Prayer Requests

This ministry is holding its first board meeting tomorrow, Thursday 2/23/06 at 7:00 p.m. Please keep us in your prayers, if you are so inclined.

Also, please pray for these brothers and sisters in need:

My good friend and extraordinary bassman Ray Cherry, and his family, who are saying good-bye to their father, Ray Sr. Please pray for them to find consolation in Christ Jesus, who died so that we may know life everlasting.

For Crisena Casey and her children, keep them safe until they are together again soon and reunite them to grow together in your grace and love.

For Yolandra Manuel, for encouragement and hope, to find her happiness in God's steadfast love, and for her grandmother Gwendolyn Dupree for strength and healing and hope. Keep them both safe while apart, and reunite them soon in your loving power.

For the women incarcerated in Brush Correctional Facility. Please let them feel our care and concern, and know your presence is real. Let them never feel alone.

For those who are in the Woodman Unit in Gatesville, TX. Help them find inspiration and hope and to support each other until each one may be reunited with family and friends.

For Katherine and Brett Buckmaster, separated by miles and razor wire, keep them close in spirit and love through your great power and love.

For all families of prisoners, trying to maintain business as usual, although their hearts are breaking for their sons or daughters, husbands or wives, their mothers or fathers. Help them feel the assurance that you are the glue that will help them hold it together, as long as it takes, as hard as it gets, you will be there with them. We give thanks for your steadfast love. Help us trust in you and turn to you in our times of need.

In the name of Jesus, the lamb, we pray. Amen.

Colossians 1:6-7

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed.



Awesome powerful God, creator of day and night, of all thing seen and unseen, you sent us your son Jesus Christ as a ransom for humankind, sacrificing your precious child so that we might be reconciled to you. We have accepted this priceless gift, now continue to build us up in Him and help our faith take root in our very being. May our every breath become a prayer of thanksgiving for the grace and love you have bestowed upon us.

We pray for Kayla Ziegler for protection and grace, provide for her abundantly, and keep her from harm's way. For her father Steve, we ask your blessing upon him, to strengthen him as he tries to right his path toward you, and for her mother Karen, provide wisdom and courage for her as she tries to help Kayla. Strenthen the family bonds they share, and help them live your redemptive love, supporting and nurturing one another, loving one another as Christ loves us.

For Charlene Allen and for Wallace Pittman for reassurance and inspiration. For Sabrina Williams and her sister Tonya, reconcile them and bring peace between them. Help them find forgiveness in their hearts, put aside the past, and find a new way to live as sisters and daughters of the most powerful, loving God. Bless them with your peace.

Herman Humber asks your blessing for his family, and for all those who are in prison with him. Let them feel your presence, and give them hope for the new day in Christ. Dairie Sherman in Kinder, LA asks for a blessing, lift her and inspire her with your refreshing Spirit.

For Ernest Cook, enlighten him and provide your words for him to share among your people, give him courage and wisdom, and help him to live up to the call that you have placed upon his heart.

We pray for Albert Mitchell, and for his family, for health and strength for all and for their reunification. Help bring them to be part of your body, the church.

For Irene Holland, for healing power to cleanse her body of all infirmity, to remove the cancer cells from her body if it is your will, and to provide strength and peace for her as she faces the journey to healing.

For these and all your children, we offer our prayers, and we seek your

Prayer Requests

"Our request is to have your ministry send each of us your calendar book devotional please and also pray for each of us. We will pray for your ministry. Pray that the Lord keeps on using me working through me and allow me to be filled with his word." Glenda Johns, Josie Martinez, Johnnie Mae Jones, Vanessa Lewis, Jeraldint Johnson, Noelia Nieto, Michele Parrish, Connie Larson

"My husband Lionires Rogelio Urias is really ill of cirrohsis of the liver. Could you please pray for him?" Diana Barrioz

