ann kiemel

Ann wanted to share this beautiful message sent to her from her dear friend, Steve Forster, while she's been ill.

Ann Kiemel, you sang so many little songs so just for today, if I could sit by your bed, I would hold your hand, look in your eyes with care and concern and sing a song to Jesus for us both: You are my hiding place........you always fill my heart with songs of deliverance whenever I am afraid....I will trust in You...I will trust in You...Let the weak say I am strong in the strength of he Lord.....I will trust in you....are my Hiding Place. 
Love you dear.


Excerpt from "I'm Out To Change My World"  Ann Kiemel, 1974

Mrs. Grissom

it was saturday night and i ran across the street
to get the vacuum cleaner.
it was late and i was tired and in a hurry
and mrs. grissom handed me the
vacuum cleaner and i looked into her
tired, old wrinkled face,

and i don't know why
but as i took the cleaner and started to go
i said to her, "oh, mrs. grissom,
God loves you a lot."

and the tears just began to spill down her face
and she said,
"could you wait just a minute?"
she went back into her house
and got a plaque off her wall
and brought it out.
it was a picture of weeds---
just ugly old weeds smeared all over the picture
and underneath all those ugly weeds were these words:

weeds
nobody likes weeds.
nobody carries them in a bouquet
or wears them in a corsage.
but God waters the weeds.

and she looked up,
"you know, ann, all my life i have
felt like a weed."
"mrs. grissom, could i pray with you?
i didn't know anyone went all through
life feeling like a weed.
there are times when i feel like a weed.
but i didn't know anybody
felt like a weed all their life.
really, i just came to get the vacuum cleaner
but i was wondering
could we just stop for prayer?"

she said she'd like that and we went into her
little apartment
and i said,
"would you like to hear a little song
that i sing a lot in a big lonely world?"

i will serve thee because i love thee...
You have given life to me.
"so i'm not just a weed and neither are you
because He gives us life."

heartaches, broken pieces
ruined lives are why you died on Calv'ry.
"that's why He came, mrs. grissom."
Your touch was what i longed for.
"you see, He makes flowers out of weeds."
You have given life to me.

and i prayed with her.
when i finished praying with her
i looked her in the eye,
"oh, mrs. grissom, i love you.
you are a very special lady to me."
and the tears began spilling down her face.
"i've never been special to anyone before."

i picked up the vacuum and i ran across the street
to my little apartment
and threw myself across the bed,
"oh, God, it's so ironic!
the people who live the closest to us
are the ones we overlook,
the ones we fail to reach out to.
Jesus, use me in the neighborhood.
if i am out to change the world,
i'll have to start in my own neighborhood."

the next morning was Sunday
and i called the florist at 7:30
and asked him to put together the
most beautiful bouquet he had ever fixed.
i wanted the flowers that looked the prettiest
and smelled the best.
i mean the loveliest bouquet he had ever made!

"well, look lady, it's Sunday morning.
i barely have my houseslippers on and..."

"but sir, you don't understand.
it's for a very special lady
and i want her to know she's not a weed---
but that she's beautiful."

"yes, ma'am, i'll see what i can do."

"just write on the card ---
'bright hope' - 'love, ann' "

the very next day she knocked on my door
with tears running down her wrinkled face.
"i've never had a bouquet in my house before,
and ann,
for the first time in my life
i really knew God loved me."

i'm out to change the world---
in love---

that's my hope.