Sid: The same glory that was released in the first church will be released right now, and I believe on this broadcast it’s going to be released right now. Last week I was talking to Randy Clark and spoke about Gary Oates. Gary Oates, as far as I am concerned, his book is the classic on teaching you how to have deep intimacy with God. I have a couple that works for Gary Oates ministry, Anita and David Duggan. Anita is from a conservative Jewish background raised in Miami, Florida. Anita tell me a bit about your relationship with God back then.
Anita: I always loved God; I was raised like you said in a conservative home, but the friends I ran with in Jewish sororities and fraternities, and we went to temple every Friday night.
Sid: Now let me ask you a question, you made a statement to me that was out of my frame of reference, but not out of many Jewish people’s frame of reference. I as you know come from a Jewish background, but God was such a distant entity to me when I was practicing Judaism. I never even thought about God, but with you, you really were thinking a lot about God back then.
Anita: Yes.
Sid: Where did this come from?
Anita: To be honest with you I don’t know, I just knew that there was a love and a respect that I had for God ever since I was a little girl. I had a grandmother who was very close to me and I loved her, and we always went to temple when I was little, but for some reason there was just a pulling in my heart towards God. I respected Him.
Sid: Now tell me about a Pentecostal cleaning lady that was a regular member of your family, from the viewpoint of coming there often to clean.
Anita: Well her name was Amy, and I was raised with Amy from the time I was 2½ years old till after I was married and had children. Amy was in our home at least 3 or 4 times a week, and she loved the Lord, of course I didn’t know that. I just knew she was a peaceful presence in our house.
Sid: Out of curiosity, was she African American?
Anita: Yes.
Sid: You know…
Anita: Her husband was a pastor.
Sid: Oh my goodness were you being setup. Did she ever witness to you?
Anita: Nope, she just loved me.
Sid: You know I believe there are so many African American Christians that have jobs for Jewish people that God is using the way this woman did. As far as I’m concerned, no one come’s to know the Messiah, Jewish or Gentile, unless someone prays for them.
Anita: That’s right.
Sid: I happen to believe you know you know who prayed you through.
Anita: I do.
Sid: Okay, you got married at a young age; you became a single mom, two children, you become a… Where you a hairdresser?
Anita: No I worked for a figure salon.
Sid: Okay, but one day things didn’t quite work out too well. Your income got cut drastically, and you got involved with a shady group of people. Tell me about that.
Anita: I got involved with some people that were I thought at the time were just buying drugs, but they were smuggling drugs. I wound up moving in with them.
Sid: But you knew better.
Anita: Yes I knew better.
Sid: So why did you?
Anita: Well I was addicted to drugs number one.
Sid: Well that explains it. People do crazy things when they’re addicted to drugs.
Anita: Yes, yes you’re right. I needed a place to live and I moved me and my children into that house with them.
Sid: Were there any strong reservations or you just said “I’m just doing it.”
Anita: Sid there were no strong reservations at that time in my life I was blinded and it was just survival.
Sid: How did you get so big that you would be involved in a deal that made Rolling Stones Magazine, and headlines, you were arrested for trying to pedal $3.75 million worth of marijuana.
Anita: Yes.
Sid: In fact, according to this article it was the largest drug bust in the state of Mississippi…
Anita: Yes it was.
Sid: at that time. It was in 1975 tell me about that.
Anita: Well I was dating this young man, who I didn’t know at the time was trying… he turned state evidence. He was trying to get involved in the house where we were so that he could set us up for a sting, so we would get caught smuggling these drugs. So he came along with us to Mississippi, we didn’t know at the time that it was a total setup.
Sid: So what happens when the police show up on this total setup?
Anita: The police showed up, and they all scooted off somewhere else where I don’t know where they went. The keys were thrown to me to the car and I was told to head towards Alabama. So I got in the car, I had $4,500 in my sock, no shoes, and I went towards Alabama to get away from the police.
Sid: But they’re right behind you, how you gonna get a way?
Anita: That’s exactly what happened. When I realized I was getting way above, I don’t know if it was 90 MPH, I realized that I was gonna die, so I pulled over and let them arrest me.
