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mapachito13 -> RE: New Doxology (9/9/2008 6:31:28 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: colliefan I used three of their songs in our study on humility tonight. I alway try and open withe Rev 12:11 Rev 12:11 (HCSB) 11 They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not love their lives in the face of death.£ I tell them to give their stories of how their stories of how God gave (and is giving) them power of the sins that led them to prison. Those stories woven together with the other ladies is what will keep them while they are in prison and will keep them free once they are released. The power of community is what they, and all of us, need. During the testimony time, one young woman said that she has been smoking crack since she was eight, and her family thought it was cute when she was stoned. Pray for the ladies. We have a wide open door to give a "Free on the Inside" Bible to every female inmate in NC. There is always a great deal of tears and pain in the room, Since I am a guy, I have to be very careful how I aproach the ladies when they are sobbing uncontrolably. In these cases, I place a firm hand on their shoulder and just say "God loves you more than you can ever imagine." I can just imagine how hard it is to do that ministry at times. The stories you hear just break my heart. I did youth ministry for eight years. Since we we just outside East Los Angeles we dealt with people and problems relating to drugs, gangs, we even had physical and sexual abuse problems among some of the members. I am sure you deal with that and more. We experienced our successes when the gang bangers left that lifestyle and we even had one that ended up being the cub scout troop leader at the church. But we also had the heartbreak of failure. One of our long term ex-members ended his life in suicide two weeks before his wedding. We found out too late that he suffered and was being treated for depression. He and his mother are close friends of our family. That one was very hard to take. Especially when every time I talked to him he was always upbeat. I guess he disguised his extreme pain with a smile. I will keep you and your ministry in my prayers! God bless!
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