Anne Coleman Hufham – From Brokenness and Anxiety to Resting in God’s Love

Sometimes the people who look the most joyful and grounded have also walked through deep struggles, hidden pain, anxiety, and seasons of searching for meaning. Behind every testimony is a story of God meeting someone personally and changing their life forever.

In this heartfelt conversation, John Martin sits down with Anne Coleman Hufham to share her powerful journey of discovering Jesus, finding her identity in Him, and learning what it truly means to rest in the love of God.

Anne grew up in a loving Christian home in Birmingham, Alabama, surrounded by supportive parents and family. But even with that strong foundation, she still wrestled with insecurity, worldly pressures, and searching for affirmation in all the wrong places. Like so many young people, she found herself chasing acceptance, relationships, and temporary fulfillment—hoping those things would fill the ache in her heart.

By her freshman year of college, Anne had reached a breaking point. Exhausted, empty, and desperate for something real, she cried out to God from her dorm room and asked Him to take over her life.

That moment changed everything.

As Anne began seeking Jesus through His Word and spending time in His presence, her heart slowly transformed. She shares how God met her personally through worship, scripture, and a life-changing discipleship retreat where she encountered the love of the Father in a way she never had before.

One of the most powerful moments in her testimony came while walking barefoot through a field after a retreat weekend. There, God spoke deeply to her heart:
“Today I’m making all things new.”

In that moment, shame, guilt, and the weight of her past were lifted, and Anne fully surrendered her life to Christ.

But her story doesn’t stop there.

Anne also opens up honestly about a later season in life where she battled intense anxiety for nearly two years—even while deeply pursuing God. She shares how confusing and painful that season felt, wondering why healing wasn’t coming immediately despite prayer, fasting, and faith.

Yet even in the middle of anxiety, God never abandoned her.

Instead, He used that difficult season to strengthen her faith, deepen her dependence on Him, and shape her into the woman He was calling her to become. Through time and surrender, God eventually brought healing and freedom.

Anne’s story is a reminder that following Jesus does not mean life becomes perfect or pain disappears. It means we no longer walk through hardship alone.

This conversation is filled with hope and encouragement for anyone feeling lost, anxious, ashamed, or far from God:
You are not too broken.
You are not too far gone.
And your story is not over.

God is not afraid of your mess.
He sees your pain, your struggles, and your fears—and He still wants relationship with you.

Anne encourages listeners to:
Spend time daily in God’s Word.
Find a Christ-centered church community.
Surround yourself with accountability and godly friendships.
And learn to rest in the truth that you are fully loved by the Father.

No matter where you’ve been or what you’re carrying today, Jesus is still making all things new.

What’s one burden or fear you need to fully surrender to God today?

Contact Anne Coleman Hufham:
📧 annecoleman@triumphofhope.com

For more information contact us at
rtrdestiny@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome And Introducing Ann

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, friends. John Martin. Excited to be back on Road to Redemption today. I'm with my friend Ann Coleman. How are you doing, Ann?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Good.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Nice to see you here. And uh I I feel like I I met you with uh the the group you're involved with, the ministry Triumph of Hope. Yeah. Uh maybe a couple years ago that they had the event here on 30A, and uh so it's so good to see you again.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah, I'm so excited, and I I know uh you're in ministry. Uh you're uh a wife, a mother. You got a lot going on. So first of all, we're very blessed you're here. Thank you. Taking the time. Um, but we wanted to, you know, a lot of people see you and they're thinking oh, she's in ministry, and just everything's great, right? But I I know you have a a story, a testimony, so I'd love to just, you know, for our our audience, hear a little bit about your story.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

It'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Okay.

