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CIW – MARCH VISIT RECAP
As the date approaches for our visit to CIW every month, we know that we cannot take our gate clearance for granted. Something could always come up that may prevent us from entering. Why? “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
The CIW team and all the teams for Jesus Is The Key, bring the Gospel Message, the saving knowledge of Jesus, that will change lives. The enemy does not like that. On March 12th, we dealt with the new gate, walk thru scanner. It’s highly sensitive, even to wedding rings. We were delayed several minutes, but were finally able to enter. (Pray for next month that we might all be prepared and able to enter with no difficulty.)
It’s so awesome to walk into the yard and see ladies waiting at the auditorium doors for us. They were eager to hear a message of hope and of encouragement. It was especially needed this month; days before another inmate had taken her life.
The inmates set up the chairs, podium and sound system quickly, and in minutes were being led in worship by one of their own. She was joyous and loving to the ladies. She has been there a long time and knows how much they need to be encouraged.
This month, the teaching was from Nehemiah 4. A great chapter in the Bible that deals with Nehemiah and the Jews defending the wall against the attacks from the enemy. It was a message indeed inspired by the Holy Spirit to minister to women who are attacked daily as they seek to walk with the Lord. Just as Sanballot and his cohorts tried to end the rebuilding of the wall, Satan tries to snuff out their hope in God. He tells them that they will not be forgiven, that there is no hope, no way out, no one who cares for them, that they are worthless. Our team can attest to the fact that as the message was shared from Nehemiah, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome,” their spirits began to be lifted and encouraged. When that happens, it’s quite something to witness.
They began to seek prayer individually and they began to believe once again that the Lord will hear their prayers, and that He does indeed love them, and has a plan for their life.
Did all their problems go away? Of course not. But we know that even if it was for 45 minutes of freedom….freedom to worship and gather together in His name, freedom from their cells and worries, it was so worth it and so needed for us to be there. So there we will be every month.
Isaiah 61: 1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
CIW Team – 04/05/2015
There can be no more an exciting time to do ministry than the week of the resurrection of Jesus. This past Tuesday, I had the great joy of sharing the account of Palm Sunday with the men in Facility A at CIM. After reading through the Biblical account, we discussed the crowd’s hailing Jesus by shouting out the messianic verses from Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!“. The reason they should have recognized their day of visitation was that it was recorded prophetically by Daniel over 500 years earlier in Daniel 9:25-26.
I showed them video and pictures I had taken from the Mount of Olives looking out over the temple mount and Jerusalem, and while walking down the pathway to the area of the Garden of Gethsemane and showing the art depicting Jesus praying in the garden and the betrayal which adorn the walls inside the Church of All Nations (or Church of the Agony). I then showed the pathway up the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and then the Garden Tomb. The men were so excited to see the physical places they have read about and to understand the evidence that makes the scripture come alive as they grasp that these are real places and based on historical evidences.
As we begin to understand the significance of the empty tomb and the resurrection and the manifestation of the love of God for each one, we cannot help but be overwhelmed by the greatness of God’s mercy and grace.
Bruce – 04/02/15
CIW Report – Since the first of the year, the Team has been able to ministry to over 175 women at CIW. We have had two services in the Auditorium that averages 60 women and in January we were asked to give a Sunday service for over 50 women. Our services include a time of worship led by the inmates, the distribution of book markers and a bible teaching ending in prayer for all of the prayer requests the ladies have written down. We encourage the women to seek prayer; it is our greatest privilege to pray with the women during the service. The book markers have a daily reading in the old and new testament along with the steps to salvation. We encourage the ladies to take at least two so they have one and can share one. They have told us how they have been able to share these book markers with other inmates and family members to study the bible daily.
Pam – 02/28/2015
Last Tuesday during services at CIM, I taught about Saul of Tarsus from the book of Acts. As we read through those chapters in Acts, we saw Saul persecuting Christians, seeking to put them in prison and even put them to death. Yet after Jesus appeared to Saul on the Road to Damascus as recorded in Acts 9, his life was radically transformed. Still today, God is in the business of transforming lives. We see it all the time as men come to faith in prison and are literally transformed into new creations if they submit their lives to God. For some, forgiveness is a hard thing to accept, especially when one thinks that what they have done may be very evil. Yet, to see Saul (who is renamed Paul after his conversion) be transformed into the amazing apostle of God, they see that even one who persecuted the church (and Jesus himself from Acts 9:5) was forgiven and used by God. He will do the same for all of us… as He has called us in Romans 12:1-2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, as we submit ourselves as living sacrifices to God. As we receive the word implanted which is able to save our souls (James 1:21) we experience that same transformation by God’s grace and power! Amen.
Bruce – 2/11/2015
