Sunday, June 18, 2000
11:49 AM, on the computer
Well, Julie (my sister) has left for Peru for 2 months. As of now, she's got 49 days left. We've gotten two phone calls from her, and so far (in about two weeks) over 300 people have given their lives to Jesus, and today Julie had an amazing story. A deaf man wanted to give his life to the Lord, and Julie, knowing sign language, led him in the sinners' prayer in sign. Afterwards, the man said he wanted to hear, and Julie laid her hands on him and prayed for him... and the man heard.
In other words God healed a deaf man through my sister.
Is that cool or what? Glory be to Jesus!!
Well anyway some people are wondering how I've been. I'm doing just great! Life at Fred's is going well, the pay is nice and I work with some nice people. My assistant manager is especially cool, and he and I have been kicking each other to kingdom already here at Command & Conquer: Red Alert for the past few nights.
Some of you are wondering what my reaction is to the "friend" that signed my guestbook. My response? "Eh, whatever, God Bless 'em anyway..." I'm not offended at all, in fact I laughed my butt off and felt blessed. The only worry I experience was worry for whoever wrote that. They said that I need help cause I hear Jesus talking to me... well I think they (and the people at my church agree) that they need help cause they CAN'T hear Jesus talking to them...
Speaking of blessings, I've joined a jail ministry. Basically on Sunday morning I go into a jail pod (each pod having 20-30 inmates) and preach the Good News to people, and I must say I was surprised at the amount of hunger people have for the Word in jail cells! My church's youth pastor and I went into two pods today, and the first pod was so attentive... it was really cool being able to share hope to those guys, and I feel that I made some friends too.
The second pod was a bit more personal, it was only two guys (everyone else was asleep) and Grant and I talked to them on a personal level. In the other pod I didn't say much (in fact none) but in this one I talked for a while and I gave my testimony to them and to Grant also because he'd never heard it. But we shared the Lord with them for a while, and after we were finished I headed home because it was ten til noon. Grant and I were at the county jail for about three hours! But people there, they're so different... I wonder if it's what my sister's experiencing in Peru. People are so hungry and they'll run up to you wanting to hear things... and I doubt I'll ever see people scramble trying to get tracts. Most of the people we talked to were already believers that Grant had already minstered to personally, but He led one person to Jesus today and I've NEVER seen a look of peace on a man's face. As I left though, I actually sort of envied the inmates, because in the cell there were no distractions and they could study the Bible endlessly for their sentence. I felt such peace in there, it was strange... and some of the people we met were as gentle as kittens, they had just made a few mistakes. One guy was busted for "stealing" a test-driven car from a car lot, and he was gone too long and the cops were called on him. Another person we talked to was a young teen from a sister church of ours, and it was so sad seeing him in there. He had a problem with his temper, and someone provoked him to a fight and there he ended up, with a small misdemeanor charge. As much as it seemed a blessing to be able to study without distraction from the world, it was horrible in the fact that aside from all the preachers that were there (nine in all, including myself)... THIS was the only access these guys had to the Word of God except from their own pod Bible studies.
I'm definitely going back again... I had a good time, but it's mostly for those guys. I feel so led to do so, and I know the Lord's behind it because I had a friend in church ask me to come by his place so he could give me some dressy clothes to wear, and I had been thinking earlier that I needed extra clothes to preach in! Praise the Lord!!
Lately I've changed my philosophy a little... I've been listening to some tapes by Chris Owensby, an amazing evangelist and a man I admire greatly (he was also the man that called me "apostle" in front of the congregation) and I've been really ministered to by his tapes. I've learned that if I just preach Jesus then I can't go wrong. So that's just what I'm gonna do, and if the world's got a problem... well tough. *grins* AJ's here to stay and the world can just take it like castor oil.... the devil's got a me-shaped thorn in his butt, and the Holy Spirit's just gonna drive it deeper through the Word! Peace to all who read this, and God Bless!!!