Life in His Hand

So many people come and go. I am simply amazed that I have managed to stay somewhat connected with two young inmates for almost four years. The letters are infrequent and I practically quit before each letter I write, but usually what happens is I receive one. So today I got a letter from Josiah. Unfortunately, much time has passed since I've heard from him and he actually had surgery on his foot. I seriously wish I could turn this into a ministry by just putting more effort into it. Writing more often. Trying to offer whatever encouragement I can. I'm not here to judge, I don't even know what they are in for, but Jesus says to visit those in prison. So I do this for Him... but I need to take it off the back-burner. Maybe I am the only positive influence they have. Hope not, but prison's a pretty dreary place. I also have had family in jail and prison and so I know some of them just have made mistakes. Maybe God has given them into my hands... if that's true, I am...

I received a letter from an inmate named David. We had only written to each other a couple of times...before I sort of flaked. I think I probably did write the last letter, about a year ago or so. A few months back, when I decided to write to all the inmates asking whether they wanted to start writing again, I sent a letter to David. And about a month later the letter was returned to me. I figured he must have been moved to another prison. So as you can imagine I was quite surprised to see that letter come in the mail a couple of weeks ago. And for a moment  (a senior moment!), I thought he was answering the letter I had sent him, and then I remembered that he never received it. So I was really happy to hear from him. He explained he had been busy trying to get things together for when he gets out in 18 months. But truth be told, I should have been making an effort to write to him and wasn't. I told him he had great timing and about the returned letter. Some ...

In a fairly recent post, And My Heart Melts... , I wrote of my involvement with a Christian prison letter-writing ministry. Click here- Someone Cares - to find out how you can write and encourage people. The program is safe as you and they use the ministry's address and you can use a pen-name. I certainly know that this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it is an easy way to make a difference in someone's life, so I think it's worth my sharing the info just in case you may have an interest. I sent out 5 "fishing" letters to see if any of my abandoned prisoners still wanted to write. Jack, from deathrow, which I had tried to get rematched well over a year ago (they never rematched him, but sent his info back to me, with a note that they needed me), Bobby, and Bucky all wrote back saying that yes, they wanted to write again, Bobby wondering why I stopped writing. One letter came back, undelivered. And the one I had hoped for, Josiah, didn't come. I didn...

Another decision to make. There seems to always be another decision to make. And the problem I am having with that is that I am very...VERY indecisive. So today's dilemma is about a ministry that I got involved in several years ago. When I was wanting to reach out to people, I heard about a Christian (SDA) prison letter-writing ministry called "Someone Cares Prison Ministry." It was safe because you sent your letter to the ministry and they sent it to the prisoner and they did the same. You could also have a pen-name. They gave you helpful guidelines on how to write to prisoners. So I decided to go ahead and try it. I used to write letters to my cousins and had been writing "letters" to God in a prayer-journal for many years. So I thought...I can do this. I can encourage someone. And I wasn't naive about prisoners. The ministry is also very upfront with the prisoners. Wow, sounds like I'm about to tell you how horrible it was. But I'm not. There...