A Loving Home And Early Faith

SPEAKER_01 1:05

So I am 27. I grew up in a Christian home in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm one of five kids, and I have a twin sister, so I'm actually smack dab in the middle, but I have a twin, so don't really know if that counts me as a middle child. Um, but my parents are truly the most servant-hearted, giving, loving parents. They've just always been that way as long as I can remember, and always have just supported us and encouraged us to do whatever makes us come most alive in Christ. And they've just always loved us and met us where we are. And I'm so thankful to have that foundation becoming a parent now, and just it's crazy what you start to really see clearly once you become a parent. It's like, okay, I just value things that they did so much more than I ever did before. And one of those is just the way they always loved us unconditionally and never made us feel shame, even when we did mess up and did choose sin. They just met us with love and um just trusted the Lord to take care of us. And I know that's not easy as a parent, but um, I've been really blessed to just have parents who have always loved me for who I am and never tried to change me. Um, and just trusted my life with with the Lord. And um, so grew up in a Christian home. We went to a church until I was about 15 that um I don't have a lot of memories from it. I um I learned, you know, your typical Sunday school stories, and and but it my relationship with Jesus wasn't like quite real at that point. Um, but I do remember, like, I remember from the time I was very, very young loving, worshiping in the sanctuary. And I remember clearly the song Sanctuary, like Lord prepare me to be a sanctuary, tried, pure and holy, tried and true, and just crying. And I think my whole life looking back, and even now, worship is just one of the ways Christ has always ministered to me so intimately and personally. And even as a young girl, even like when I was not choosing him, he met me in worship. And um, and so around when I was 15, my parents, like kind of out of nowhere, the Lord led

Chasing Approval In High School

SPEAKER_01 3:45

my mom to go to another church, um, Church of the Highlands in Birmingham. And she walked in and she said she knew instantly this is where our family was supposed to go. So we all went, and that was when like Jesus became really real to not everyone in my family, but I think most everyone. Like, we started to see, wow, it's not about what you do or don't do, it's about God's love for you and like relationship with him over anything else, is that like he desires intimate relationship with us in the everyday. And so I was around 15 and I was still just living like such a worldly high school, um, caught up in like boys and drinking and what people thought about me. And um, I just was looking to the world to satisfy this ache in my heart and to give me affirmation that only God can give you. And um, and so I was just broken and lost, and and that went on until freshman year of college, and I went to Ole Miss, and it was my first first semester, so got there in August, um, came home, and I just joined a sorority, did what everybody else around me was doing, and was just partying and was so broken and just desperate and kind of disgusted with myself.

College Party Life And Emptiness

SPEAKER_01 5:15

And I think I always knew like God would be there for me when I went to him. So let me just do what I want to do, and then when I do go to him, like he'll be there. Um, and so I got home, I but I got home for Christmas that semester and was just desperate. And I remember getting on my knees in my room and was just like, God, I need, I need you. I'm tired, I'm burnt out, I'm tired. I was like the prodigal son, just I'm tired. I'm tired of this. It's not fulfilling me. And like I just, I was just desperate, and I hit rock bottom. And once I reached that place, I um just like became so hungry for him and like hungry for the word. So I got back to the dorms, and every morning I would read this Bible, and I would go in the little hall in our dorm, and I would sit there and I would just read, and I didn't even really understand the word yet. Um, even though I had been in church, it's like my eyes just weren't open and my ears weren't open yet. Um, and there's a verse in Romans, and it's like it says, um, when when it was the right time, God was pleased to reveal his son to me. And that makes sense to me because I was I was going to church and I was doing all the great things, um just going to church, and but it just wasn't the time for God to reveal his son to me. And but when he when when he did, I was all in. And so I um so this is January now, I'm 18, 19.

