thank you for letting our
ministry also be your ministry for God. May the Lord
reward you both.
To
Tom Taché, President of EffectiveNow,
Inc.,
Internet Strategies and Website Development, for his
insight and expertise in helping us present our vision
on the Internet.
To my son, Jonathan, (the face that was used in the
Angel in our Logo is his face at 3 ½ years old)
and my dear grandson, Dominic, the ones who fill my
cup daily with their love and prayers.
To my husband, Ross, for all his hard work and always
believing in ANGEL EXPRESS ®
.
For his faith in God, believing in His word, and believing
in me.
To Jesus Christ, who is my life, the lifter of my soul.
Sylvia
Dean Stephens-D'Angelo |
