"It's me again, God."

My prayer today is for others who are alone, separated from those they love by miles, by walls, or by hurt and anger. Bring them the peace that comes only from you, and help them find their way home in due time.

My prayer today is for the children of the incarcerated, growing up without the presence of their mother or father. Help them feel your love ever more closely, so that they will always remember being a treasured child of God.

My prayer today is for Ricardo Jones, Jessica Fenstemaker and her children, family and friends, Carolyn Calahan and her children, Kay Walker, Sandy Gossett and Eddie, Kathleen Layne, the women in Silverdale CCA, Sherry Davis, Rachel Hanson, Yaedo Francis, Candice Mead, Leah Brumfield, Normita Showers, Christa Jackson. Be always with them and bring them your peace. Restore them in heart and soul and bring them home.

My prayer today is for peace in my heart. Let sadness come and let it go, and to know that I am in your loving care no matter where I am.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Together we pray...

“Oh God, my Lord, I know you know what my heart desires and I am very aware that you would never allow anything upon me that I could not bear. Your love and forgiveness has been true and faithful, Oh God, I want to be true and faithful because of your grace…” P.S.

We join our hearts in prayer with these, and all your children: Joshua L. Sykes, Monique Braxton and her loved ones, Jennifer Book, Billie Turner, Louella, Justin James Rich, Molly Gonzalez, Meralys Velazquez, Gladys Rivera, Angela Thomas and her family, Tara Sellers & Chad Swopes and their children, Mark Frilot, Betty Gibson and Michael Gibson, Vera Lee Harris and family, and the women incarcerated at K.W.I.C. in PeWee Valley, KY. We pray for our souls to be set ablaze by your everpresent Spirit, for our hearts to be transformed by the new life you offer through your son Jesus Christ, and for us all to be joined together in the communion of faith. Strengthen and protect your children, and let your justice be over all. For we have all sinned, but your forgiveness is forever and ever.

“… No matter how determined we plan our lives or think we are in control of our destiny, God’s design stands supreme over all our ‘Tomorrows.’” Christopher N. in Houston, TX

“… Help me to be pleasing in your sight. Please forgive me and I will continually repent my ways and walk in Jesus’ path. Thank you for your word to help me and guide my way of living, always to please you and worship you. In Jesus name, Amen.” Patricia S. in Carrizazo, NM

...each part does its work.

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:11-16

We offer today our thanks, for being knit together as part of the body of Christ, for being allowed the opportunity to be in unity with one another and in doing the work of the church. Help us become mature in our understanding of your love for us, and protect us from those who would seek to divide or deceive.

We pray that your Holy Spirit would blow open the doors of your churches to receive those who are in need. Help us see you in the faces of the poor and the prisoner, that we will know how to serve. We pray for ministers, chaplains and teachers, volunteers of faith and prison evangelists who share the good news with your children in prisons across the country. Strengthen them and renew their souls, fill them with your love. For corrections officers, administrators and governors, help them to fulfill their responsibilities with integrity and compassion, and help us seek true justice.

We lift up the following individuals who are known to us:

Tanya Rhodes and her sons, Leslie Baker and family, Johnny Matthew Ellis, Moizes Guzman, Deborah Gasca, Tabitha Alexander, Jessica Little, Marian Brown, Wakinia Starnes, Rachel Moses and her family, Michael Moses, Renee Lingard, Garlon Duane Lingard, Summer Barber, Tracye Jackson, Jennifer Wilborn and Robert Padilla, Charlotte Johnson, April K. Feigler and family, Levoy R. Dansby, Joshua Washington, Delinda Viscaino, Randy Bowman and his special concerns, Misty Capron and Alyiah Blanks, Stacey Durham and her family, Tina Stallings, Bonita Alston and her family, Nicole Gould, Jacqueline Jones, Willile B. Owens III, Jarvis Jerome Wagner, Jessica Thomas and her family, William Disney, Amanda Carter, Dana Stripling, Stacy Landers and family, Dora Blanchard, Michael Graham, Tiffany Griffin.