Sid: Were you scared?
Anita: I was scared, I was scared to death. I had never been in trouble a day in my life… that’s when everything started whirling around me, and I thought “What have I done? What have I gotten myself into?”
Sid: Now bail must have been pretty high.
Anita: It was… well bail was set for everyone over a $100,000, my bail was $150,000.
Sid: Why did they think you were the leader?
Anita: Yeah.
Sid: Were you?
Anita: No. [Laughing]
Sid: [Laughing] Okay. You really managed to get yourself in quite a predicament there Anita.
Anita: [Laughing] I did at the time, I really did. It’s scary.
Sid: Okay, so $150,000 bail, did you have anyone that was willing to get you out?
Anita: My partner because I had the key to the safety deposit box in Coconut Grove that had their false passports, and the only way she could get in that safety deposit box was to get me out of jail. Plus they were afraid if I stayed in too long that I would break and I would wind up spilling more information than I needed to tell.
Sid: So they bail you out, but what do you do?
Anita: I went directly home, and how I got to that safety deposit box without the DEA agents following I do not know. That had to of been the grace of God. I got the passports out, and I met them in a place and gave it to them, and off they went. I went home to my parent’s place, gathered up the children; still didn’t learn my lesson got a whole bunch of marijuana put my kids in the car and went towards Tennessee. Just a little side note there, is that the people from Columbia, the drug lords, called my father and threatened my life and told them that if I talked my dad would find me on the bottom of the Miami River with a chain and ball around my ankle.
Sid: How did your father take this?
Anita: My parents were scared to death. They really were, they were frightened. So…
Sid: What type of work did your dad do?
Anita: My dad was in the scrap metal business. He had a scrap metal business in the Miami River. So they knew who to call.
Sid: So you have this death threat, you are… Were you really worried?
Anita: Yeah I was scared Sid, and I knew that my ex-husband lived in Gatlinburg, and he had remarried. Well really to be honest with you I had contemplated taking my life. I didn’t want to jeopardize the children to get murdered if they found me. So I was taking my children to Gatlinburg to drop them off with my ex-husband and his new wife, then I was just gonna disappear; I was just gonna run away.
Sid: So you drop your children off, but you get kind of a surprise with your ex-husband.
Anita: Yeah.
Sid: What happened?
Anita: Well the whole time I was smuggling drugs my ex-husband was in this small prayer group, and they were praying for me, and the kids; they were praying for my salvation.
Sid: Well between your Pentecostal cleaning lady, and now your ex-husband, who’s a believer that’s praying with a prayer group for you. You didn’t stand a chance.
Anita: No.
Sid: So did you just say “Okay, I’ll believe in Jesus?”
Anita: No.
Sid: What did you do?
Anita: Well there was a gentleman there by the name of David who had been leading that group, and the children had met him the summer before when I was living in the Bahamas, smuggling drugs. The kids had gone for the summer to be with my ex-husband and they had gotten saved. They came back to the Bahamas and was telling me all about this David guy and Jesus, and of course I got very angry with being JEWISH; I was very resentful I felt like they were proselytizing my children; I was bitter and I wasn’t going to hear any of it.
Sid: It’s okay for you to do drugs and deal drugs, and be arrested, but it’s not okay for someone that believes in Jesus to tell your children. Oy vey! [Laughing] It’s all mixed up Anita.
Anita: [Laughing]
Sid: I’ll tell you what we’re running out of time right now, but you were for a good friend of mine, Gary Oates. I’m looking at the back of his book “Open My Eyes Lord” and he’s got endorsements from some of the most anointed people on the face of this earth. Randy Clark, Todd Bentley, who has the most phenomenal miracle ministry, Bill Johnson, I mean… tell me what effect this teaching had on you?
Anita: To tap into a spiritual realm that we don’t even know exists unless you cry out to God, and you ask Him to bypass your mind and to go into your spirit man and wake up your senses so that every single thing that goes on around you is fine-tuned and full of electricity of God; and you know you’re being led by a greater force than your own flesh is the most exciting ride and journey anybody could take on the face of this earth.
