Breaking Free August 1997 Issue

Breaking Free August 1997 Issue

Editor’s note: The following articles are stories about inmates who are becoming active in their quest to bring the teachings of Jesus Christ to each other in Oklahoma’s prison system. Jails is a program developed by Campus Crusade for Christ’s Prison Ministry which is called Justice Linc. For more information about this unique program please read The Grapevine on page 2 of this issue.

Stringtown,OK

Our Jails program at the Mack Allford Correctional Center in Stringtown, OK is spearheaded by Felix Buddy Fesmire. Some of you will remember Buddy from an earlier newsletter where he wrote an article about how he got delivered from a lifetime of violence and bloodshed. We donated Christian training videos and a TV/VCR to the Chapel at MACC for Buddy’s use. He is now showing them on a regular basis to the other inmates. Please remember to keep Buddy in your prayers. He has been locked up for 30 calender years. Buddy does not expect to ever be released from prison but he told me that he wants to sacrifice the rest of his life to help educate the inmates on the prison yard about the teachings of Christ.

Helena,OK

James Skip Lewis is doing a great job at James Crabtree Correctional Center in Helena, OK. In addition to heading up our Jails program Skip has enroled many inmates in our free correspondence bible study courses. He has also encouraged a number of spanish speaking inmates to enrol in spanish courses which are offered by Source of Light Ministries out of Madison, Georgia. Skip has been a Christian for about 12 years now and, like Buddy Fesmire, his goal is to evangelize the yard where he lives. If more inmates were involved in trying to changing their environment by teaching the principles of Christ doing time in prison would be a worthwhile adventure. We hope to hear an update from Skip in a future newsletter. How ‘bout it Skip?

Crystal City, Texas

Our ministry in Texas is really special. I met a young lady in the Oklahoma County Jail named Crystal Eaves. Crystal was instrumental in enroling about 100-150 inmates in correspondence bible studies as she was being transferred from jail to the state diagnostic center to the women’s medium security unit at Taft, Oklahoma. Crystal was eventually moved to a remote private prison in Crystal City, Texas. This new private prison located in the desert region of southwest Texas did not even have a Chaplin at the time. I went to Texas and visited Crystal now a dear friend and ministry partner. While there I got permission from Warden Regis to start a Jails program at Crystal City. At the same time I asked Crystal to become a Justice Linc Affiliate Staff Member (Jails). Crystal is doing an excellent job of showing the video tapes once a week on Wednesday nights. In addition to the CCC training tapes I donated 4 cases of "Free On The Inside" bibles to the institution. Along with many other books and Christian literature more or less starting a Christian library there. Please pray for Crystal as she will be meeting the Parole Board in October. She has about 30 certificates for bible study courses she has completed. She is now taking a 3 hour college level correspondence course from Taylor University in Indiana. I am very proud of this one. Please join me in lifting her situation up to Jesus. She is a first offender. Way to go Crystal!!

Lexington

Our Jails program at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center is pastored by Tim Chavez. Tim has his meetings on Friday nights. Tim encourages his group to bring a pencil and paper so that they can take notes. He has a remote control for his VCR so that he can stop the tape for discussion any time an inmate has a question.

Tim is a friend of my family. His family and my family was all raised in the same neighborhood in Oklahoma City. although he is a lot younger than me I have known most of his older siblings and cousins for years. A few years ago on a prison visit I had the privelege of meeting Tim. A short time later his sister Alice asked me to check up on her brother Tim who was serving a life sentence in Lexington, OK. During this same time I was also hearing stories from other inmates about Tim’s wonderful conversion to Jesus Christ. They told me that he had his own behind the fence ministry to the elderly prisoners who were disabled. When I went to visit Tim I discovered him aglow with the love of Christ. Tim had found a way to serve Jesus even though He was locked up in prison. I asked Tim to Join with me in helping train the other inmates by showing the Campus Crusade video tapes. Please remember to lift up Tim Chavez when you pray. Tim lost his father a couple of weeks ago. I was glad that God sent me to that prison on that day because I had a chance to pray with my brother during his time of pain before the funeral. He is getting through the pain very well though. He told me that he was still witnessing and encouraging others while grieving over losing his dad and this helped to ease the pain.

