After being closed for a couple of months due to a construction project involving the installation of new security fences...
...the prison's large outdoor recreation yard has now reopened. For me, its closing meant two months without seeing my tree friends, Miss Goldie, and Mister Orange. Talk about having an aching heart and an innate fatherly concern for his children!
However, as of today, I have yet to return to the "Big Yard" since it was first closed. My work schedule, college, and homework, and overseeing each week's chapel services and bible studies, plus having to handle my daily correspondence, allows me very limited "free time" to go outdoors in the daytime. But I do hope to go as soon as I can.
Meanwhile, my Wednesday evening Bible study class is still going well. We always begin the class with an opening prayer. And with all the problems and conflicts now going on in the world, we've no shortage of people and situations to pray for.
And as a final thought, when it comes to "prison ministry," there will always be its critics, skeptics, and doubters. It comes with the territory. Even some in the churches look down on prisoners who claim to have "found God." But that's okay.
Everyone is entitled to his or her views, opinions, and beliefs. Yet one thing I do know in my thirty plus years as a follower of Messiah Jesus, is that He is hard at work in jails and prisons because the Lord is not willing that any should perish and be eternally lost, but that all should repent of their sins, and place their faith in Him (2 Peter 3:9).
The Lord, I believe, has a love for prison ministry. He told His disciples to preach the gospel everywhere. Surely this includes prisons, jails, youth detention facilities, and more.
D.B.
However, as of today, I have yet to return to the "Big Yard" since it was first closed. My work schedule, college, and homework, and overseeing each week's chapel services and bible studies, plus having to handle my daily correspondence, allows me very limited "free time" to go outdoors in the daytime. But I do hope to go as soon as I can.
Meanwhile, my Wednesday evening Bible study class is still going well. We always begin the class with an opening prayer. And with all the problems and conflicts now going on in the world, we've no shortage of people and situations to pray for.
And as a final thought, when it comes to "prison ministry," there will always be its critics, skeptics, and doubters. It comes with the territory. Even some in the churches look down on prisoners who claim to have "found God." But that's okay.
Everyone is entitled to his or her views, opinions, and beliefs. Yet one thing I do know in my thirty plus years as a follower of Messiah Jesus, is that He is hard at work in jails and prisons because the Lord is not willing that any should perish and be eternally lost, but that all should repent of their sins, and place their faith in Him (2 Peter 3:9).
The Lord, I believe, has a love for prison ministry. He told His disciples to preach the gospel everywhere. Surely this includes prisons, jails, youth detention facilities, and more.
D.B.