A Prayer At Rock Bottom

SPEAKER_01 6:54

And a friend asked me to go to a weekend retreat called JH Outback University. There's so JH has a couple of different ministries. JH Ranch is a summer camp in California um for teenagers, and then they also offer like parent-child programs. It's a it it's it's amazing, but they focus on like when you go with your dad or your mom, they focus on just reconciliation with the Lord and each other, and then you can go as a student and you just learn like about God's love for you and what it looks like to receive his love for you and know your identity in him and um just how to live in relationship with him. And so I never went as a in high school, but some of my siblings did, and I just heard all these testimonies, and so when someone mentioned OPAC University, which is just for college kids, I hopped on it. I was like, you could put anything in front of me, and I would say yes, I was so hungry. So I sign up and I go, I get there, you stay in tents all weekend. I was like so nervous. Um, but I get there, and this is just a side note. So the ministry I work with now, one of my best friends from childhood, Janie Denny, she um we grew up together, went to the same high school, have very similar stories. She, we we both get to JH Outback University and end up being in the same tent. And that kind of restart, like just re-restored our friendship and um really has a huge part in like where we both are today, and with Triumph of Hope, too. But we so we get that I get there and all weekend, I'm just all in. Every talk, I'm just like sobbing, and it it's pretty normal stuff you're hearing about. Just like there's a dating talk on um just pursuing the right guy, like what you should look like, look for in a godly man and someone to marry, and also just healing wounds that you might have and um in past dating relationships, and and really all of it is like keeping your eyes fixed on the Lord, and then uh you hear talks like a parenting talk, and um, they just really show you like ways you can honor your parents and maybe haven't honored your parents, and and just it's like every talk was just kind of like peeling layers off my heart and softening my heart to what God was do what God was going to do in my heart, and ultimately, so

The Dock Moment And New Life

SPEAKER_01 9:30

after the weekend, I was just ripe. I mean, I was so tender. Um, and I'm driving home and I like look out, and there's this, there's this field, and there was a white dock over this little pond um in the field, and the Lord spoke to me and was like, I want you to walk out to the dock. And so I just start walking, and this is like the end of February. Um, so every oh like winter is fading away, and you can start seeing like grain again. Um, there's dew on the grass, and you just feel like you know, spring is just there's just like resurrection happening all around you. And so I'm walking, and the Lord's like, I want you to take your shoes off. And I'm just sobbing already, and I I take my shoes off and I'm walking, and I he just met me in the most real way and said, Today I'm making all things new, and right now it starts with you. Behold, winter is done and gone, and spring is coming, spring is here, and um I'm making I'm making you new. And it's like you just kissed me on the forehead, and immediately any shame or guilt I felt for even thoughts of like, I knew, Lord, I knew you were pursuing me, and I still chose sin. It was like all of that sin and guilt was just gone. And so this new life, I didn't have to carry that with me. Um, and I could just start fresh with him. And so when I think about my born-again moment, that's what I think about. Because ever since then, there's been no back and forth, no like choosing the world over him. It I really have been all in in my heart since that moment. Um, and I was just so radically met by him and saved by him. And so I get I get back to the dorms and it wasn't easy because the life I had cultivated, like you reap what you sow, and the life that I, you know, the choices that I had made, like I'm in, I'm in the dorms and I'm, you know, in the sorority, and I'm trying to figure out how do I bring Christ into, you know, play these worldly places that, you know, and there are girls around me that are struggling. And so I just I just leaned on him and trusted that um him living through me would be enough to be alike to the people around me and that he would protect me as long as I'm seeking him and seeking his

