Friday, May 09, 2014

Sharing the Good News: Prisoner Rescue Mission Update

Direction for Our Times





Prisoner Rescue Mission Update

Thanks to your generous response to our request for financial support, we were able to cover the expense of mailing out all pending back orders of the Heaven Speaks to Prisoners booklets! You are the best! Together we are making a difference in the lives of many prisoners. Below is a report from Justin Sofio and below that is a video of Ryan with a Good News Update. The letters keep coming. Prisoners are being blessed and healed so we have to keep working.
-Sincere Gratitude from the Prison Ministry Team
 
                    __________________________
 
DFOT Lebanon County Prison visit
By Justin Sofio
 
On April 29th, a rainy and overcast day, Father Darragh, Anne and myself visited with inmates at the Lebanon County Prison in Pennsylvania. A few months back I was contacted by a volunteer, John Siar, who visits the prison regularly, about obtaining the Heaven Speaks and Volumes for the inmates. DFOT will always make these books available to prisoners so we immediately sent him the requested materials. Over the next few months he continually ran out of DFOT materials and I could see Jesus opening a door for us at this prison…It was a steel bar, buzzer sounding, alarmed door…but still, it was opening and we paid attention.
The Chaplain of the prison, Rev. Marilyn had picked up one of our Heaven Speaks booklets providentially back in 2011 and liked it. So she was familiar with these books. This led to us spending 2.5 hours with three different groups of inmates. 
Anne spoke honestly and lovingly and highlighted that we are all imperfect. She reassured the prisoners that in the eyes of heaven they do not stand out at all and explained to them that many people understand that there is a lot of injustice in our justice system.
So many of the prisoners were suffering from a temptation to despair. Anne spoke about hope, the spiritual life, heaven and understanding that while we are on earth each of us will feel condemned and betrayed and experience injustice and obviously suffer. This is the human experience. It happens to each of us. On the flip side Anne asked if we had ever participated in these things against another person? Every hand went up. My hand went up. Again, we are imperfect. 
So many of the prisoners have had people label them as “bad”. We watched a look of relief come over them as Anne explained the danger of dualistic thinking and how this is not what Jesus wants from us. Dualistic thinking is the idea that people are either all bad or all good. The truth is we each do bad things and we each do good things and we are all somewhere in the middle. It is inaccurate and unfair to label someone as all good or all bad. 
What struck me the most was how honest some of the prisoners were. “I don’t want to make excuses for my actions” said one prisoner as Anne spoke about understanding our humanity. Anne agreed and said while we do not want to make excuses, we need to be able to understand why we committed certain actions so that we do not do so again. Anne went on in explaining how you should not separate your humanity from your sins: I was afraid and then I did this, I was tired and then I did this. I was abused and I did this. I was hurt emotionally and addicted and then I committed this action and some other actions. Make sense? 
The day wrapped up with prison guards yelling, doors buzzing and slamming and the prisoners being herded out; but Jesus had reached them and we were thankful. We continue to make any needed materials available to prisoners and thank each of you for your financial contribution to make that possible. The prison door opening is just the beginning so stay tuned for our updates. Jesus is doing big things. Lives are being changed and we get a steady stream of letters from prisoners here at our office. 
 
 
 
Thx for your support lay apostles ! There are positive responses from prisoners already coming in. 
Support Prison Projects in Your Area: 
 
-DONATE TO PRISON MINISTRY PROJECT (HERE)
 
-BUY MIST OF MERCY (HERE) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 







Direction For Our Times relies on donations to supplement the cost of publishing the messages. Currently, only 40% of the publishing cost is covered by the sale of the books. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.



Direction for Our Times (DFOT) is a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to spreading God's messages as revealed in the Volumes.

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