New Bibles- Revelation- Muslims?

From Mike:

So we headed to Futch unit last night.  This group of boys is in a much more secure, much more isolated area of the prison. The room is darker, and there are more guards.

When we got there, the Superintendent of the whole prison was there, reprimanding one of the young men about something. About four of the young men came over and shook our hands and then said they would stay. Two others who were playing a video game also decided to stay. We had five Bibles with us so we sat down with them and told them a little bit about the Bibles. A couple of them said they had Bibles. Susie talked about how these were study Bibles and could help them understand the word of God and they were much more interested.

We asked them some information about themselves. One of the young men was born in 1994 and has not had his 17th birthday yet. Some of them expect to get out soon, but didn't really have firm dates. We asked them to write thank you notes, which they did. It was (as usual) a very interesting process, watching them struggle with words, ask for help with spelling and trying to figure out how to put names on an envelope. Whose name goes on the outside? Where does my name go?

As we were wrapping up the cards, Susie said "Mike will share from the Bible with you guys." One young man sitting next to me said, "Can you give us a revelation?" So - I opened the book of Revelation and started to read.  I shared Rev. 3:11 where Jesus shares about coming soon. How he wants us to hold fast to Him, how He will make us pillars of the temple of God. How He will write on us the name of my God and how He will bring the new Jerusalem from Heaven when He returns. I read from verse 17 where Jesus talks about people who think they are rich but are really poor. Where Jesus says we can get gold from Him. I shared with them how the gold we get from Jesus will never perish. How so many people in this world think they are rich, but in their souls they are poor. And then we talked about verse 20...Jesus Knocking at the door. How he wants to come into you. He wants to eat with you. He wants to live in you.  The young man who asked for the Revelation says, "How does that happen!" We are off to coming to Jesus - To admitting we have sinned. We talked about how that is an archery term. How it means to miss the mark. How God judges us by his standards, not the worlds standards. How God wants us to turn away from sin and turn to Him. How God doesn't see one kind of sin as different from another, how gossip and murder are the same in God's eyes. How man sees one kind of thing as worth going to prison for and one kind of doing wrong as ok. But God sees sin as sin and how I have to ask for forgiveness every day for my sins. Then the young man who asked for revelation said, "I am a Muslim, but I want to hear about God." I told him, "We want you to hear about God too, that is why we come. We will always share with you from the word of God." Then the guard came in and said time to go.

We really need your prayers for this group of young men. They are very isolated. In fact the guard said on our way out that this group is not allowed to associate with any of the other young men in the prison. They normally don't get to go to the facility-wide events. They don't get visited by other groups who come in.

So..how did Mike and Susie end up there? Because the prison invited us. But in reality because God wanted us to. We are so blessed to be used by God in this way.

Thanks again for your prayers, your donations, your love and mercy.

From Susie:

Futch Unit is much different than Gibbs.  The youth on Futch Unit all have a significant psychiatric diagnosis and typically are violent offenders.  It is a challenging group, to say the least.  But Mike and I were asked to start visiting Futch Unit and we've now been there for three visits.  The first night, we met 2 boys - Paul and Tristian.  The second night, our friend Tom went with Mike and they only met with Paul.  Last night Mike and I met with seven boys.

It was wonderful to distribute Bibles on Futch last night and to hear Mike reading from Revelation in that dark place.  Christopher (the Muslim) stared intently at Mike as he read.

Paul wrote a beautiful thank you card for his new Bible:

Thank you for the Bible. I hear from your friend that you are a good friend and you love god. Stay with god and god bless you.  I been with god for a while.  I will keep you in my prayer and you can keep me in your prayer.  I will pray for you ever time I will pray for your kids too god will bless you ever day and I was going to ask you can you write me I want to get to know you if it is all right with you I am a nice kid your friend likes me and I like her and her husband Thank you for your verse in the bible Thank you for ever thing god bless you always be in the word can you write me back I would like to get to know you real well.

So god love the world he gave his begone son who shall not perish but have ever lasting life.

As you can see, we are now entering the prison weekly - Gibbs unit every other Thursday, Futch unit every other Tuesday.  Our friend Tom is now visiting Marshall Unit every other Thursday also and our friend Renee has just gotten full clearance to start entering with us and with Tom.

Thank you again and again for the beautiful Study Bibles for the boys.  Thank you for your prayers for them, for the facility and for us. 

Learning to love like Jesus,

Mike and Susie

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Prayer Request

Please pray for us as we establish new relationships on Futch Unit.  Pray that the boys hearts will be open and ready when we visit and that they will be respectful to each other while we are there.  Pray for the staff's safety on Futch Unit as they have to deal with violence frequently.  Pray for Mike and I, that we will enter Futch unit with the Lord's confidence and boldness and have the eyes, heart and compassion of Jesus as we talk to the boys.

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