Discipleship School And Freedom From Religion

SPEAKER_01 12:03

will. And um, and so at the same at the same Outback University, there was uh someone there from a school called Legacy School of Discipleship. It's in on Lake Martin in Alabama, and they offer different semesters, but their their main semester is the summer semester. It's seven weeks long, and they take um 10 girls and 10 guys, and you really go. Um, the their mission statement is Colossians 1.28, and it's really about um forming Christ in you. And so someone had stood up and talked about it, and it was like as he was talking about it, my heart was burning in me, and I was just like, I want to go to this discipleship school. You talked about like what it looks like to walk with Jesus in the everyday, in the mundane, where because life isn't just a bunch of mountaintops, a bunch of retreat weekends. It's like, how do you cultivate a relationship with Jesus that actually like sustains you in the everyday moments when you don't feel him, when you don't see him like you know, extravagantly in the mundane, like what does it look like to live an exciting, vibrant life with Jesus in the everyday? And so anyway, so I I end up going to legacy and it really did that. It changed my life. I had to like maybe unlearn a couple of things just about religion, where I once thought that like spending time with God was something I had to do to make sure we were on good terms for the day. And I learned like he's not a burden, nor does he want to be a burden. He wants to enjoy, he wants you to enjoy him as much as he enjoys you. And he wants to do everyday life with me. And even if it's not pretty and it's not glorious, like he he just so wants that intimacy with us. And um, so I was really set free from feeling like there's any kind of checklist that I had to keep up with um to be on good terms with him. And I remember also learning about the Holy Spirit for the first time, which is so funny because I know my church talked about the Holy Spirit, but again, I think my ears just weren't open. Um and so I remember sitting in class and someone came to speak that day and just starts talking about the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit up makes makes Jesus real to us and applies everything from Jesus to to us and ministers Christ to us and comforts us and um and empowers us and guides us, and and that I just remember sitting there and just sobbing, and um it just made so much sense and it just gave me so much hope too. Um and I just remember that that summer really sitting with God and and my one of my biggest takeaways, because there's so much amazing teaching, and the teaching is was so freeing, and it made walking with Christ so simple when we can make it so complex. But I remember um sitting in class and it just I just remember God speaking to my heart and saying, I just want you to come and crawl into my lap, and I just want to love you. And I felt like a little girl who was crawling into her father's lap, and he just was constantly reminding me, I love you. I love being with you. Um, I love when you just rest your head on my chest and and know I'm gonna take care of your every need. And it was the first time I really just rested in him and his love for me. And I feel like he just so established my identity as a daughter in him that summer. And from there, from just taking the truths I learned there, I could go and love people without expecting anything in return, without having any strings attached, but to just go and radically love the sinners, radically love the people that are hard to love without needing any affirmation in return because I've already had that met in God. And um, so that year went back to Ole Miss. That year, I just really like, I feel like that year God took all the truths that I learned and really established them in the secret place and in my heart. Um and then I ended up going out that summer to work at JH Ranch, um, which was just a