In your love for them, you know their trials and their suffering, you know their longings and their prayer. We place our trust in you, dear God, that their prayers are heard and are answered, and that through Jesus Christ, we are all being made new.

Loving God, your Holy Spirit rescues us from the trials of the world, lifts us out of despair and apathy. Your light shines into our lives, and if we open ourselves fully to your love, we are transformed. We give thanks for your transformational love, which has touched our lives so that we will never again be lost. We believe. Help us when we fall short.

We lift Pam Dowell and her family, Zachary Aaron, Amanda Lou, Christopher Dale and Chad Greer. Provide them healing and strength to meet the challenges life has placed on them, help them find peace in you, to build their family relationships to enable faithful living, based on the promises you have made with us all. Let them know in their hearts that in you, they are never alone, and give them the courage to truly believe.

We lift Daphne Russell and her Aunt Sandy and Uncle Marty. Give them your peace, and strengthen them to face the struggles of this life, secure in the knowledge that nothing can separate them from your love.

Hear the prayers for Patricia Sundquist, her son Tony and her grandchildren Michael and Ericka. We pray that your healing is upon them, mend their broken hearts, uplift their spirits and abide in them. Where forgiveness is asked, let it be granted, and let their love for each other be modeled on your amazing love for us.

We pray for Kelly Wardlaw, Dora Ware, Shelly Hebel, Patricia Keil, Irma Martinez, Lorena Knight, Carrie Ann Nasiatka, Charlotte Johnson, Grady Vaughn and Linda Vaughn, Cheryl Wadsworth, Mirner Brown, Stormy McDowell and her mother, James Ray Perkins, Jr., Esther Werner Nelson, Holly Moore, Laura Davenport, Nena Shoemaker, your children seeking the path away from the darkness of sin and fear into the light of your love. Guide and protect them, be with them night and day.

Inmates at St. Tammany Parish Jail, Covington LA, Lowell Correctional Institution, Ocala FL, Federal Prison Camp in Pekin, IL, Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, TX, McPherson Unit for Women in Newport, AR, Henley Unit in Dayton, TX and all who are incarcerated in our country and around the world. Let your love be their strength and let your mercy fill them with the sure knowledge that in you, they are a new being altogether.

In the name of the Trinity God, the Father Creator, the Son Jesus Christ Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit dwelling with us and in us, we are empowered to pray today.

Help in times of trouble...

Jonah 2:1-2
From inside the fish Jonah prayed... "In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry."

I read between 30 and 60 letters from inmates each day. Many are seekers, "Babes in Christ" trying to learn the basics of Christian living. Some have been Christians all their lives, but lost their way in the world. Still others have really come to know Christ since being incarcerated, have studied everything they can get their hands on, have made life-changing decisions and express their strong committed to living their faith inside prison and when they are released. But all of them, every last one of them are in need. They need basic things like shampoo and postage stamps, and they need medical care and mental health treatment.

One letter I will always remember came from a 43-year-old Hawaiian woman named Sarah Ah Mau, who was being housed in a facility in Kentucky. In heavy black script, she told us about how she and several other women from Hawaii had been shipped all over the U.S. from Texas to Oklahoma, and finally to Kentucky in the middle of winter, where she complained that the facility was cold and damp, and that she was very ill and she did not know what was wrong with her. I added her to my prayer list, and poked a calendar, with its personalized form letter, into a padded envelope for Sarah. I thought about her several times. I found it ironic that she was there in Kentucky and desperately missed her island home, while I was here, in Houston, missing my own home in Kentucky.

I recently learned that it is not unusual for the State of Hawaii to export felons, because there is such limited space on the islands, and it is far more cost-efficient to build resort hotels rather than prisons, and pay CCA to house offenders elsewhere. I learned this from an internet report I just stumbled upon of Sarah's death on New Years Eve, 2005, of "natural causes" after an undiagnosed illness, in the Wheelwright, Kentucky Otter Creek Correctional Facility operated by CCA. I've spent a few afternoons going through our files looking for Sarah's letter, but I don't expect I'll find it. But I'm praying for her family, and for everyone who is away from home.

