Learning curve.

We continue to learn the 'ropes.' Although we have never talked in any of our classes about tithing, we just had one of our men say he wanted to send his tithe to us because he feels we are his Pastor. He says, "God commands us to take care of our Pastors." Remember, these men in prison make around $ .22 per hour. Yes, that's 22 cents per hour!

Well, with the help of a great Chaplain, we found out that if any inmate sends a volunteer from the outside a gift like that, the inmate will go to segregation and our privilege to enter will be taken away. We are glad we learned this before anything negative happened. We praise God for the Chaplain!

Please praise God with us and also, please continue to pray with us about the prison ministry. May God bless you all!

Sometimes sadness!

Ecclesiastes 3:4 speaks of "a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance." In prison ministry we understand this very well. When we hear life stories and watch the inmates make both good and bad decisions, we weep, we laugh, we mourn, we dance!

Just last week, along with the chaplain of the women's prison, we decided to suspend our study there due to inappropriate behavior in the class by some of the inmates. We long to see these inmates live for the Lord! We weep & we mourn!

Our ministry focus at this prison will now be to do one-on-one discipleship times with the women who request them. This will require more hours of work on our part, but should yield positive results as we see who is really serious about growing in the Lord, and who isn't. We laugh and we dance! We ask for your prayers that God will use this decision to change lives.

More blessing from Christmas!

One of our regulars, whose father recently died and was his only financial helper, makes just $6.00 every two weeks! This week he was praising the Lord because his sister sent him a nice financial Christmas gift. He is praying for a job so he does not have to be a burden to his family. He is a solid brother in Christ!

One of our gals said she saw all her children but one. She was happy and sad, as you can imagine.

Still another shared that he just received notice that his 24 year old daughter died. Although he has not had much of a relationship with her, He is still sad because there is nothing he can do.

There was another who asked us to follow him when he goes to another prison. He said, "I never gave God a thought when I was running the streets, but a few weeks ago when you gave us an opportunity to receive Christ, I did it! Now I want you to be my Pastor and help me grow in my understanding of the Bible." He becomes another that we add to our LONG list of those we may not be able to see because we just do not have the time or the money to follow him up! Please pray!

Blessings from the Christmas Season!

One man went 16 years without any visits from family members. But, after rededicating his life to the Lord more than two years ago, he has slowly been getting visits . . . even nine visits in the last two weeks! He says it is a blessing from God.

Another man shared how a woman brought over many, many gifts for his children. Even when he was working, his children never received so many gifts. He said it was an answer to his prayers.

A third said, "I was sad being in prison and not being able to see any members of my family. Then I heard that my grandfather came to L. A. to visit my mother and how happy my mother was. This made me happy, and I am continuing to pray for my day to leave prison so I can be with family, too!"

We just praise God for what HE is doing in the lives of prisoners. Fractured relationships are being put back together.