When I Was In Prison.... SUMite, You Visited Me.
May 21, 2017
The last few questions of the Survey were about attending some of our events. Such as a conference, a virtual classroom or one of our charity events. As one of the leaders of our SUM community, I’m personally overwhelmed each and every time we offer or host one of these kind of events. These events are where names on a screen become people in front of me. I SEE JESUS IN YOUR EYES. I have so much love for you that I could burst with hope and joy.
My favorite event of all time was the Wal-Mart prayer event. Still, to this day, I’m deeply impacted by two things from that day. One, the utter generosity of our community who gave to provide gift cards and flowers to the patrons that day and also prayed. Two, those who stopped to receive prayer outside of Walmart on a warm Thursday morning a few years ago. You can read about it here if you have time.
We haven’t offered an event like this since because I truly wait to hear from the Holy Spirit. And you know what?
IT’S TIME. It’s time again to be a community who reaches people with the hope we have discovered through Jesus.
A few weeks ago, I asked friends of mine who has a ministry to our local women's prison if they would be interested in a donation of our some books, Winning Them With Prayer, for the women? Both her and her husband were THRILLED and replied with thankful surprise and resounding, YES! They went on to tell how desperately they needed a prayer book.
A couple of years ago I actually met a woman from this prison. She was a woman who had been recently saved then released and was staying with the couple I mentioned, until she found a job. I listened as she gave her testimony. I bawled through most of it. You see, she was my age. She wasn’t born into the life that I was blessed with. She was born into abuse. In and out of jail for drug abuse, violence, theft and few other things. She looked haggard with skin and teeth suffering the years of drugs and her voice was graveled from chain smoking. But I looked at her and wept….. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN ME.
Many women such as this one, come to faith right there while doing time because of the prison ministry. They study and read the Bible. They pray and then they worry and cry. Many of them fear their release as they must return into very difficult situations and to family members who are far away from Christ. Friends, they make our unequally yoked marriages look easy.
The ministry works diligently to equip them as fast as they can so they don’t lose their faith when they leave prison. It’s a monumental task. So when I offered the prayer book, the ministry leader was thrilled. (I wish you could have seen her face.)
Now what is also interesting is that within a few weeks following my offer to the prison, a SUMite made a large donation to our ministry to cover the cost of the first shipment of books. God is so cool. And thank you to that SUMite because your donation will have eternal ramifications on families who are in desperate need.
So SUMites, we have an opportunity to give another set of books to another prison ministry. Will you think about giving $5, $10 or $20 toward these women?
Or would you consider giving a recurring donation monthly of $5, $10 or $20 to our SUM ministry to be used to pay for the postage of books, the internet expenses and the furthering of the SUMite ministry to other countries. We need to get our books translated and published in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and few other languages. These expenses are simply way outside of what Dineen and I can afford.
God is telling me that it’s time that the "church" embrace us, the spiritually mismatched. It’s time for us to step up and be a missionary for others besides our family. And we can do it.
Pray and ask the Lord, Can I make a small donation monthly?
AND a GIANT THANK YOU to all of you who already give. We are utterly thankful and use every penny for further the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let your heart guide you. And if you can’t give, pray for the women in the prisons that these books transform their faith life and families as ours is transformed. In Jesus name. AMEN
There are two buttons below to choose from and consider:
This button is for a donation of any amount to our 501c3, tax-deductible Non-profit Ministry, Three Keys Ministries. To give to the book ministry, use the button beneath it.
The button below is to make a donation to the same ministry but specifically to give to the prison book ministry. THANK YOU. Lynn & Dineen