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      You almost have to see the medical records to believe the testimony of Pastor Brenda Jefferson. She was a modern-day "woman with an issue of blood" (Matthew 9:20).

      After months of fighting off unexplained symptoms, for fourteen days she was confined to a hospital bed. Blood clots, she says, were discovered all over her body in the most dangerous of places: her liver, lungs and heart. Death was imminent. 

      Doctors were perplexed as to the precise cause of her condition or a specific definition of the illness that was slowly killing her.  Knowing cancer, AIDS, heart failure or other life-threatening ailments were ruled out brought minimal relief to her worried loved ones because there were still no answers.  Her condition was a medical anomaly -- like nothing doctors had ever seen before.  

      Anyone who knows anything about the nature of blood clots knows that the goal is to prevent a clot from traveling to the heart. Blood clots in the heart are usually fatal. How then, if doctors weren't able to treat her condition, did Brenda Jefferson live to tell her story?

      Prior to being rushed to the emergency room in March of 2005, Jefferson had seen strenuous times in her life, such as surviving domestic abuse by a previous husband and diverting local media attempts to slay her Deeper Life Christian Church for allegedly mishandling of funds (Admitting to some error she states, although the heart of their goals were pure, "You get so many people with a different mindset and we just [wasn't] prepared with the right staff.  That ministry of bringing people off the street, because of the positive impact they had on so many lives during those early days of the ministry, despite the ridicule she would do it all again she said.) Her faith had moved those mountains, but this was an unequivocal battle.  Day after day, she lay in the chilly room, conscious yet weak, as doctors poked and prodded her long, slender frame in search of a reason for this appointment with death.  Their perpetually blank stares signaled her situation was hopeless.

      One can only imagine Jefferson's mental state as she encountered her own mortality. The God who she undoubtedly believed could do anything but fail had pressed the mute button on her persistent calls.  Even as a spiritually sound individual, a woman of the cloth no less, it would have been completely natural and perfectly understandable for her to hug her knees, rock back and forth  in a corner snotty nosed crying, 'God why me?'  Instead, she held on to her anchors (The Bible and a pen and pad that rested on the night stand beside her bed) and jotted down God's whispers.

      As co-pastor of the church (along with her husband Bishop M.B. Jefferson, the same church that has allegations of revenue scandals dating back to 2001 according to various Internet reports), focusing on rescue ministry the mother of four worked with transvestites, drug-addicts, violent youth, prostitutes...all  varieties of wayward people from the streets of Tampa, Florida where she resides. Her ministry was the answer to numerous people's prayers.  The oasis of renovated homes in the inner city she calls Houses of David provided food, shelter and resources for rehabilitation.  One woman  who benefited from Jefferson's benevolence was a former school teacher who became addicted to crack cocaine.  She is now totally clean and back in the school system and attending church regularly. 

     "My husband and I [was] just an instrument that God used to get her back on track," Pastor Jefferson expressed.      

      That she would not be abandoned in her personal crisis was Jefferson's deepest hope.

      From the moment doctors told her they didn't know what to do-- she flashbacked to her spiritual photo log and recalled the circumstances that she endured through God's intervention. Scripture urged her along as she began to jot down every drop of encouragement which became her songs of praise.  "God gave me the music and everything," she recalls.   These messages from God or "scripture songs" as she refers to them were her strength.

      Then one day prayers for Brenda Jefferson touched the hem of Christ's garment and she was healed.  About that amazing turning point she testifies with a leap in her voice, "I just got up!"  Just like that.  The only plausible explanation is that her medical issues were divinely resolved.  She ditched the hospital gear, put on her own clothes and shortly thereafter her doctors prescribed a daily dose of blood thinners as a precaution and released the woman with the mysterious condition.

      The setting where I met Pastor Brenda on June 2, 2007, it was quite a contrast to the image two years ago  when   she was surrounded by doctors examining her. She was sitting in a Family Christian Bookstore interacting with fans who'd come to pick up her first CD, "A Time of Refreshing."  Most of the songs on the project were birth while she was on her deathbed and were essentially what led to her walking out of the hospital. Decked from head to toe in Escada (her favorite designer), wearing a gold embellished blouse complemented by blue jeans with eye-catching designs on the lower side of the legs, she is a glamorous picture of health.

      Her thumb-print-deep dimples seeming frozen into her gentle brown cheeks as she takes time to respond to each person with her husband right by her side, the worst of Brenda Jefferson's health scare has passed and she has a new attitude, a new partnership with the Tampa police department  who were seemingly enemies  ( Tampa police actually send people to the House of David for assistance) and a new life. She said one day she woke up and realized she was new.  "A Time of Refreshing," on which she wrote every song and is producer is a celebration of Jefferson being born again.  An ensemble of major recording artists (Beverly Crawford, Lisa Page Brooks, Joe Ligon, Javen, Lacresia Campbell) enrich the project with their voices.  As she moves forward to fulfill  her purpose, which she said is to impact lives with gospel music, this over-comer has a special message for hurting women everywhere: "God is a great God and this is a time to do something out of the ordinary. . ."