I just want to ask all of you “prayer warriors” to lift up an extra prayer today for inmates that get released. Pray that they don’t leave God inside these bars; that their faith stands firm, and that they don’t even give Satan a foothold to gain back control of their lives.

So many women have come in and out of this prison, and I have grown close to a lot of them. Some stay for 90 days, some for a quick detox until somebody bonds them out and some have been here as long as me. But whatever the case may be most of them know God and while they are here they get fed the word. But just like the parable of the different kinds of soil the seed falls on – each person’s choices are different.

I pray for the released prisoners everyday. Sometimes I even pray God will bring them back to jail, because I would rather them be in jail, then out on the streets doing drugs. So please say a prayer for all prisoners that have been released!!
And we can stand on the Word of God that He will finish the good work He began in them!
Philippians 1:6

Wow – This month has flown by! But the days seem to get longer and longer. You would think that with so much extra time on my hands I would have something to write about, but that’s not the case. I seem to be getting more bored everyday.
I have discovered that I am quite creative! I never was before. I make some pretty amazing cards with God’s help that is…He writes the words for the insides. I just cut and paste! Its fun – but with my short attention span – I can only do that for so long – then I have to start a new project. Today I am “projected out.”
I just feel like writing. I don’t know what I will do with myself when I get out of jail! There won’t be enough hours in the day! I already know! I can see myself now…”Oh it’s 3:30 – gotta take my afternoon nap… it’s 4:45 – gotta wake up.”
I guess I could write about what I do all day long…it’s pretty boring to me, but maybe y’all do wander how we manage to”do absolutely nothing” all day long in this one room that we live in! Okay…here goes: 4:45 am – wake up and sit at the tables for shift change at 5:00am,
5:00am – Clean the dorm, Breakfast between 5:30-6:30, then I go back to sleep until 9-10 am.
Then I get up and put my headphones on and go to the table with my Bible. Usually everyone is sleeping, this is my favorite time of the day! I do my Bible Study until lunch at 11:30 am. Sometimes people join me, sometimes I do it alone, but I am there every morning. Oh my gosh – I am boring myself just writing this!! But I’m gonna keep going for anyone who is interested, it won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t read the rest of this! So after lunch we take over the table with our “arts and crafts fair.” We make all kinds of cards, frames, boxes, and bookmarks, using construction paper and magazine pages. Then when I get bored with that I take a shower and at 3:30 everyday I take my afternoon nap. Then at 4:45 pm I have to get up for count again. Dinner comes between 5:30 – 6:30 pm. Then we usually play spades at 7:00 pm. And by 8:00 pm we are bored with that. I can usually go to sleep by 9:00 pm. I have been doing my little workout before I go to bed. Then the next day we do it all over again!!
Jail is so boring! You don’t want to come here!! Don’t do drugs or you will end up in jail and it is not worth it!!!

March 25, 2009

It’s Thursday morning I am fasting again today. I was praying about it on Thursday asking God if this was what He wanted me to do and in the middle of praying I had a vision of me and Vicki drinking coffee and I was like, “What’s this about?” Why am I thinking about coffee? I am praying! And I really don’t think the devil would have tried to distract me with something a petty as coffee. So I determined God was telling me to fast coffee. This is kinda a big deal – maybe even more than hot dog day last week. You see – coffee and water is ALL we have to drink in here and I have become addicted to it. I drink 5 or 6 cups a day – at least!!

First thing I do when I wake up is make my coffee…then come to the table and do my personal Bible Study. But God says, “I am a jealous God and will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.” Exodus 20:5 And not that I worship coffee or even consider it a “god” in my life; but I do have an addictive personality and I am addicted to coffee. I wake up wanting it and I indulge myself in it all day. God wants me to know that I am not addicted to it and I have been delivered from my addictive personality. He is building me into a new life and any kind of addiction has no place in my life anymore.