In Texas, the heat becomes almost unbearable in the summer, and the prison dorms have no air conditioning. Some prisons here are said to have unreliable water treatment facilities. They are all understaffed, filled to capacity, with persons suffering from addiction, mental illness, cancer, HIV, illiteracy, emotional trauma, misery and hopelessness. We pray for them all.

Great God, you created the world and you called it good. Yet from the beginning, we have failed to live up to the trust you have placed in us. Forgive us, Father, when we fail to care for your creation, and for your children. Forgive those of us who have turned away, for the wrong we have done, and for the good we have left undone.

We lift the names of those made known to us:

Willie G. Garrett, Vanessa Campbell and her children, Lee Suarner and his family, Samantha Stevens and her loved ones, Wendy Casey and her family, Angela Aultman, Reneicie Broyles and Leslie Haley, Patrick Jones and Dora Harvey, Mark H. Dillon, Esther and Larry Nelson and their family, Darlese Lillard, Lucy A. Johnson, Angela O’Brien, Cynthia D. Smith, Doug Brown, Staci Canoll, Allison Boyter, Whitney Eason, Charles Martin, Brenda Howard, Sheila and Jody Merrit and their children, Barbara Cuyler, Edna Cuyler, Constance Brewer, Rickie Alvarado Mathews, Randy Lee Bowman, June C. Lumpkin, Cloteal Beasley, Marquita Hatcher, Annie R. Lewis, Jamie Smith

For these and all your people, bring them your healing grace and divine guidance.

Send Your peace, grace and mercy on the inmates and administration of Houston County Jail in Crockett, TX, Dawson State Jail in Dallas, TX, CMCF in Pearl, MS, KWIC in Pewee Valley, KY, Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, FL, Brush Women’s Correctional Facility in Brush, CO, IDOC-Rockville Correctional Facilty, Rockville, IN, Bradshaw State Jail, Henderson, TX, Joe F. Gurney Unit in Tenessee Colony, TX, Gatesville Unit, Gatesville, TX, Larry Gist State Jail, Beaumont, TX, Harris County Jail in Houston, TX, Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, KY and Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, KY.

Thank you for hearing and answering our prayers. Help us continue to see your face in the each one of these. Empower and inspire us to do your will among the people. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Pray for InnerChange Freedom Initiatives

In an attempt to protect the constitutional separation of church and state, a group in Iowa has won a court decision to take away a Christ-centered prison program that has been highly successful in helping reduce recidivism among voluntary participants. InnerChange Freedom Initiatives began in the Jester Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice 9 years ago, and now also operates in units in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Arkansas. It has been documented as having a significant impact on people's lives, helping offenders start over, equipped with a new set of moral and spiritual guidelines, and connected to a network of spiritual support both inside and out of prison. Research has shown it to be an effective means of helping individuals turn away from the destructive path that led to incarceration. Researchers cite a 50% reduction in recidivism among graduates of the program.

Approximately 700,000 offenders are released each year from our prison systems, which do little more than warehouse people we are mad at, in addition to those of whom we are afraid. Our system locks them up, provides no substantial treatment or occupational training, in the process giving them plenty of opportunity to compare notes on how to do it "better," or not get caught next time, and then we turn them out with a bus ticket and maybe $50.00, to go right back into the situation they failed to deal with last time.

How do we fix a system that is so broken? IFI is one approach that is working. Please pray that their efforts will not be stopped.