Serving At JH Ranch And Meeting Luke

SPEAKER_01 16:48

God thing. He just led me to work out there. And at the time I was not wanting a boyfriend. Like I was just very much, I had a boyfriend for a while in high school, and I just was so free um and so enjoying experiencing God as like meeting my every need and knowing like I'm beautiful because he says I am. I don't need boys to tell me that. I don't need the world to tell me that I'm beautiful because I like my dad says that I am. And anyway, so I get out to JH and I'm just so excited to just pour out. I felt like I had been in seasons of being poured in, poured in, poured in. And I was genuinely giddy to just pour out my life for him, which is so funny because I get there and lo and behold, my husband Luke is also there. And I had no, I mean, when I say like, I I have I and I I just had no desire to like go out there and find a husband or go out there to find a boyfriend. Um, and I think that honestly was such a blessing because I wasn't trying to impress him. I wasn't trying to like look look cute for him or like be funny or whatever. Like I was just myself. And God had us every every like ropes course group, every coaching group, we were together, and we just found ourselves laughing so much. And over time, we just wanted to hang out with each other. And um one night we had a group of friends that would just go sit and talk and like watch the stars together. The stars out there are insane. It's Northern California. Um, you're in the mountains, it's just beautiful. And our friends were like, We're gonna go to bed. And we looked at each other and we're like, Are you gonna go? And he was like, No, are you? And I was like, No, I'll stay. And we pretty much just stayed up talking about like the Lord and our families. And we say that night, both of us knew I'm gonna marry him. And there was no going back. And so, like a couple days later, he came to me and was like, I know that um, I know that there's more to this friendship, but we're both here to serve and to serve the Lord and to serve other people. We don't need to focus on this if it's if it's from the Lord, like it'll prosper on its own. And honestly, I was having a hard time even with that because I just in my mind, boys were a distraction, like they were gonna take away from my relationship with God and and my dependency on him. And it took me uh like it took me a little while to be okay with the thought of like Luke being like us being in a relationship. And one morning I was reading in um Psalms, the Psalms, and I was reading Psalm 37, 4, and it says, Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. And it's so funny because I got that was when I was like, Okay, Luke is a blessing, he's from the Lord, like I can trust that the Lord's not gonna give me anything that's gonna take away from my relationship with him. And I get up to the lodge and Janie Denny walks up to me and goes, The Lord told me to tell you to read Psalm 37.4. And I was like, Oh my goodness. Um, and there were just so many little God things about our relationship starting to like I'd always heard this analogy in dating relationships. When you are pursuing Jesus, you can just run straight after him, and he will he will, as you're keeping your eyes fixed on him, he's gonna bring the right man alongside you, and he's also gonna have his eyes fixed on the Lord, and you'll just all of a sudden look next to him, next to you, and he'll be there, but your eyes will both be fixed on Jesus, and you'll be running at the same pace. And we do like you do a 24-hour fast out there, and that night when I fell asleep, I had a dream, and in that dream I was running, and I looked to my right, and Luke was running next to me. And I remember having that dream and being like, Oh my gosh, okay, Lord, if this is from you, it will happen. But um, that was even before we like, you know, stayed up talking that night and knew like we were gonna get married. Um, but really, like since then, we didn't really have like ups and downs dating. It was just like I know this is a man for me, um, and I'm committed. And so we did long distance for two years, got engaged after two years of dating, and then got married um the a year after that. And um and we moved on here. I feel like I just sorry, I told you it was hello.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

It's it's so good, it's really a great story. And you know, when when you were talking and what I was sensing is your your story of how Jesus has transformed your life and you and your husband Luke, y'all met, everything. It's wonderful.

Hope For Anyone Who Feels Too Far

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Uh I said so, you know, mm maybe people are listening and thinking, you know, what about myself? Maybe I'm you know, in my 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, you know, maybe is there hope for me? You know, because y'all, y'all were blessed, you know. You've you're you're following the Lord at a young age and you you have a a child now and so many blessings. But what do you say? You know, to the people out there that are just struggling and you know, they may be a little older in life or younger, but just that need hope and they just feel like they're they're foregone, they're too far gone. What do you say?

SPEAKER_01 22:35

You were never too far gone, and no time is wasted with the Lord, and he sees everybody where they are, and there's just so much hope. I've seen so many people come to our ministry that are just like they come with all this brokenness and are like, how could God ever, how could God ever want me? And even though I might have, it might have sounded like I had a very easy upbringing, like I had those same thoughts too. How could God ever want me? I have nothing to offer him. And I would say maybe you're even better off than the person who thinks that they have everything together and don't, um, but don't know it. And you're just never too far gone. And he's such a loving God, and he's not afraid of our mess. Like he's not afraid of our sin. When Jesus came, he met with the sinners. He went to the most, the darkest places and the most desolate places, and he met them with such love and heartbreak. Like he sees your pain, he sees your hurt, and he wants to come and minister healing to your heart and um and to set you free. And um, but the time is now, and I I hurt so much for the people that think like they they did this to themselves, so they deserve to feel what they're feeling. And yes, sin has consequences, but the world is a broken place, and Jesus doesn't want you to live in bondage and and fear and darkness, and he just came, he came for you, he came to set the captives free, and he says he didn't come um for the righteous, but he came for the hurting and the sick.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Well, and and also as as Ann was talking earlier about you know her journey, and she was so blessed to you know go to the JH Ranch and some of these different places she went. But I I really sense that you know there are many of you listening now that you can do this now. You can meet Jesus the way she did, you know, out there on the lake. You can do it right now. Yes, if as you're watching this, if you'll just surrender your life to Him and just you know get on your knees and just say, Father, you know, I'm I'm a broken, I'm a sinner, and I give my life to you now. He will meet you right now where you are, and your life will be transformed. And we just we just encourage you to do that right now. Just get get on your knees and just cry out to God and say, Father, I'm in need of you. I'm a sinner. I need and I need you to be my savior. And our Lord Jesus will meet you, and He will He will forgive you, and your life will be set free. Uh and we we do that here on Road to Redemption. We we encourage three key pillars every every show. If you do these things, your life will be transformed, is to get into the the word of God, start reading the Bible, get up every morning and read the word, and he will speak to you. Primarily, this is the way he speaks to you is through the Bible. And so get if you don't have a hardback Bible, just every phone has the Holy Bible out. And just start reading God's Word. Uh also then get into a Christ-centered, Bible-believing church and just go. Just go. Give it at least one year. If you give it one year, we promise it will change your life. And and then get into a small group. Get into a group of wherever you are in life, you know, singles or maybe married, if you're married couples, whatever, there's groups in every church. And that will that group will will really transform your life. So we just, you know, really want to encourage you. Is it is there anything else before we go in that um, you know, you just want to share?

