JAIL MINISTRY

This coming week we will again go to the County Jail to visit, pray with and for, inmates incarcerated for various offenses.
    
We are truly blessed to have a number of deacons, and laity that give of their time to visit these inmates.  For the deacons we of course go to visit the male  inmates, and there is a separate ministry of lay women who visit with the female inmates.
    
The response to this ministry by the inmates, has been for the most part, very positive. This has been a much needed, and ongoing ministry now for many years.  For myself, personally I was totally out of my comfort zone when I first became part of this ministry, but really over time, it has come to be one of my  favorites.  We have seen what this means to those who need to hear that there is another road they can take in life, and that it is not too late to turn back, go to that fork in the road of life, and take the narrow path.
    
One specific story that I will mention is about Mike (not his real name).  Mike came up to me, outside of the jail, and told me who he was and how much the ministry had changed his life.  I did not remember Mike at the time, because there are so many that you see over the years, but he remembered me coming with other Deacons, and lay personal to talk to several inmates.     
                                                                      
Mike did spend a fair amount of time in jail, but  after finding the Lord and committing himself to him, he has found, and married the love of his life, and now has two beautiful little girls.  He has turned his life around because someone took the time to visit him when he needed it most.                                                

 Please continue to pray for these inmates, for it is at this level that we can more easily reach them.

 “I was in prison and you visited me.”  
(Matthew 25:35-40)