Pink Bible; Blessings in Surprise
Many years ago my wife and I were on staff at a ministry called Morningstar Ministries on the east coast. One of my jobs during that time was to oversee a product distribution program for prisoners, it was called the Prison Tithe Program.
Generally, the program was ignored and barely used before I arrived. When I inquired as to their desire concerning the program, they basically shrugged their shoulders and offhandedly commented, “Make it your own!”
So I did, so in time I learned “the ropes” of the program and how different prisons operated. But as the months slipped into years the program grew, especially after I learned to start contacting prison chaplains.
Now, in reality, most chaplains ignored my letters, but a few responded back and as a result, the program grew to serve more and more prisoners with Christian materials. It was one of these chaplains that totally surprised me. How? She called me first.
Jennifer (name changed) called me from Texas. She had been working under another ministry for years when that ministry released her to start her own. This was partly because of the fruit of her ministry and partly because she was more charismatic in nature than they were. And because of being released, she wanted help.
After several phone calls and emails to discuss this woman’s prison in Gatesville Texas, Jennifer started aggressively promoting our program to the prisoners. This gave her a platform with the ladies and soon she was holding regular services as well as classes on the basics of Christianity.
In time Jennifer got braver and started teaching the women about praying for healing and they started seeing random, smaller healings. This started to affect the output of products as the number of requests doubled almost overnight. Now Gatesville is a “short term” prison, most women are there for six to twenty-four months. As a result, there is a high turnover, it was extremely common to get letters that said something like this.
“Thank you for your program and the ministry that Jennifer is doing, I have learned so much. Please send me _______ as I will need them when I go home in the spring to teach my children about Jesus.”
Then one day everything changed when I got a letter from a prisoner, “…could you please send me one of those pretty pink bibles like you sent Mary?” (Name changed) This left me puzzled, mainly because under the rules we are not allowed to send out any product that is not directly printed by the ministry. And the ministry I was working for does not print pink leather-bound bibles. In fact, the ministry did not (at that time) print any bibles.
So I emailed Jennifer and sent her a picture of the letter so she knew who the prisoner was. We emailed back and forth and I assured her as the only person in the office, I pack all the books for shipment and that I never sent a bible to anyone. I also told her that if her prisoner got a bible, “Then God must have stuffed the package himself sometime after I mailed it!” I said this because once I seal the package it would go into Fedex’s system and not get opened until the prisoner opened it.
Now I know what you thinking, what about the prison opening it for inspection? Well yes, sometimes they do, but in the case of Gatesville, respect had been built and the warden was now allowing the free flow of Christian material into the prison. Packages from our facility were just low priority. So in effect according to Jennifer, the guards would never waste their time on what we were sending them.
About a week went by and then Jennifer emailed me back with a really long email. She had printed out my email and called a special service in the prison. With all the women present they had a worship time and then she surprised Mary and asked her to stand up. Mary told the story of how hard she had been praying for a bible and that she was so thankful that we sent the Bible even though she never asked us for it, because it was exactly the type and kind she was asking the Lord for.
Then Jennifer told Mary to hold the Bible up high in the room for everyone to see it as she read my email. According to Jennifer, the woman exploded in tears and so did the room. Healing spontaneously started happening as the atmosphere of the room changed. Jennifer later sent me a list of the many of healings, Breast lumps, old scars, blood problems, and even the disappearance of cancer in one woman.
Here are a couple of testimonies I saved from the days that followed this event.
1) One of the women said that she had never experienced healing before, but that it seems to be all she sees now that she is here. She added that she wanted to be healed; saying that she had a messed up rotator cuff. I had another inmate lay her hands on her shoulders and pray for her. A couple of women laid their hands on her back agreeing in prayer. The woman that laid her hands on her shoulders literally felt her shoulder popping back in place. The lady was healed and both of the women testified, crying and rejoicing.
2) I had a few women from the Faith-Based Dorm come and testify of their healings in a General Population meeting. The woman whose tumor had disappeared from her liver was testifying of how large the tumor was and how the Lord had healed her and that it just disappeared instantly. While she was testifying another woman sitting in the meeting, who had whiplash since the 90s was instantly healed during her testimony. She was turning her head back and forth during the whole meeting. She has not been able to do that since some time in the 90s.
The outflow from this Holy moment was quickly noticed. Not only did our requests for product swell to 150 requests a month for just that prison alone. But it seems like the Lord's favor was starting to expand, affecting the state of Texas as surrounding prison requests increased as well.
Spiritual Backlash
This continued for some time, unfortunately, there was a spiritual backlash. On Jennifer's end, the warden was so impressed that he expanded the faith-based dorms, providing them with another wing of the prison for Christian believers. This caused many prisoners to want to strive to be in that wing. It also increased pressure in Jennifer's life and that pressure was taking a toll back at home with her family.
On my side, the large volume had a double effect. Certain people within the ministry were looking at the volume of products going out the door without getting paid for it. And they wanted the program shut down. It was during this time that I had a few connections within accounting and they were telling me of the large donations the ministry was getting. Now to me, it seemed obvious, the more we gave away the more the Lord was providing, but others within the ministry could not see it that way.
In time I got laid off from the job, but I was later re-hired not only in the same department within the ministry but I was given increased authority. Quickly checking everything over I discovered the program was almost crushed, someone had sent out letters to the prisons letting them know that the program was ending. I re-contacted with Jennifer and discovered the backlash hit her very hard. She was now working as a waitress and her marriage had ended under increasing stress as the demands increased and there was no more product from us to fill the void. I then also found out that during this time, donations had fallen after the program was almost crushed.
So to me, it was obvious, the blessings simply got retracted. As the ministry, I worked for pulled the carpet out from under the prisoners… God was pulling back as well.
Robert A. Foster
https://breadstonepublishing.com/roberts-blog/
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