SPEAKER_01 27:08

I think um I did want to share a little

Anxiety Battle And A Healing Turning Point

SPEAKER_01 27:13

bit. There was a season a couple years ago, I struggled so much with anxiety, and that it felt like such an attack from the enemy, and it came out of nowhere, and it lasted for probably two years, and it crippled me. And I've I was like pursuing Jesus intimately even during that, and so that was like extremely confusing. Um, like Lord, I'm I I love you. Like, I I don't understand why I have to feel like this way. Why aren't you setting me free? And I was doing all the things I was praying and fasting and confessing, and um still it it went on. And um, I remember one day I was sitting out by the pool and I was listening to this sermon, and and in it, the woman says, is talking about the woman with the blood disorder, and she says, If you need a healing touch from Jesus, I want you to grab his the end of his cloak. And I'm sitting there and I just reach out and I just by faith like grab it. And I literally remember like looking back, that was when my anxiety ceased, which is so crazy. And even now I it is confusing, like Lord, why did it take so long? Why did I have to struggle like that? And um and looking back, he and he spoke to me and he said, During that season, I took you from being a child in your faith to a woman of God, and I can see that clearly in my life. Like it did it, I needed to go through that. And it it was hard at the time, and but I um I gained a lot, and my character was very like very shaped through it too, and my dependence on God. And so I guess I just wanted to share that because um you think once you become you know a believer and once you give your life to Jesus, you'll never endure hardship or hard seasons, and that's just not true. But we have a promise that he never leaves us and he never forsakes us. And I I can say that I never felt forsaken by him, um, even though I was struggling and struggling with anxiety. Um, but there is healing, and and since then he's set me free. And even now, when I have anxious thoughts,

Prayer For Healing And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 29:45

I've learned how to take authority over those thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Okay. Well, thank you, Ann. It's been good. It's been good to have you on. It's been a great show. We hope to have you back, and it really is gonna bless a lot of people. And I I thought it'd be good to pray because I know a lot of people today are going through anxiety and depression and um all types of things, you know. And like you said, God blessed you. You were you've been healed, but we know others out there are dealing with this thing. So let's let's pray. Oh, Father God, Lord, we just lift up all those that are listening to this show, that are struggling with um anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, um, physical illnesses, cancer, heart disease, um, kidney disease, just all illnesses. Lord, we know you are here with us now in our midst. You hear these prayers, and we lift up everyone listening right now, and we just ask that your Holy Spirit come and touch them right now and heal them, take them these anxieties away and and and release them and bless them, heal them. And we know you're you're working in everyone who's listening today, and and and they're gonna see great things ahead. In your name we pray, amen. It's been great, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Thank you.