January 6,1998
Dear Br. Cook:
Since I last wrote to you, Sevilla and I moved to Mountain City which is snuggled into the corner between North Carolina and Virginia. We live along the Eastern shore of Lake Watagua, just ten miles from Boone, NC.
The church, we attend, started a prison ministry several years
ago for the inmates of the NE Corrections Facility, a medium and
minimum security prison that houses approximately 1500 men.
I had the opportunity to attend several worship services at the
prison and meet a man whose name is Willy Sparks, a fine Christian
gentleman. Tall, over six foot, close cropped hair, well proportioned,
he is in prison for life because of a murder he committed thirteen
years ago. Sentenced to death, he spent eight years on death row
until, as a result of prayer, his sentence was commuted to life
in prison.
While on death row, he was converted, although he was a member
of the church before his imprisonment, he was even studying for
the ministry.
He told the Lord, that if He would preserve his life, he would
serve Him in whatever way he could, and he has kept his bargain.
He preaches several times a month, plays the piano and keyboard,
studies his Bible faithfully, and lives and witnesses for Christ
as the opportunity arises.
He is perfectly alone, his immediate family has abandoned him,
however, the Lord has become his family, his brother and sister.
As you probably know, being a Christian in prison isn’t easy.
Several months ago, he and another friend, were attacked in an
unprovoked incident that landed them in solitary confinement for
several weeks.
Talking with Willy on several occasions, outside of the worship
environment, I had the opportunity to learn about prison life,
its difficulties and limitations. One thing, I have learned, through
his experience, is that it is possible to live for Christ despite
the circumstances.
While on death row, he confided to me, that he would have lost
his mind over the repeated stays of execution, were it not for
the sustaining love of the Lord. He saw other men become insane
while waiting execution who did not have the consolation of the
Lord to preserve them.
While I still cannot understand the actual experience of life
in prison, having visited the prison and talked to Willy, I have
a better appreciation of what you must be experiencing.
As I said in my previous letters, you are not forgotten but remain
in our prayers. I hope you are not becoming cynical or bitter
about your experiences but can maintain a cheerful attitude and
cooperative spirit despite the hardships you encounter. So many
other men and women who find themselves incarcerated, develop,
over time, a hard spirit that they carry with them when they are
released.
Be encouraged, brother Bob, the sun still shies, and the sky is
blue; the grass grows, and the snow melts because God is in full
control of the affairs of men and women. He permits nothing to
happen that is not for our best good. While I often wonder at
this statement, I believe it to be true. God is not responsible
for your imprisonment, nor for Willy’s incarceration, but
He can and does brighten our day and makes the consequences of
our actions easy to endure if we place our complete trust in Him.
Do you have needs that we can supply? Please let us know if we
can help to make your life more enjoyable and your conditions
more tolerable. While we cannot provide money, we can help in
other ways if we know of your needs.
Several years ago, we read two books about missionaries who worked
in the primitive jungles of Equidor. They both encountered incredible
hardships, mud, rain, scarcity of the basics of life, but their
attitudes were vastly different. One woman, while slogging through
the mud, saw the flowers, while the other woman, mired in the
same mud, saw only the mud. One was blessed and blessed others,
while the other was miserable and of little blessing to anyone
else.
Keep looking up, away from the filth and mud of this world at
your heavenly home and your loving Father. Satan will tempt you
into complaining and criticism of he is allowed, knowing this
will harden your spirit against the love and mercy of the Lord.
Tell him to be gone when he whispers doubt and bitterness into
your ears.
May you prosper and grow in grace and shine as the Son of Righteousness.
Your brother in Christ.
Allen A. Benson