Thank you Jesus for removing every addiction, lust and desire from my heart! And each day He fills me up with His desires. It’s so amazing the change He is making in me!! For example – I use to want to get out and go shopping (another one of my addictions), but now I can’t wait to get out and sing in church! I use to pray that God would make the day go by faster, but now I pray that God brings someone in my path for me to witness to everyday. I use to ask God to remove everything from my life that isn’t from Him, but now I am asking Him to bring people into my life that are from Him.

My prayers are not so much “Fix me – Fix me”, they have turned into “Use me – Use me Lord.” And I am in a good place to be used!!!

I have had it on my heard really heavy to fast. I have been looking for answers to prayers and longing for a closer walk with God. So when Natalie came with this book on fasting – I was so excited! I read the whole book on Monday night and decided that Wednesday was the day.

So, Wednesday morning, before breakfast, I was laying in my bed and all of the sudden I wanted to read Colossians. So, I got my Bible and headed for the table. Natalie and I opened to Colossians and it was about praying for others. So we knew what God was calling us to do. As we were reading breakfast came so we got our trays for the table and sat back down to read. Our table said “Read to us!” so while they ate we read. It was so cool!Then, at lunch we grabbed out trays – put them at the table and headed back to our corner to pray. We sat and prayed for each individual inmate by name. Then we prayed for the opportunity to minister to them. And He answered that quick!

I had such a good day. Whenever I go hungry, I fed on God’s Word! And it worked! God is so amazing!

I could hear the Holy Spirit telling me what He wanted me to read. And I could feel God’s presence more than I ever have before.

I just did 2 meals – (my 2 FAVORITE meals!). But I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me next week when I do the whole day! Praise God! I love the Lord so much and I found so much pleasure in making a sacrifice for Him.

God is so awesome! He knows just what we need and He gives it to us at just the right time. I want to introduce you to Natalie. I know that God brought her to W. Baton Rouge just for me! (And for others too!) but I take everything personal with God & we had been praying for someone to come along to encourage me and lift me up. And she is most definitely doing that. Here is how we met:

Thursday night I started reading in Hosea. Not sure why but I was led there by the Holy Spirit. Then Friday morning she was sitting at the table reading her Bible & I sat down with her and asked what she was studying.

She said, “I’m doing a study in Hosea.”
I said, “Whoa!!”

So we sat and shared stories. I told her, “You’re going to think I’m a little weird – but there have been a lot of people praying for you to come here.” She didn’t think it was weird at all. As a matter of fact, she said she had been praying to come here. She just knew there was something here for her. (Natalie was at East Baton Rouge jail prior to this)

Natalie is very anointed; very humble yet very bold! She has a great understanding of the Bible. Together – we are going to make a huge impact on this dorm. We have started doing Bible Study in the mornings – and pray together before bed. And throughout the day – we have prayed with others and done one-on-one studies.

She has a book on fasting – which I have had on my heart to do but I didn’t know exactly how. So now I am reading about fasting and getting myself prepared for my first fast.

“So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11

Sometimes I forget why I am here. Sometimes I feel like a criminal locked up with a bunch of other criminals. Sometimes I don’t want to do anything by stay in my bed and sleep the day away. Sometimes I purposely avoid doing Bible Study because I just don’t feel like it. And sometimes I do slip up and find myself in the midst of “godless chatter” as Paul calls it in 2 Timothy 2:16. He says, “avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.

And how true this is! And it is so hard to avoid it when every person around me is “chatting” away.

I have to always remember that I am here to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. And even though I am in a very uncomfortable situation, I find hope knowing that Paul was in the same place I am in, and he kept going. He said, “Preach the Word, be prepared in Season and out of Season; correct, rebuke, and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction.” (2Tim 4:2)

This is not about me! And I’m not doing this alone. 2 Timothy 4:17 says, “But the Lord stood by my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed.”

God provides me with His strength and His wisdom for me to proclaim the message. And even though sometimes I don’t feel like being around anyone, He usually bring someone in my path and opens up an opportunity for His glory to be known!

All praise and glory be to God!