Hi – Just wanted to give everyone an update that Randi is on the move to FCI Greenville in Illinois.  They put her on a bus yesterday around 5pm and she was on her way!

Please be praying that she gets in the very first RDAP program.  If you are wanting more details on the RDAP program – go check out some RDAP FAQ’s here.

Our hope is that she will complete this 9 month program – be transferred back to Dallas – and released into a halfway house! How wonderful would that be!?!  The idea of having my sister half-home in a year or less is overwhelmingly wonderful!

I have some good news and some answered prayers to share with yall. So let me start a few months ago when i had my RDAP (drug program) interview and got accepted.

I immedietly started praying to leave fast. I asked yall to pray for me also. I was ready for change and i wanted it fast.

At the same time I started praying for a pianoist to take my place when I leave.

So, last monday I got a job change. I had been working in welding for a yearand sometimes they just switch your jobs so you don’t get to comfortable.

At first, I was not looking forward to a new job- I almost threw a small fit. But then i remembered i had been praying for change. okay God, very funny!

Be careful what you ask for cause you might just get it. And God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. He gave me exactly what I asked for, just not the way i expected it to come. So from that moment I started to see my new job as a blessing. The days will go by faster. I will get ti leave the compound for a few hours each day. The job is on the airforce base. We clean buildings and do the landscape. So, it is a privilage to get to work on the base. I haven’t started yet so i can’t tell you if I like it or not. But i’m sure I will!

The dy after I signed my job change papers, I found out that a girl transfered from another facility and she was the praise and worship leader there and plays the piano! OH PRAISE THE LORD! Answered prayer number two. I’ve been singing with her all week. If they would let us we would hang out in the chapel all dayand worship God! It’s amazing when you are singing with someone that is spirit filled because you can feel the presence of God all over!

So, we have been getting to know eachothe rand i’ve been praying that she’s the one to take over the choir when i leave because were gonna need someone now, considering I signed my furlough papers yesterday to leave for RDAP! I wasn’t supposed to leave till march but now I leave in the next 30 days! This is totally a God thing! There are girls that should be leaving before me. But i have favor with God and a whole bunch of people praying with me. I haven’t been able to quit beaming and thanking God since i signed my name! I was so excited when she said ” RDP Furlough” that i forgot to read what i was signing…oops!

I kinda think God was just testing me with the job change, he wanted to see if i was gonna complainor be mad about it. And i didn’t, i gave him the glory for it. Then he gave me my huge blessing!

So, that’s my awesome christmas present, PRAISE GOD!

I don’t know if I will ever be able to comprehend how much God has done for me.  I know I’ve said this before and it still rings true – Prison is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my 28 years of living.  I have learned more life lessons here that I did living in the free world.  I think most of that had to do with the fact that I would make the same mistake over and over again because I had no desire to change.  I never fixed my mistakes because I was selfish and wanted things my way.  And if it didn’t go my way, I’d just try to get my way again.  It usually didn’t work out well for me.  But it’s hard to make the same mistake twice now.  I’m quick to admit when I’m wrong.  And a lot of prayer goes into every move I make.  Therefore I learn quickly.  So God can move on to the next lesson and we can stay on the fast track!

Anybody who has been keeping up with me on my journey through prison knows that Christmas is my favorite time of the year!  I love everything about it – the lights – the trees – the music.  I love the decorations and the special candy that we only get during the holiday and of course presents are nice too.  But I never truly understood the meaning of Christmas until I came to prison.  I can rememer the moment it hit me.  It was Christmas morning at the county jail.  I was the only one awake, sitting at the pink table listening to Christmas music, reading my Bible, when the song Emmanuel came on.  It said: “Emanuel, God is with us, He came to save us.”  And I realized that moment that it was a celebration because God came to us in the flesh.  And has been with us in Spirit ever since.  A lot of people think that presents are the meaning of Christmas and I think it’s a great thing to give presents.  We are to imitate God.  And God gave us the greatest gift of all – His Son.  So we should give freely to others.  “Freely you have received freely give.”  Matthew 10:8

Merry Christmas!!

It is  beautiful  outside.  The weather is getting cooler.  I’m sitting at a picnic table doing my Bible study.  We did our Jericho walk this morning.  It’s just amazing meeting for prayer outside under the tree while it is still dark.  It’s so peaceful and I can feel God’s presence all around!  The song on the radio right now says, “Speak…You have my attention Lord.”  This is an amazing song!  Oh wow  – the sun is fixing to come up and I have a great seat this morning.  I can’t wait till the day I can sit in a lawn chair or porch swing and enjoy a sunrise Bible study with my mom.  Here it comes.  The multitude of colors is amazing.  I am in awe of God’s creation.  Even the slight breeze grazing  my arms – I know that it is Him.

