Retired reservist finds inspiration through loss

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(Final in a three-part series chronicling Angela Alexander’s incredible story which led to a book, a ministry and now, a documentary.)

Following the untimely death of her two sons in a car crash, Angela Alexander, a retired Air Force Reservist, faced the challenge of sharing her story with the world.

She knew God wanted her to share what happened but she insisted to herself she couldn’t. She didn’t think she could handle such an assignment, didn’t want to mess it up and talking about it hurt too much.

“I rehearsed and nursed why I couldn’t do it,” Alexander said. “I owned all those negative thoughts and why I wouldn’t do it, but I was in agony.”

She could barely eat or sleep and kept trying to renegotiate her orders until the discomfort was too much. She realized she was uncomfortable because she was walking in disobedience and as she had before, she gave in.

For the next two years she wrote and created a daily prayer asking God to bring people into her life who will help spread His testimony and that she was His vessel, but it was His business, she said.

“I’m telling God’s story and sharing the legacy my sons left behind,” Alexander said. “They had a mission here to learn to read and write, leave their message and they were gone, their purpose was complete.”

Alexander’s purpose was just beginning. Her first speaking engagement was at her church, in uniform, during a military holiday, and as she spoke she realized how it all tied together; her military service, the letters, her faith and thus began her mission of searching for the miracles.

“I asked God for a letter from a dead person and I got it,” Alexander said. “I had to make a decision whether I was going to walk the talk or walk away from the talk, she said.

It took her two years to write her book, “Miracles in Action,” and since then she has traveled throughout California and the world to share her message on multi-levels with the book, radio shows, written interviews, the documentary and her speaking events.

It was after one of her speaking engagements, when a producer emailed her asking if he could turn her book into a documentary, she said. While she always felt the book would be made into a movie, she never considered turning her story into a documentary and was reluctant.

“A movie, is me watching actors and actresses act it out, but a documentary is all me, she said.” 

She fell back into disobedience briefly, but the pain was too much and again she surrendered. The documentary premiered at the Grove in Riverside, California on February 13, 2015, was recently screened in Pomona, and will be featured at the Cayman Islands International Film Festival later this spring.

Alexander feels the film festival will lead to a motion picture, and she continues to help people cope with their challenges by sharing her story.

“It doesn’t matter what that pain is, we want to turn your pain into power and grief into peace,” she said. “My whole ministry, my whole message is to search for the miracles.”