Prayer Requests

Psalm 91:9-11
If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the LORD, who is my refuge-
then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways

“My name is Robert; I’m writing you because I feel that I’ve fallen so far down, I need a telescope to look up and see rock bottom. My wife and I have fallen away from the Lord. With me being incarcerated I find it hard to keep the faith. I try to pray every night for my wife & son while I’m away, but I just don’t feel that my prayers are warranted anymore. Could you please send me a perpetual devotional calendar? If it’s not too much to ask for, could you send my wife one as well? …If you cannot spare two calendars, please if you can, make sure my wife gets one.” Robert P., Pam Lychner State Jail, TX

“ I am a new child in Christ and I’m in need of some serious spiritual guidance.” Bobbi S., Henley Unit, TX

“Please put me on your Prayer List for healing of my spinal cord, bones, muscles & joints.” Edna Mae O., Carriere, MS

“Please pray for me I was a alcoholic for so many yrs and God gave me a wake up call a little over a month ago and I just quit drink and have no desire to even have one drink. I thank God for my friend who prayed for me for a year and never gave up on God healing me. I need special prayer for deliverance for smoking pot. I am 54 yrs and lost my home during Katrina and in Nov. just past my husband died. My income is below poverty and I need help managing my money better. Also my self-esteem is very low. I need your prayers desperately.” Eva L., Carriere, MS

“I am an inmate in a Mississippi Correctional facility. I’m trying to build a firm foundation for the life I want to live when I leave here in nine months. I was shown a Devotional Calendar you have, and was told I could write for one. If so, I’d really enjoy having it.” Audrey A., Pearl, MS

“Our names are Catrena, Roxanne, Taneisha and Faye. We want to thank you in Jesus’ name for thinking of those in prison. We also want to ask for prayers for our loved ones in Jesus name.” Pearl, MS

“I am a long way from home, with some serious illnesses in my family back home, and I am truly going through a spiritual low right now.” Monise S., Jack Co. Jail, TX

“I am a new Christian in need, I am currently incarcerated at Tarrent County Jail.” Deidra B., Tarrant Co., TX

“I am currently incarcerated in Tom Green County Jail, San Angelo, Texas. I am awaiting the Court’s decision on my case. I was in an abusive verbaly & physically relationship for which I am facing 5 yrs for aggrevated assault, 2nd degree felony. Please pray for me in this case. … please put this facility on your prayer list. The women here need extensive prayer.” Olivia J., San Angelo, TX

“I’d like ya’ll to pray for my grandmother who just went through a surgery for cancer. Pray for my family and that God give me the patience to make it day by day.” Ashley W., Parmer Co., TX

“When I talk to Christine on the phone I read to her (from the devotional calendar) what that day says. I am hoping when I get out to marry her and be the husband she needs… She has been supporting me for the last 5 years here in prison.” James B., Crowley County Corr. Facility, CO

“Please pray for my grandsons to come home to my daughter, Ashley, their mother. Stand with me in prayer that God send them home to her please.” Martha W., St. Gabriel, LA

“I have two great kids, a boy, 15 and a girl, 18. Could you please send them one each of your nice Daily Devotional Calendars: I feel this would be a great help to them. I don’t want my kids to go down the wrong path.” Watt L. Sam, Full Blood Cherokee, Tenessee Colony, TX

“I am a baby in Christ and need all the understanding I can get to help in my walk with God… Thank you for helping myself and others.” Kari S., Hillsboro, TX

“I am currently in prison, and I would very much like to have one of your calendars to help get me through each day one at a time. The power of prayer is a wonderful thing, so I would like to share it with someone as well.” Edgar C., C.T. Terrell Unit, TX

“We here at Plane State appreciate the materials you offer for us to learn more about our Father and Jesus Christ. Thank you so much from a child of God.” Jennifer T., Plane State Jail, TX

“I am an inmate in the Texas Prison System. I am writing you in hopes of obtaining a copy of your free perpetual calendar. I had one once and would like to have another. It was a very good devotional and spiritual guide for me.” James G., Holliday Unit, TX

With these prayers of your children, Lord, we offer our own, and we humbly lift them all to your loving care. Amen.

If you feel called to write to a lonely prison inmate, please email our ministry firstcp@cphouston.org and we will provide mailing information. We do not post mailing information online without prior permission.

A rose, by any other name...

So, Blogger has reviewed New Day Prayer Circle and determined it is NOT Spam. Whew! Thanks guys! For a while there, I was a little concerned.