Pioneers Of The Faith
Perseverance is the key to every great accomplishment because nothing of lasting value has ever been achieved without it. That’s the testimony of Rev. Anna Villafane as she follows the Lord from the age of 28 up until now. Sister Anna is a true pioneer which is evident through her cutting edge teaching and living the life. God gave her a dream of a center for men and women and the dream that God gave her was manifested in the Bronx. My husband Pastor Stranges and I have known Sister Anna and her ministry for over 28 years. She is a women of integrity and has a love for the people. Sister Anna is a mother to thousands of delivered addicts.
WAY OUT MINISTRIES
42 Years of Saving Lives and Healing Souls
Rev. Anna Villafane, Founder and Executive Director of Way Out Ministries, always states humbly, “Way Out originated in the heart of God, and I helped organized it in the South Bronx in 1969." Rev. Villafane, Puerto Rican born and raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY has a habit of understanding her role and influence in the lives of thousands of men and women who have literally been “taken out of the pit” of addiction, sex, and violence through Way Out Ministries for over 44 years. That “pit” was virtually bottomless back then in 1969, when the South Bronx was vilified all over the country as the capital of drugs and poverty. Burned out buildings, junkies, prostitutes and battle scenes between the community and the cops, were pictures seen around the world. But as others like Rev. Anna Villafane, decided to stay and work in the South Bronx as ministers and counselors to the “outcasts.”
Rev. Anna cannot explain her own redemption except to say that once she was sick, addicted, and hopeless. She masked her agony with arrogance. She judged others harshly and had no mercy or love to share. “I was an addict, but I hated addicts,” says Anna. “My own lifestyle put me at great risk but I looked down at the women who did the same as I was doing.” Then one Halloween night in 1963, broken, she visited the Damascus Christian Church in the Bronx and heard the piercing words of a powerful woman of God. Rev. Leoncia (Mama Leo) Rosado. At the age of 29, Anna’s alcoholism had already taken it’s toll on her kidneys. Her doctors had given her one year to live. However that night not only did God deliver Anna from her addictions but she was also healed of her kidney disease.
“I lived with Mama Leo for five months,” says Anna. “The love and healing that I had experienced gushed out of me and all over those I came in contact with. I preached in the streets. I saw the poverty and the pain of my people.” says Anna. Soon after, she resolved to dedicate herself to working with those who were sick, addicted, and poor. Rev. Anna started by taking addicts into their own home. She helped them recover their lives and encouraged them to move forward in the Lord. When there was no more room in the house, then help from the South Bronx Churches, and various clergy members of the Bronx and the community came and a house was given to Eddie & Anna Villafane to start a ministry. The seeding later took the form and became Way Out Ministries’ treatment center for those addicted and outcast. Way Out Ministries provides a food pantry for hundreds of poor neighborhood residents. Her popular weekly radio program on Spanish language Radio Vision Cristiana (1330 AM) provides Rev. Anna yet another venue for her graduates to talk about their real life stories and express their encouragement for those who feel abandoned and unworthy.
Amazingly, with little resources, and no government funds, Way Out has helped transform thousands who would have otherwise been lost. Many former residents have graduated from college, entered the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are pastors and teachers of the same community, and others have gone on to learn trades to care for themselves and their families. Most who work with Anna are former residents who, with very little pay, continue the good work. HIV/AIDS is a serious issue that Way Out deals with on a daily basis, not only with those entering their program, but with graduates who continue to live with HIV.
At 78, Anna talks about her retirement, but the “mother of thousands of delivered addicts” is still going strong. “My vision for the future is for a bigger and better Way Out residence right here on 148th Street between St. Ann and Brooks Avenues.” says Anna.” The women’s house is now being restored and will be opened soon (To God be the glory). Our new director for this house will be Lourdes Santos.
If you need help call Way Out at (718) 665-8069 or write to Way Out Ministries, P.O. Box 940, Bronx, NY 10455 or visit us at 520 East 148th Street, Bronx, NY.
Reprinted from the Daily News.
