Hit and run

I met "Andy" last Friday. He has a Christian background, but fell away. "I was doing good until I stopped going to Bible studies and stopped praying," he told me. "I got into using and selling drugs. Then one day I was at my girlfriend's house. She got mad at for something and started hitting me. I fought back. I'm in here for assault. I know what I did was wrong. There's no excuse for it."

"A few days before that, I had been riding my bike and I got hit by a car. My knees are in terrible pain and I can't bend them."

We talked about the verse that says, "Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16). He repented of the sins that the Lord brought to his mind, including drug dealing and hitting his girlfriend. I then prayed for his knees. There was not an instant healing, but I'm believing God will heal him.

"I'd really like to be a youth pastor some day," he told me later. "My pastor told me that I work really well with kids. I do enjoy it."

Pray that Andy's life will be turned around, and that he will fulfill God's calling on his life.

Salvación

By Dave:

As soon as I entered the unit, Abe came up to me and wanted to talk. I have been trying to learn a little Spanish so that I can initiate conversations with Spanish-speaking people. I know I'll never be fluent, but it's a great conversation starter. To my surprise this unit has been mostly populated with Spanish-speaking inmates.

Abe and I sat down, and in short order several others joined us. It was interesting conversation as I tried as best I could to keep up the dialog with my Spanish. We all had a blast trying to improve my Spanish. Finally, we did some talking and praying in English. In the end everyone left except for a man named Ramon. Well, there we were, and Ramon got serious about the things of the Lord, and said he needed to get his life turned around. I shared the gospel with him, and Ramon understood (in plain English) what he needed to do. Ramon became a saved man.

Salvations and mockings

From Dave:

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At the correctional facility, I sat down with Clarence. We started out the evening with a lot of sharing about the Lord. After a while, Clarence had to leave for an AA class and said, "I'll see you again; we have to continue this conversation."

By the time Clarence had returned from his class, Ryan and I were talking. Clarence joined us and then reminded me that we were going to continue our conversation about the Lord Jesus. Well, here we were, (Clarence, Ryan , and myself), and yes we all continued to share about the Lord and when it came decision time, both Ryan and Clarence received the Lord.

Ron, another man who came to Christ earlier that evening, joined the three of us. In a rather short period of time, Ron, Clarence, Ryan, and myself were having a nice, not so quiet prayer session, and it attracted a curious group. And all at once, across the Mod unit, there arose an inmate that was mocking our little prayer group. There were now two groups (the mocker group, and our little prayer group), and the unit deputy came over and got between us. Things settled down! I decided it was time to say my good-byes and graciously left.
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You know, I've noticed that sometimes the people who mock the loudest are the ones who are closest to receiving Christ. Praise God for these salvations, and pray that the mockers would get saved, too.