A.W. Barlow

Al and Cassandra Barlow met in the summer of 1983 on the campus

of the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, Florida. Al had just

graduated from UF with a BA in political science and was an entering

freshman at UF’s College of Law, while Cassandra was also a

freshman at Santa Fe Community College, after which she attended

Florida State University (FSU). While Cassandra was earning a BS

in Mass Communication from FSU, Al was earning a Juris Doctor

degree from UF. After graduating from law school in 1985, Al started

practicing law as an assistant public defender in Jacksonville, Florida.

He later became a private attorney, a law firm partner and

ultimately started his own firm in 1994. Cassandra subsequently attended

the University of North Florida, where she earned a Master of Public

Administration. She is employed with Duval County Public Schools.

Cassandra recently received a Doctor of Leadership from

Southeastern University.

Al proposed to Cassandra at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris,

France, on December 20, 1986, and she accepted. They were

subsequently married on May 20, 1988. They have one adult daughter,

while Al fathered a daughter and a son before they met. They rededicated

their marriage vows while celebrating their twentieth wedding

anniversary in 2008.

Having desired to be an attorney since the tender age of thirteen,

Al was greatly surprised by God at the age of forty-one when he was

called to teach and preach the Word, not through man’s finite wisdom but

through the infinite wisdom of the Holy Spirit. He would later come to

understand that these words effectively meant he was to be taught by

God rather than human instruction. That transformative experience

took place over a year and a half after he was radically saved, having

experienced his very own personal burning bush moment. After having

fallen prostrate, pondering that which he heard in spirit, he solemnly

accepted God’s commission and delivered his first message, “The Power

of Obedience,” a short time thereafter. God immediately directed him

to serve in healing and deliverance ministry as a means of evangelism

for the lost, along with edification, renewal, revival, and restoration for

those whom Satan and his fallen angels target for destruction.

Cassandra accepted Jesus at the age of six and served in various

capacities from Sunday school teacher to youth choir director over the

years. She accepted the call to preach in the summer of 2016 and delivered

her initial sermon titled “When Love Calls, You Better Answer”

on Friday, January 6, 2017. She also serves God as her husband’s personal

prayer intercessor.

God has suited them for this unique ministry in a hand-in-glove manner.

While Al tends to take the lead in hands-on ministerial functions related

to deliverance and healing, God uses Cassandra to complement this divinely

inspired work by undergirding it with intercessory prayer. They conduct joint

fasts and perform joint ministerial matters related to marriage and spiritual

gifts activation as an avenue for seamless evangelism.

Al and Cassandra have partnered in formal ministry since God

inspired Al to deploy his legal training to create Breakthrough Prayer

Ministries, Inc. and secure not-for-profit status in 2006. They have

been serving the heartfelt needs of the poor in public housing apartment

complexes and the homeless on the streets of Jacksonville, as

well as ministering to married couples. The Barlows conduct private

counseling sessions for husbands, wives, couples, and singles. They

also host marriage conferences that include healing and deliverance

services, offering private joint or individual sessions to address matters

that tend to be quite delicate and personal, where the priest/parishioner

privilege is of utmost importance.