Feature by James L. Lambert
October 31,
2003
(AgapePress) - Trained as a professional singer, Annie Meadows has a disarmingly genuine personality, something hard to find in today's entertainment business. But what makes Meadows unique is her story -- a story that for many years she found hard to share.
At the tender age of six, while growing up in southern Illinois, Annie Meadows had a fascination with the occult. She started playing with the Ouija board, and later spent hours in the library studying witchcraft. Her fascination with the infamous Salem witch trials reinforced in her mind that witchcraft was good. She believed that "God made me that way and that I really was a good witch."
She became more immersed in witchcraft as she entered her teens. Meadows lived with her mother "in a house that was built sometime in the 1800s, that became very dark at night." She recalls one night "laying in the bed when a horrifying black cloud covered me like a blanket, [even] covering my head." Shaken by the experience, Meadows says she was never the same after that point. "Things ... visibly changed for the worse [after that]," she says.
Seeking Darkness
Some of
Annie's experiences with witchcraft sound like something out of a Stephen King
novel. Meadows often could accurately predict her friends' future. Once she
remembered telling a friend that her room would soon catch on fire. Just a few
days later, her friend's room burned down. After that, Meadow's friend asked her
to not come near her anymore.
Another strange episode occurred when, deliberately hiding from a friend, she found herself magically transported from the third floor to the basement. Her young friend was totally perplexed. But Annie felt that her powers as a witch were a good force from the supernatural.
Annie's involvement with drugs became serious after she left home to go to college. It was then that she began to fully live as a witch. She read any book about witchcraft that she could get her hands on.
At this time Annie also expressed interest in music and eventually began touring with a local rock band. Her boyfriend, Peter Tibone, was also a musician -- and it was he who shared Christ with Annie. He conveyed how Christ could bring hope and direction to someone like her.
Annie wanted to hear that there was a God who truly cared for her. Her deep involvement in witchcraft brought her to the point where she contemplated killing herself. But Peter's patient witness and _expression_ of love convinced Annie to take a chance "with this Jesus." She thought: "Just maybe He is who He claims to be."
Experiencing God's Light
Annie soon discovered the power of the God she now served. One
night, not long after she committed her life to Christ, Annie retired to her
bedroom. The room did not have a lock on the door. When she entered, a stiff
wind suddenly began to whirl inside the room.
Annie tried to leave the room but the door would not budge. Suddenly, Meadows remembered a young Christian friend telling her just days before to use the name of Jesus whenever she was in need. She did just that. At the mention of His name, the wind suddenly stopped and the door opened. Meadows is convinced that if she had given into fear, her torment would have continued.
Through God's grace, Annie slowly left her past. Today she is a full time gospel singer sharing Christ's message of hope and forgiveness from coast to coast. She is also eager to warn young and old of the dangers of the occult.
Meadows is currently reaching out with her story through gospel literature that is distributed by Joshua Outreach Group. It is especially popular during the Halloween season.
Meadows says she does not want kids today to try the things that she did. "It's only through God's love and grace that I survived to share with you that [witchcraft] is nothing but evil," she says. After listening to Meadow's CD, Common Bond, one can certainly feel Annie's compassion for her newly found message of hope and love.
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