"I am writting in my own behalf & need the good news of A New Day in Christ. I pray that through your daily devotional the words from God will bring forth light on anyone that is lost. I want to thank the staff & may God keep being a blessing to you all." Gilbert Espinoza

"I would like you to please pray for my family and me. My grandmother Ethel Herbert has been missing since Hurricane Katrina. Her body was just found 2/6/06. Please send a calendar to my family it would really mean a lot to them as well as myself. " Keanna Herbert

"I would like to say 'Thank You' for sending me this Devotional Calendar. ... Its just very sad that for some of us it take s us to get incarcerated to want to learn, or rejoice oin the Lord our Father." Regina Martin

"I would like for the church to say a prayer for every man and woman incarcerated in T.D.C. also their families, and I will also want a prayer for the men and women who are the corrections officers and their families. Thank you for everything and God bless the world." Paul Carrasco

"I would like to know if you could put me in your prayers. I have applied to attend a 12 month Christian program at "life Challenge" in Amarillo, TX. I am sure it is my lack of faith that has me worried I won't get to go. I am 35 years old and I am so lost in life. I h ave great parents, good brothers and sisters, and so on. The are so tired of my bad decisions, as am I. I am full of anger and hatred. To whom and for what I don't know. I am miserable, and looking for an answer....... Thank you for your devotional, and even more, thank you for your prayers." Loren Knight "My court date is March 2nd, 06."

"Please keep us in prayer that God would be excepted, and maybe I'd be granted the drug program that I am waitten for. At least a yes or no, cuz its really been killen me." Elmer Martinez

"Please pray for my 20 year old nephew, Manuel Salais. Also keep him in daily prayer as he's been hospitalized apprx 3 wks now due to lower left leg, he had surgery and had leg amputated. Is in a lot of pain. Pray also for my sister Robin Salais all she does is cry for her son. Also for my 26 year old son Chris Tafoya who has been locked up 5 years and has 4 more to be released. Pray for his well being." Joylene Tafoya

"Please keep me and the women of this facility and our families in your prayers." Juanita L. Keener

"We all love you for your concern and uplifting our spirits while we are all trying to draw nearer to God. Please keep each and every woman in this prison in yall prayer every moment. Thank you Holy Spirit and God is worthy to praise!" Sandra Hamel, Helma Kracht, Tonya Ocasio, Jeanna Cavender, Bonnie Chance, Tara Fox, Juanita Scanlon

"Would you please put my family on your prayer list? Thank you very much." Jessica Cooper

“Please I am asking you to pray for me and my children and a special prayer for my daughter’s dad, Greg. Sometimes I feel so hopeless and discouraged, I am worried and afraid of what is going to happen to me. I was deported back to Jamaica, but because I’ve got my 9 year old daughter here I tried to come back and got arrested, and they charge me for reentry, please pray for me that the Judge have some mercy on me please.” Bridgette Walker

"Please put me on your prayer list. I'm just down and out." Kerri Brown

"May the Lord Jesus continue to pour the abundance of h is divine love, peace, joy & protection on your wonderful church as prosperity rains down upon all the members and the entire church itself as one body (Numbers 6:22-27)>" Michelle McBride

"May God's love, peace and joy accompany your entire congregation and all those you touch! Paz!!! Amor!!! Esperanza!!!" Roland D. Najera

Fwd: "a very nice man."

A woman was at work when she received a phone call that her daughter was very sick with a fever. She left her work and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication. She got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys in the car. The woman looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been left on the ground, possibly by someone else who at some time had locked their keys in their car. She looked at the hanger and said, "I don't know how to use this."

She bowed her head and asked God to send her help. Within five minutes beat up old motorcycle pulled up, with a dirty, greasy, bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag on his head. The man got off of his cycle and asked if he could help. She said, "Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?"

He said, "Sure." He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was opened. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, "Thank You So Much! You are a very nice man." The man replied, "Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft and have only been out for about an hour." The woman hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out Loud, "Oh, Thank you God! You even sent me a Professional!"