The Psalm of Ascent I am studying this morning is Psalm 131. “Lord, ,my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things to high for me.”  This is a song of triumph.  It speaks of humility, which is the greatest triumph of all!  Prison sure is a humbling experience!  The next verse says:  “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even as a weaned child.”  I have felt like a child on more than one occasion.  At face value – I am treated as a child.  I’m told what to do, when I can do it, what I can have, when I can sleep and wake up.  And if I don’t do it how I’m told, I get in trouble.  And being punished like a child, when you are an adult is not fun.  Once again- it is very humbling.  But if I look a little deeper, I no longer feel like I am treated as a child.  I become childlike.  I want to submit to authority.  I want to submit to God.  I want to have a childlike faith, submitting to my Father’s will.  I no longer want to be self-willed like I was when I was living life my own way.

The last verse says, ” Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever.”  This is a great Psalm to start my morning!  Too bad the compound is waking up and moving around – so the peaceful morning is coming to an end.

This morning on my way to work, I saw this huge yellow butterfly.  It was almost as big as my hand.  The biggest one I’ve ever seen.  It flew beside me as I walked to work.  It weaved through the trees, but it was always just a step ahead of me so I could see it fluttering around.  I thanked God for His beautiful creations.  Then I remembered a bookmark that my pen pal in county jail made me.  It said “Butterflies mean freedom”  and he’d drawn a butterfly on it.  Then I thought of the scripture, ”Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”  When I got to work and pulled out my journal to write about this butterfly, out falls a little card that says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”  2 Cor 3:17.      I just love hearing from God.  It is amazing when He speaks straight to us through His word.  I have been praying hard lately to make something happen.  I want to go home.  I want to be set free.  And He’s saying, “Wherever I am, there is freedom, even right where you are.”

I had a wonderful prison birthday!  My 3rd one in prison and by far the best one so far!  I’m 28 years old and I think that means I’m almost an adult, Right?  What it does mean is that I am one year closer to being home!  Yahoo!!  So let me tell you about prison birthdays!  I got all kinds of good presents like socks, popcorn, candy, coffee, BBQ sauce… a nice variety considering we have a limited store.  The dog girls made chocolate cakes…ooh so good.  I especially loved the church service that was especially special for me!  Of course they brought me to the front to embarrass me, but the best part was the praise and worship time!  God showed up on my birthday!  It was amazing!  And He wanted everyone to feel His loving touch!  I left church feeling revived and refilled!  A wonderful way to close out the day!

I hate working out… Absolutely hate it!!  Here I sit… Randi – red faced- my heart is pounding out of my chest…. my shirt is soaked and what I’d  me really like to do is climb up in my bed and go to sleep.  But first I have to make my legs get up and walk to the shower! 

I’ve never needed to work out.  I took the easy way out.  The drugs kept me skin and bones… Not a pretty sight.  But since drugs are never going to be an option again – I have to be healthy and fit.  So my roommate, Missy drags me out to the track 3 times a week.  She is 10 years older than me, runs every day and it’s so easy for her.  But , Oh No, Not Me!  I whine and complain.  And she pushes and pushes.  As I sit here writing this,  I think she should make me run an additional lap each time I say “I can’t do this”  But she would really do it and I’d be screwed…so I won’t suggest that to her.  She says that if I keep doing it, and get into a routine, then it will get easier and I will enjoy it.  Maybe I am still looking for the easy way out, the quick fix.  But one thing I have learned is that there are no lasting quick fixes.  If you want something in life, you have to be determined to get it.  You have to persevere.  Tonight while I ran I prayed for strength to make it through the lap I was on.  I prayed for endurance and perseverance.  And even though I copped out on the last running lap– I know that I gave it my best!

The devotional for today out of Jesus is Calling says: “God is highly offended when His children judge one another or indulge in self-hatred.”  We do make a past time of judging one another.  Sometimes we don’t even realize it.  Sometimes we do it to feel better about ourselves.  Lord please help me not to be judgemental.  Luke 6:37 says, ” Judge not (do not judge ones motives) and you shall not be judged(implying that you will be judged by the Lord if you do not obey this command).”  parentheses are commentary from the Expositor’s Study Bible. 

Well I need to repent because I know I have judged peoples motives.  I called it having discernment.  I thought I needed to be cautious because there are a lot of deceiving people in prison.  But who am I to judge why someone does something,  Why someone wants to be in front of the church.  Why someone wants to take a specific class.  It doesn’t matter their motives.  Paul said in Philippians 1:15-18 that some preached Christ out of envy and strife, some of contention; not sincerely.  Then some preached out of love with good intentions  Paul did not condone the activities of these preachers, but he didn’t let it bother him.  He says in verse 18, “What then? not withstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth.  Christ is preached!”  So Glory to God!  He knows the true motives of the heart and He’s the only one that needs to know them.