Amazing Grace

How amazing God's grace is! There are times when I definitely take it for granted. Yesterday was prison ministry day. I woke up with a horrid sinus headache and considered not going, but it had been a few weeks and didn't want to be unfaithful. I nursed the headache and got myself going.

At the church, we found that our order had come in and a letter from one of the inmates. She was about to get out and sent all of her correspondence material back to us along with a letter to our pastor. She gave her testimony and shared how the correspondence course was encouraging her growth. It was such a sweet blessing to know God is using these Bible courses in the hearts of these women. We have hit the point now where several are finishing up. I think we have about 5 that are done with this first series. They are so excited about earning a certificate! That little punch really wound us up for our time in the ministry.

After our first pod, we met a lady new to the facility. She shared her story which I am going to share in a much condensed version: She divorced a few years back which plummetted her into alcoholism and landed her in Bossier Max with three DUI offenses. In the meantime she has lost all of her children to child welfare services and her oldest is in jail accused of child molestation. He is 18. Her son got wrapped up in pornography around the age of 16 which escalated in to the sexual abuses of his cousins. As she shared this burden, how her family got there, and the oppression her entire family had been suffering for many years...all I could do was listen knowing if it weren't for grace....her story could be my story. This ministry slaps me in the face with the truth of how desperate we all are, how vulnerable we are to the pull of addictions and abuses, how easy it is to get off the right road and detour down a road that leads to destruction....if it wasn't for grace.

In the next pod, was one of our ladies that had been all over the news this past week. She has been in there around 10 months and is incredibly faithful to our Bible studies and does the correspondence course as well. She was accused of hiring a contract killer to kill her husband. We were a bit dumbfounded by that-never having imagined she was in there for THAT! Her court date came up and at the last minute changed her plea from not guilty to guilty. We wondered if she would say something to us, and she did. She said when she got to court, God had been so convicting her heart, and she knew she was guilty. She couldn't enter a plea of not guilty. Wow....repentance is such a hard thing for these women to come to, and to see one take responsibility for what she has done is an amazing testimony that God is at work....amazing grace over and over and over. She knows she has confessed her actions, and God has forgiven her, and she is taking responsibility for the crime she committed! Yea!

If not for God......where would we all be.....Amazing Grace-how sweet the sound!