Our Senior Pastor

Pastor: a spiritual overseer especially : a clergyman serving a local church or parish: a minister or priest in charge of a church:

: to tend as a shepherd

: to guide or guard in the manner of a shepherd

: a person whose job is to take care of sheep : a person who takes care of and guards a flock of sheep

Rev. Anna Ruth Burgos

Senior Pastor of Peniel Church in Fort Myers, Florida

There are many things I do not understand. I have stopped asking God questions, like why and for what. I recognize his sovereignty and accept that he does not have to answer to me for all the things he has done in my life.

I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and lived in the Gowanus housing projects until I was twenty-one years old, when my knight in shining white armor, my husband, rescued me. The greatest advantage of living in New York City was the amazing experience of being immersed in different cultures. During dinnertime, the hallways that interconnected with different apartments were infused with all types of culinary aromas that merged into one: Indian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Chinese, Italian, Jewish, and African-American soul food-my favorite.

In the same way, my life has been a mix of different recipes, flavors, aromas, and ingredients that have contributed to who I am today. I recently heard someone say some people will be part of your story but not your destiny. Through different experiences in my life, God has put a mix only he can create.

In 1974, I married my husband Ruben Burgos, and at the age of twenty three, we had our beautiful daughter Sherelyn. In 1978, we decided to move to Fort Myers, Florida. Four years later, our son Sheldon was born. Like Abraham, we left everyone we knew, our families and friends, to start a new life.

Our trajectory from New York City to Fort Myers took me to different levels of ministry: ten years in the music ministry, district music ministers, and teaching in the Lee County School District for thirty-one years. After a turbulent time in our family of suffering and trials, we began pastoring in 2007. I assure you pastoring a church was not in my agenda. I saw firsthand the suffering pastors went through in the ministry, and I did not want the job. But at the same time,

I saw the transformation the Holy Spirit does through dedicated men and women, like my parents who are willing to give their lives for Jesus. I saw drug addicts transformed, prostitutes become women of God, and families restored through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It was during hard times prior to pastoring that the Holy Spirit impressed upon me the desire to write. Solid Soul Food is a compilation of stories that is the result of moments of desperation where only the Word was my comfort. Like the olives that are pressed and crushed to extract the precious oil used in perfumes for anointing and healing, writing became the healing balm for my soul. Solid Soul Food is the product of times spent in his presence. I understood the psalmist when he wrote: “You prepare a table in the presence of mine enemies.” The Holy Spirit sustained me as I ate the true Soul Food.

Although it is written as a devotional, I did not want to confine the reader to any day or month of the year. The reader can choose a title and be blessed by the story and the Word that inspired that selection.