Crusade testimony from donna
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The We Care Crusade has come and gone for another
year. I thought it would never get here, and then it came and went so fast
my head is still spinning. We prayed the Lord would be available, and He
showed up in a big way. For me it was a time of rubber meeting the road
because I had never been a team leader before and did not know exactly
what to expect being in charge. I just decided to relax and let the Lord
do just whatever He wanted to do, and He did a much better job than I
could have ever imagined.
My team of eight volunteers went into the new prison, Montgomery Women's Facility, which houses approximately 300 women. Anna Miller and I have been working in this prison since early November 2007 and have made some great connections with many ladies there. |
The first day of Crusade I took Pat into the dorm with me to see how the ladies
live and to do a little visiting. She was a natural at that, and it was a little
hard to get her out (just kidding). We invited everyone we spoke with to the
evening service, and thirty-five came out. The next day I took nineteen-year-old
twins into
the dorm with me,
and the inmates were so taken with them it was hard to move on to the next bed.
Everyone wanted to talk to them,
and they were called innocent, angels and nuns by the inmates. They
did have a very pure look and appeared
to
be about fourteen.
I lost track of them several times,
but they were just fine on their own. I felt as if I were with celebrities. We
invited the inmates to the service and handed
out flyers with a
picture of the music group,
a family of twelve.
Their four-year-old son
was
the highlight of the evening. That night we had seventy
in attendance. The
women are so drawn to the children.
When
I arrived at the motel to pick up the team the third day,
Pat announced that the
team wanted to go into the dorm
where the women were housed. WELL!
I did not want to do that because I was concerned the officers would
think it too difficult,
as
they have to keep
each one of us under constant surveillance while we are in the dorm.
After some
consideration I decided they would
kick us out if it got to be too much for them,
so
in we went, all eight
of us. The officers did not say a word. We circulated for a couple of
hours,
praying with the ladies, visiting (friendship ministry) and making sure all were
invited out to the service that night as we were going to have a drama team and
a speaker. It was a good evening,
and the drama team really spoke to the hearts of the ladies. Pat even shared a
bit of testimony.
The last day was the best of all the
days.
When we arrived at
the prison, we heard
there had been a very nasty fight between several ladies in the dorm just
after we left the previous evening.
Apparently things were stirred up most of the night. All of
us were still allowed in the dorm even though tensions was
still high
between the officers and inmates.. We prayed and walked through the dorm
as much as possible,
but several times the guards called for lock down which means everyone was to
get on their beds and be quiet. Finally they eased up and the ladies were
allowed to move around freely. We took several ladies out to the visitation room
and played some games for an hour before
going in to eat. Afterwards we spent some time in prayer and relaxation
before the evening service began.
This last night we were scheduled to have the Yoder Family and Pat's brother,
Richard Heatwole.
We were excited that they had scheduled the "best for last."
WELL,
the Yoder family connected immediately with the ladies and we had a wonderful
time of worship. Then Richard had a great message on purity. It just could not
have been a better combination,
and the ladies responded to the altar
call by giving their hearts back to God and receiving
deliverance from bondages in their lives.
It was a
holy time, and there was not a dry eye in the place (that's the way we
like it). God is good! Thank you all for praying.
Pat has a theory that the 350 volunteers who came had at least one
prayer
partner praying for them personally,
an average of two family members back home and a supportive congregation.
If
the average church has
150members,
52,500
people were
praying.
Add
it all up and you get a whopping 55,000 persons praying all over the United
States and Canada for the Crusade.
I
don't know how accurate that figure
is,
but isn't
it fun to think about?
I
love you and hope to have a visit home this summer.
Donna
Wyatt
Note:
PMC has commissioned Donna to serve a two-year term as assistant chaplain
of women’s prisons in Montgomery with
We Care Prison Ministries based in Atmore, Alabama