A Yorkton couple shared stories of healing, personal transformation, and answered prayer at an annual Christian banquet for members of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly.
Brook and Vanessa Andres of Yorkton, spoke at the annual Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship in Canada MLA Banquet. The event was held in the legislative cafeteria in Regina on April 9. Attendees numbered almost 70 and included Speaker Todd Goudy, seven other Sask Party MLAs, and Saskatoon NDP Keith Jorgenson.
"There is no way that my wife and I could deny that God exists and that the Holy Spirit moves today," Brook Andres declared.
Brooke recalled his upbringing in a conservative Christian home in Roblin, Manitoba, while Vanessa was raised in Fort McMurray. Their paths converged in 1996, leading to marriage in 1999.
"My dad, my grandpa, and Brooke's birthday all are the same day," Vanessa said. "My dad actually held Brooke as a baby. So I guess from early on, it was sort of meant to be."
Brooke took worked in the oilfield, but the job required extended absences that strained their marriage. As the couple was pondering change, they found inspiration in a sermon.
"The pastor was talking about how when you give, God opens the windows of heaven and pours out blessings," Brook recalled. "I gave my final check from work and tithed all of it [giving 10%], thanked the Lord for blessing us, and I quit my job."
Within two days, the couple received an offer on their home worth double what they had paid for it. With the help of the same realtor, they bought another house, even though Brook had no job.
"We ended up with a house that looked like a castle well beyond our means. And then we started buying and selling properties. We just couldn't believe how God was blessing us. So one morning...I said, 'You know, Vanessa, maybe it's not God, maybe it's just us. Let's stop tithing and see what happens.' It wasn't long, maybe a month, we were broke. Guess what? We started doing it again. We learned a valuable lesson."
Another milestone took place when their daughter Alyssa was born with an unusual condition.
"The doctors didn't think she was going to make it," Vanessa recalled. "She looked like the Michelin Man. The ambulance took five hours, and might I say, the breathing equipment in Yorkton hospital was broken, so they had doctors hand-ventilating her for five hours."
Doctors gave Alyssa virtually no chance of survival. "The doctor told us that with one lung full of fluid, Alyssa had a 50% chance of survival, but our little girl had both lungs full, so it wasn't looking good," Vanessa recalled.
"She was held in the NICU connected to an oscillating ventilator," Vanessa recalled. "She had seven IVs all over her body and two drains, one in each lung. She was unconscious and was on morphine at this time."
Their church community rallied around them, putting Alyssa's picture on the big screen and praying collectively for her healing. Within three weeks, her condition dramatically improved.
The couple attended a Christian conference at the Toronto airport church more than 20 years ago that brought more transformation.
Brook recalled, "I had an event happen in my life where I had a lot of hatred for somebody, a lot of anger in my life. And I never, ever dealt with that."
Brook said a dark spirit was reinforcing the issue but freedom came when evangelist Carlos Annacondia ministered to the audience.
"This thing started churning in my stomach... it rose into my neck, and then it just lifted right off me," he recalled, saying he felt renewed after.
In recent years, the couple's missions from God were to coach sports teams. On one occasion, Vanessa received an urgent request from a distraught mom on the phone.
"My son got cut from a basketball team. There was about 22 of them, and if he doesn't play, he's going to go down a dark road. He's going to go get into drugs, alcohol," the mother told Vanessa. "I was told to call you, maybe you'd know what to do."
The couple started a basketball team that included the teen boy and kept it going for two years. During the pandemic, they started a volleyball team for those who otherwise couldn't play. During tryouts, Vanessa especially felt to put one girl on the team, even though she lacked standout talent. Halfway through the season, Vanessa found out why as she received an outpouring of gratitude from an elderly lady.
"I have been praying for my granddaughter for years to have a good Christian influence in her life, she said, and I see that ... you guys are coaching my little granddaughter," the woman said. "You're an answer to my prayers."
Their business, Triple-A Directional Drilling, became another testament to their faith. They faced significant challenges, including a major contract that faced a year of delays, waiting for governmental approval. Brooke responded with a 10-day fast, praying for breakthrough. He decided to join a group of friends quadding in a wilderness area near Endeavour, Sask. As he was about to break the fast with a hot dog, the government employees he needed to talk to randomly showed up.
Vanessa said some "emphasized their commitment to Christian principles: "We put God first, and we stick to our Christian morals," she said. This includes giving their employees weekends off, despite push from some companies who want them to work seven days a week. "We said, right off the hop, no. Our guys need some time."
The couple also shared a healing story involving Brooke's aunt's foster child, Presley, who had a large tumor in his jaw. After praying over the phone, they received a text: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow. The tumor is gone... [At the hospital] they kept wanting to take more X-rays because they just couldn't believe what they were seeing."
Vanessa challenged those in the audience who were spiritually complacent. "We encourage you just ask God to take you to a deeper intimacy with Him, because there is so much more."
Brooke said, "Ecclesiastes 3:11 says eternity is written on our hearts. This means that we all know that we're going to die sooner or later... Jesus is the only one that offered us a solution and to go to heaven by His grace, by His mercy, through his blood and his sacrifice."
The couple led the audience in a prayer to dedicate themselves to the Lord.
"God wants us to live a life of freedom, of peace and joy and all that He has for us," Vanessa proclaimed. "He's a good God. He loves each and everyone of us, and he wants to have real encounters with each of us."
The first Full Gospel Sask MLA banquet was held in 1992, at the initiative of Frank Leier after he felt guided by a dream. Now 100 years of age, Leier was one of three attendees of the inaugural banquet also present for the 2025 edition, along with Jim Sakundiak and Larry Moleski of Regina.
