anne savage
Heart for the World
Nineteen-year-old Anne Savage met Jesus when she was young but truly internalized and personalized her relationship with Him more recently, as a teenager. That’s when she started going on missions trips. She’s been on one every summer since sixth grade. In North America, she’s been to Missouri, Minnesota, and Mexico. In 2001, she went on her first overseas mission trip to Caracas, Venezuela. Focus on the Family’s teen girl magazine Brio conducts an annual overseas trip and on a whim, Anne applied.
The trip was life-transforming: “For the first time in my life I was exposed to a new culture that needed God just as much as I did.”
Anne remembers meeting an older woman after performing an evangelistic street play. “After the play, I felt drawn to her. She was adamant that she didn’t need a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. She was fine with her Sunday-to-Sunday ritual of going to mass. I felt frustrated and defeated that I could not share God’s love with her. Then it hit me that I needed to show God’s love to her.”
Through the interpreter, Anne asked the woman if she could give her a hug. She nodded. Anne wrapped her arms around the woman, who began to cry. “It was awesome to see that such a simple action was all she needed, and all it cost me was to cross the ocean and give her a hug!”
Another summer, Anne went to China—this time with Family Life Ministry’s Hope for Orphans trip, where she helped with annual physicals for a large orphanage. She remembers her nerves as the plane began its descent. She was well aware of the laws preventing her from sharing her faith. But God comforted her. A small video screen in the cabin showed the passengers the illuminated runway. “All of a sudden, this huge, bright cross came into view on the screen. I kept looking, amazed that this would be so bright and tall for all to see. As we came closer, I realized that it was the runway lights, but it was a reminder to me that God was in control.” She says seeing the illuminated runway cross was like hearing God say, “Anne, you are in My hands. I will protect you.”
“From then on, I was so excited, I wasn’t worried at all,” she says. “We had several opportunities to share our faith. God truly worked in all our lives as well as in those who interacted with us.” She especially remembers the orphans. “It was incredible to see all these little children looking at us with smiling faces. The language barrier didn’t matter.”
Being in a country where Christianity is discouraged and illegal, Anne sensed the Lord in a new way. “This was the first time I felt as if my faith was a huge factor in my life.”
She’s also seen God’s protection and guidance in Normal, Illinois, where she lives with her family. The Savage family planted a church in 2000. “In three and a half years, we are busting at the seams of our building,” she says. “It is so awesome to see such passionate people coming together and worshiping God.”
For the past two years, Anne has been the church’s vacation Bible school director, a job she started when she was seventeen. Even then, her desire was to see God touch not only the children, but also the leaders. “As we prayed prior to the event each night, everyone was focused on the kids. But at the end of the night, our prayer time was focused on each other. There were men and women crying, and God mended their broken hearts. I was blown away that God would use this event for little kids to touch the lives of the adults.”
Just as God used a children’s venue to touch children and adults alike, He used the face of a young Russian boy to change Anne’s family forever. One day, someone handed Anne’s mom a picture of Kolya, asking if she knew someone who could adopt him. Kolya’s best friend, who came from the same orphanage, had been adopted by a family one mile from the Savages’ home. When Kolya’s friend could speak English, the first thing she said to her adopted family was “You need to find a home for my friend.”
After much prayer and discussion, the Savage family decided to adopt Kolya, who shares an uncanny resemblance to the boys in their family. The whole family helped in the fund-raising efforts to adopt the boy. Anne pioneered “Cooking for Kolya”; she cooked freezer meals and desserts and sold them to friends, family members, even teachers. She raised over a thousand dollars.
The journey to adopt Kolya was a faith-stretching time. Yet God provided through grants, gifts from strangers, and donations. “It became our motto that God owned cattle on a thousand hills. He only needed to sell a few cows to make this happen! We definitely saw the blessings of those cows.”
Now, Anne is the eldest of five and is attending Taylor University. She has a yearning to take Jesus to Europe, particularly France. She loves singing worship songs to Jesus, experiencing His tangible presence.
The future? “My heart is to be involved in mission work. There is so much pain and emptiness out there. I have come to realize, though, that whatever plans I have, God is going to radicalize them! I cannot even fathom the amazing plans God has for me.”
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
(Romans 12:1-2)