Praises
· God’s abundant
goodness in providing for all my needs.
· The Holy Spirit’s work
in the lives of the ladies
who truly hunger
and thirst for righteousness.
· The rich and loving
friendships I have found within the We Care family.
Prayer
Requests
· Chaplain
Smallwood-Brown who was recently married and has some key
decisions to make.
· The ladies in the
Faith/Honor Dorm at Julia Tutwiler as
they face obstacles to maintaining the integrity of their various
faiths.
· The ladies attending the
“Pathway To Freedom” class at the Montgomery Women’s Facility who
are being stretched and called to a deeper spiritual relationship with
God and each other.
· That God will work out
the details of moving back to Virginia in December
for Sheila and I which includes
arranging a moving van and finding a house.
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These are hard words to learn to
say when we have wronged another person, but we had a wonderful thing
happen in the Montgomery Women’s Facility recently that gave
two inmates opportunity to learn this valuable lesson.
Chaplain
Miller and I have been teaching a class for a year now called “Pathway
to Freedom.” We were growing discouraged after hearing about some of
the selfish and self-serving decisions the ladies in the class were
making.
Then,
two weeks ago, a heated argument erupted in class between two of the
inmates. It ended with one of the ladies leaving the class in tears.
After she had gone, we asked the rest of the class what could be done to
help this situation. No one could come up with anything so I asked the
ladies if they would be willing to pray and ask the Lord what He
would have them
do. The group included the
other lady involved in the tiff. They all said they would and we prayed
together.
The next week as I walked into the prison I saw one of the two
ladies who had been in the argument sitting on her bed, so I went to
her, and asked how she was. She gave me a very big smile and said
everything was fine. But when I asked her what she did to get the
problem resolved she said she basically ignored the other lady and just
let it go.
I
realized then that if these ladies were going to see this was not
the way to handle a dispute in a Christ-like manner I had my work cut
out for me, especially when she interrupted my thoughts with "Oh,
but I was nice to her, I even passed her the salt at the lunch
table."
Later
that day, Chaplain Miller and I
asked both of the ladies to write down their view of what happened and
what they planned to do to resolve it. Each one wrote out her side of
the story for us.
As
Chaplain Miller and I read over them, we realized the concepts of
humility and for forgiveness were completely foreign to these ladies.
I am also teaching the “Purpose Driven Life” at the Julia
Tutwiler prison and it
just so happens that
our last study was on restoring
relationships. I shared the lesson with
both ladies, encouraging them to pray and ask the Lord show them, in
light of His Word, how He wanted them to respond.
At the start
of the next class at Montgomery, one
of the ladies involved in the
argument came in and took her seat right beside the other inmate from
the argument who was already seated.
Noticing there were several other empty seats, and seeing where she
decided to sit, I got excited and hopeful.
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After
class, both ladies accepted responsibility for their actions by
admitting to each other that they were wrong, asked forgiveness, then
with very big smiles, gave each other a hug.
This was huge! Chaplain Miller and I realized that you can
teach all day long for many years but until the ladies grab hold of and
put into practice the Truths
in God’s Word, they are
not going to grow. They will only be acquiring
more knowledge (which “puffs up”).
Chaplain
Miller and I were very proud of these ladies and we told them so.
Growing and maturing is hard but these ladies were willing to try. God
really wants these ladies to understand the principle of forgiveness and
He showed us with the help of the Holy Spirit, they can. †
An Awesome
Blessing
Recently, as I was contemplating the end of
my 2 year term with We Care, I was presented with an offer that
was too good to refuse. Sovereign Cruises, a Christian cruise line,
had a cruise scheduled for the end of November that was geared
especially for chaplains, and for a limited time, they were deeply
discounting the cost.
I signed up immediately excited at the prospect of not only
getting to go on a cruise to the Bahamas but attending the classes
geared especially for prison ministry. Miss Miller also signed up a few
days later but was told that she would have to pay full price for her
room unless she found someone to share the expense as there was not
another single with which to pair her.
My friend, Sheila, offered to share the cost with Anna
if she would be allowed to take advantage of the discount. The
company agreed.
To accommodate the cruise, I have extended my
time with We Care by three months bringing
my term of service to an end in November. We
will head for the Bahamas the last week of November, return to
pack up our things and then head back to Virginia in early December.
By Donna Wyatt |
