To all of the Saints and/or Aints,



I am flying out early on the 11th to Charlotte, N.C. for a job interview near Asheville, with the North Carolina Department of Corrections. My interview is Friday, at 11:00 am EST. Your intercession will be greatly appreciated. Since I am working on my doctorate as a distance learner, I am no longer tied to the brick and mortar of Cal. State, San Bernardino and can be with my dad and his clan. I was honored to be the Keynote Speaker at Cahutta Springs for the Union's prison ministry conference a few years back, and some of the ministries are praying for us to be out there so we will be closer.

Please lift me up in prayer for the Lord to open the door, if it be His will, and give me safe traveling mercies. Roxanne is from Alexandria, Virginia, and her relatives are in Maryland, Virginia, and Tennessee. Mine are in Chicago and South Carolina. My father is 83, Retired WWII Navy and living in the Spartanburg area, and unsaved, his side of the family live in South Carolina, so...North Carolina is the neutral state with close proximity to all. Also, pray for the Lord to bless me as I pursue my doctorate in Criminal Justice. 26-years in prison ministry and still going. My dad's sister, who I have never met, has requested that she meet me before she dies (older sisters have passed on) and is requesting information about Adventism, because my sister has been mailing her my documents that I use in the prisons. We are asking for the Lord to pour us out a miracle. Thank you all. Happy Sabbath and may we all receive its double blessing today.



Brad, if the doors open, I would like to have lunch with you before I leave, if that will work for you. Thanks again.

(Accidently posted this in the wrong place---oops...sorry.)

it really sounds ideal!

i will be in prayer.

Me too, Keith.

Sounds to me that cooperating by faith with the Lord will land you right where you hope to be!

I'm happy for you.


Blessings,

Tony

God bless you and Roxanne, Keith!

I have been so blessed by your posts in the past--especially about 1 Cor 13 and the 4 questions and Kohlberg discussions and your 31 steps to freedom--they've all helped me to have clarity! Thank you so much! It is indeed an honor to pray for you!

Cherie

Thanks everybody...

I called my 70-year old aunt, the baby of my dad's sibblings, that I was coming and she is so excited. I have two aunts that are still alive, the others have passed on. Already, the questions about being a veggie...as she is worrying about feeding me. Once you become a veggie everybody goes crazy trying to figure out what they are going to feed you. I'm 62, and we're finally going to meet the other side of the clan. Time for the Lord to restore what the locusts have eaten.

Cherie,

Thanks, The Four Questions are always a big hit in the prisons. It causes some cognitve dissidence, praise God. Yesterday, at the prison, the guys came in and after prayer, they said, "We have a question for you." I said, "Sure, let's see if any of my answers will fit any of your questions." They said, "We hear you are leaving us." I asked, "Who said that?" They said, "A mutual friend."

After leaving church and driving to the prison, I was thinking how I was going to tell them, which is really bitter sweet, because I have been nurturing them for so long and they have really been blosseming. So, I told them about the interview and asked them to pray, and I said, "I know you guys will probably be praying against me." They all said, "No, we will be praying for you." I told them, "Well, at least now we'll be able to write each other and I won't lose my visiting clearance." They said, "Now we'll be able to email you, too." That shocked me, I didn't know they had access to the internet. Their psychologist in the prison is an Adventist and she told them. It will be hard to say goodbye the last day. I have 26-years teaching Agape and Kohlberg and these guys have grown so much. We talk about the circadian rhythm, REM sleep, the synthesis of serotonin and melatonin and frontal lobes, in order to be SEALED...Agape, Integrity...I have some friends from church who have joined me the past 3 years, so they will be taking over. In the federal prison, the discussions are so intimate and honest and the love and respect is beyond words. We laugh so much during our studies. I write on the chalk board in order to explain concepts...

There is a friend of mine, who is an orphan, who was in foster care, was raped at five, went to Vietnam, has PTSD. He does not like to be touched. So I wrote on the board for him one day:

Touch = intimacy = trust = hope = vulnerability = betrayal = abuse = abandonment = despair = detachment = emotional self-incarceration

I call this "throwing the switch" to prevent attachment. Intimacy triggers all of the old wounds. His shrink keeps asking him, who he is talking to, because he sees him opening up and healing. Imagine, no family, no parental circle, no relatives, no love, no security. Whenever we would be talking about love, he would always give this nervous laugh. I looked at him and said, "I know why you are laughing, because the thought of love is so painful, because you never experienced it." He never laughed at the word again, because the Holy Spirit had me nail it.

So many damaged people, all victims in the war. I had brought the late Dr. Robert Iacono into the prison and on the way in, he was so excited to talk to the guys, but after he and I were in our room, one door, one window, and the officer called to release for movement, as Bob watched 55 inmates come into the room. Just us and the 55 guys all dressed in prison garb, all tattooed up, some missing teeth, Bob melted and withdrew. I could not turn the class over to him. Then one of the guys said, "Dr. Bob, if you have answers to our self-inflicted nightmare, please talk to us." The forensic scales feel from Bob's eyes, where before he looked at them as criminals, but now he looked at them as patients--and the healing model appeared. On the way out of the prison, Bob said, "They may be hardened criminals, but they are easy patients. This is the worst case of medical male-practice I have ever seen." The forensic model--they are getting what they deserve. The healing model--they need the healing balm of grace, forgiveness, love, and compassion. This is my operating room, and God gives me the words to unlock their pain. If I could have one wish...I would want to be a warden, and have them build a little cottage in the prison yard for Roxanne and I and our dog to live. To spend every hour of my life leading them to Christ, through Kohlberg and Agape. I love it in there and so does Roxanne.

Our room is so safe and accepting. A young inmate who was raped just prior to my class, sat next to me and after everybody left he told what had happened. He told me that he couldn't believe he could sit through the whole two hours and not cry. I held him and prayed. He said, "Your room is the safest room in the prison." The only problem was it didn't reach far enough. It didn't protect him in his area. It is an honor and an obligation to bring a piece of heaven into hell. And I know there are level one, stage one's who say, "Well, they brought it on themselves." Those are the ones who need me more than the inmates...because they may be more lost than my guys...

Keith, I just now read this outloud to my husband and it brought tears to both of our eyes.

We once did a simple jail ministry (he went to the guys side and I went to the women's--our pastor was afraid and even tried to shut it down) but it was a high point of living in that town for two years. I think when people are broken they need help and then they are ready to listen to God and like Jesus says, "We love much, because we have been forgiven much." Luke 7:47

If only more people could experience what you are talking about how much more mercy we might see in this world. Maybe you can write a book.

Once again, God bless you and Roxanne wherever you go!

Cherie

i would like to repost what ever you post along these lines with your permission, and edited of course. (names.)

this is reality not theory.