ATHENS — Lucrecia Thomas Hawley knows from experience that God works miracles. The recent publication of her first compact disc of original piano arrangements is a celebration of her faith.

“Anointed Praise: Songs of Deliverance” is a compilation of 15 pieces of sacred music by various composers taken in a different direction.

The daughter of Mark and Argent Thomas of Athens and an 11-year instructor of music at Alabama A&M; University said, “Hopefully, people will be delivered, set free, healed — whatever” by her arrangements.

Because she said her work was inspired by the divine.

“I did the CD because God told me to glorify God,” she said. “Because without him I wouldn’t have been able to play.”

Two times Hawley said she turned to God for physical healing when bone disorders threatened her mobility and ability to play piano. The first time was 14 years ago when she developed a hole in the middle bone of her wrist from a benign tumor and the second time was in the last year when she developed cubital tunnel syndrome in both elbows.

In both instances she sought help from Hebrews 4:12: “For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow …”

Hawley said she literally laid her affected joints in the Bible, which had been opened to that verse and said, “God, I’m going to take you at your word. Your word must be as sharp as any surgeon’s scalpel, so you do the surgery.”

She said her doctors could offer no medical explanation why both conditions spontaneously healed and she did not require surgeries that were planned in both cases.



A&M; family



Both Hawley and her husband, Patrick Hawley, are A&M; instructors. Her husband teaches graduate level multicultural education classes. Their daughter, Cherise Hawley, is an art major at A&M; and designed the jacket for her mother’s CD featuring David playing the harp for King Saul.

Hawley said “The Lord put me at A&M.;” After taking piano instruction locally from Mary Emma Peck and Sara Jeffrey, Hawley went on to earn degrees from Athens State and Birmingham Southern, and a masters in church music from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

It was while she was teaching part time at Athens State, that she was contacted 11 years ago by Dr. Horace Carney of A&M; and asked if she would be interested in a temporary position in the music department.

“I truly believe that the Lord put me there,” she said. “I never applied, never sent a resume or called. Dr. Carney called me and I went and I’ve been there ever since.



Campus ministry



While at A&M; Hawley and her husband have founded a campus ministry. They became advisers for “The Impact Movement,” a subdivision of Campus Crusade for Christ.

“The Impact Movement is for historically black universities and colleges,” she said. “Impact gets no money, so we incorporated as All Faiths Christian Ministry. We are a 501C-3, tax-exempt ministry.”

Hawley said All Faiths meets for Bible study each Friday at lunch hour and several faculty members have joined the group since learning about it.

“We now have from 20 to 50 people every Friday at lunchtime,” she said. “And if you meet at lunch time then you had better feed them lunch and that’s why we need money. We usually order pizza because we have no kitchen. I’ll also bring in chips, fruit and Hawaiian Punch.”



Feeding the hungry



Hawley said the ministry also operates a food pantry, which began from ready-to-eat snacks that she kept in her desk drawer when she couldn’t break for meals and has fed from 4,000 to 5,000 meals.

“We now have a food pantry for needy students who can’t afford meal tickets,” she said.

“I was once advising a student with registration and he said if he couldn’t get registered he couldn’t get a meal ticket and he would have to go the entire weekend without food. He said, ‘If I sleep a lot, it doesn’t hurt as much.’”

She said many students are at A&M; on full scholarships and Pell Grants. “They literally don’t have money.”

She said she would donate 50 percent of the proceeds from her CD to the food pantry.

“Jesus ministers to the soul, but you have a body and mind,” she said. “We try to minister to the whole body. And some have been healed. There are those who have been delivered from alcohol and drugs.”

“Anointed Praise: Songs of Deliverance” is available at Pablo’s on Market for $12.95, plus tax, or from her Web site: www.lucreciahawley.com, for $10, plus $4 for shipping and handling.