The following Monday Pastor Dave Brock of Agape Baptist Church (our church here in Zephyrhills), introduced me to a man named Reverend Joe Cannon who has been doing jail/prison ministry for 39 years. Joe has done ministry in every prison in Florida as well as some other states. He invited me to be a part of his team that goes into a large local county jail. Through his help I was approved to go in by the end of the week and was inside giving my first message by that Sunday. 1 gave his life to the Lord and 14 rededicated their lives to Jesus! I have been going every Sunday since and it has been very fruitful! What a blessing!
On April 10th Pastor Dave invited me to give a message at a funeral of a local woman. This family has been riddled by drug use and various people have been in and out of prison. I did not know the woman but I know what my life was apart from Christ and the need for hope in life and besides I know the only true Hope-giver! I was able to share my testimony as well many verses from scripture regarding the only way to have hope and when we gave a opportunity for salvation 10 people came and repented from their sin and began a relationship with Jesus! It never ceases to amaze me when I witness the miracle of people going from death to life!
In the middle of all this, as I was studying for a message at the local Panera, I met a retired pastor named Alan Beaver who has also been doing prison ministry for a number of years with a ministry called Kairos. This ministry does 3 1/2 day weekend in prisons in 35 states and 9 other countries. They have various teams from the areas around each particular prison who get together regularly to train and pray for the upcoming weekends in their prisons. Alan invited me to a meeting for the local Kairos group who goes into Zephyrhills Correctional Institute. When I went I was able to meet with around 20-25 people who have a heart to see peoples life radically changed with the Gospel of Christ! It was a awesome time of worship, prayer and fellowship! At this meeting I also heard of an upcoming volunteer training put on by the Florida Department of Corrections in Tampa this last Friday. I was able to go to that and hand in my application to be approved by the Department of Corrections. The Chaplain who lead the training said that it shouldn't be a problem to get approved as a volunteer and I would be able to get into all 56 prisons down here!
None of this is by chance of course! God has a plan! But the enemy hates it. It has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs since we have been here. The sale of our house just fell through so we have to put it back on the market which also had to put our house hunt down here on hold and the brakes just went out on my truck right when I got to that training in Tampa. These problems are hard but temporary though because in the scope of things just the people so far that have accepted Jesus it is totally worth it!
Please keep us in your prayers and keep looking up because our redemption draweth nigh!
In Christ we stand!