(ba-dum-dum...crash!)



In October 1954, young Cassius Clay had his new bike stolen at the Louisville Service Club on Fourth and York streets, at the annual convention in Louisville. An angry Clay went in search of a policeman to report the crime, repeating “I’m gonna whup whoever stole it,” over and over. Cassius was directed down into the basement of the building where Joe Martin, a policeman and boxing trainer, was at the Colombia Gym. Martin told Clay that if he wanted to whup anyone, he had better learn how to fight first. The rest, as they say, is history as Clay, who later became Ali, went on to become the most famous sportsman in the world, winning multiple world heavyweight title fights and broadening the sports’ image around the world.

(ba-dum-dum...crash!)


Lighten up...

Break though with Good News...

Sometimes in our lives, the unescapable presence of our maker and creator seems like a small and insignificant thing. Sometimes our awareness of your presence in our lives is so weak, so blurred, so unintentional as to be almost indetectabile. But then suddenly you explode into our awareness, you make yourself known to us. You surprise and amaze us, you shake us out of the dullness of our life and stun us with your power. Thank you, dear God, for caring enough to make yourself known to us in our complacency and indifference. Thank you for bringing us out of the dark haze of our ignorance, and for showing us the way to full knowledge of you and your loving will for our lives.

In humble thanksgiving, we lift the following names of your children asking for our prayers: Kathryn Duncan, Ida Sotelo, Linda Brown, her daughter and father, for David S. Harmon, his wife and family for strength and faith, Amber Hurtt, Maria Chase and her family, Ms. Johnnie Johnson, Katherine Jolliff-Buckmaster and her family praying for restoration and healing, for Michele Garcia Rodriguez and Crystal Garcia Hernandez; Dolores Ramirez and her family, Patricia Griffitih, Shari Bond, Thomas Waller for justice to be served in his trial; for Reggie, Justin, Jamel and Jason, and for their mother Lawonna West; for Kathy Williams and her family. For these and all of your children who are poor, broken, forgotten, and hopeless, we pray.

We know that each of us is created in your image, but our vision is clouded by the evil in the world. Forgive us for forgetting that we are your children, and that we can always turn to you in our hour of need. Support the families of incarcerated people, give them rest and peace, and keep them alive to the real possibility of new life in your son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Couldn't Keep It to Myself

Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Wally Lamb and the Women of York Correctional Institution (Testimonies from our Imprisoned Sisters)

This book is about salvation. Not in the traditional sense, because these stories are not religious in nature, but they are spiritual and they are real. The life events these women describe may be beyond our full comprehension, but there is something universally familiar about the helplessness they describe. The despair that stalks us, causing us to rush headlong from one wrong choice into another, or piling one disappointment on top of another, until recognizing and resolving to do something different becomes the point of salvation for everyone, whether it occurs in a church meeting, or behind prison walls. The major differences between these women and the rest of us are matters of resources-- both material and spiritual. When I recognized my life was spinning out of control, and I realized I had to do something different, I had someone to call on to help me turn things around. And I could pray. But these women and girls had no one to turn to, and no spiritual training to fall back on.

With prison populations soaring, perhaps this should be required reading for anyone working with abused women, with addicted or at risk girls, single moms, and all parents of young girls. And let us all pray for an empathetic justice system that finds and helps abused children and girls before they are left with no hope and no way out.

a wrinkle in the space-time continuum...

We are temporarily out of stock of the spiral bound devotional calendar. We had a back-stock of two pallets which was supposed to be about 8 weeks supply, but the printer's warehouse manager had a fit of tidying up and had them hauled off and shredded! Horrors! However the new edition is currently in the queue for the bindary, and we are scheduled to receive the first shipment 2/15/06. So if you have recently requested a calendar, it will take a bit of a while, but you will receive our new "ripples" or "drop in a bucket" design, with some new entries included. For those who are in county, state or federal institutions, we continue to ship the glue-bound edition in the original design for approximately 4 more weeks.