Fort Supply, OK

Ron Grant is the new Chaplain at William S. Key Correctional Center in Fort Supply, OK. I received a call from Ron recently and he said that he wanted to participate in the Jails program. Ron had heard of our program and already had an inmate whom he recommended to show the video tapes. We are now in the process of setting that up. Please keep Ron in your prayers

Frederick, OK C.T.C

Inmate Randall Johnston at the Frederick Community Treatment Center is working on getting a Correspondence school and the Jails Program started where he ministers. Please keep Randy in your prayers. I met him here at one of our Saturday core group meetings. At the time we met he was on his way back to prison but now he has found the truth and is doing a great job at Frederick. We hope to see you back up here soon Randy. Keep up the good work.

My Health is Improving

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. In my last issue I told you that I was going to have to go through a series of Chemo treatments. Atfer 3 treatments I had a catscan and it revealed that there was no recurrence of any kind of cancer. I took my last treatment on the 28th of July. I am now in the process of recovering from the side effects of those treatments. I am not totally bald but very near because one can see all of my scalp through a very thin growth of hair. It is worth it if it works. I thank God for all he has brought me through.

I sent out letters to many of you who have been the most faithful . In that letter I was more or less interested in how you felt about me going forward with expanding this ministry to all the prisons in the state.

I told you that to do so I would need additional support. Your response was overwhelming and I am now in a position to go forward with my plans. Thank you and may God bless you for your continuing support.

The Transferable Concepts

For years Campus Crusade has been willing to send a package of video training tapes free to chaplains in the prisons and jails around the United Stares. These tapes consist of the Jesus film in spanish and english, a 30 minute video called "A Man Without Equal" in spanish and english. This tape is a documentary about Jesus’ impact on the entire human race for the last 2000 years. It gives unrefutable proof to the claims of Jesus Christ. It is proof to anyone who is really seeking the difference between Christianity and all the other so called religions of the world.. Also included in the package is The Ten Transferable Concepts. These 45 minute training tapes have subjects like, "How to introduce others to Christ, How to Walk in the Spirit, How to Exprience God’s Love and Forgiveness, ETC." All of these are formatted in such a way that all one has to do to learn is to take notes with a pen and paper.

The Jails Program Helps Inmates To Train each Other

Realizing the training potential for The Transferable Concepts I had boxes of these videos sent to most of our prisons here in Oklahoma. However on my frequent visits to the prisons I discovered that the Christian inmates had not heard of these tapes. On further inquiry I found that only in one or two isolated cases were the tapes getting off of the chaplains bookshelf. Most were not being put to use at all.

I feel that The Spirit of God gave me the idea about how I could use these tapes to build up character in the inmates and actually arm them with the information they would need to survive once they were released. I call the program Jails. We now have 6 institutions that are participating in our Jails program. Jails which stands for Justice Affiliate Inside Linc Staff is the name I coined for our program. Jails picks qualified inmates to join Justice Linc and therefore Campus Crusade for Christ as voluntary staff.

To put this plan into effect I ask the Chaplain or other authority for permission to implement the program. Once I get permission I ask him/her to give me the names of 4 or 5 of the most commited inmate Christians in his/her institution. I then interview those inmates usually asking one of them to join me as a Justice Linc Affiliate Staff member. This program appeals to the Chaplains because it is very easy for inmates to schedule their own study time. One of the biggest headaches for a Prison Chaplain is having to juggle the scheduling for different outside religious faiths that compete for a chance to teach inside the institutions. Jails allows the inmates an opportunity to accept responsibility for building Christian character traits in themselves and those around them. I believe that this concept, if applied on a large scale, can actually produce a better grade of ex-offender as they return to society. Please remember to pray that God will give our ministry team favor with the inmates and the prison staff as we work to build on this idea.

I have included on page 1 of this newsletter some of the things that God is already doing behind prison walls and fences. May God Bless each one of you. In Christ, Don

Testimony of Deitdra Arbertha

My name is Deitdra Arbertha. I was born in Oklahoma City, Feb. 25, 1965. I am now 38 years old. I have lived a good and a bad life. This is my testimony while I’m in prison.

I was born to Simon and Sharon Arbertha. I have three brothers, David, Kelley, and Rickey. I left home at the age of 14 of my own choice. I have been on my own since then. I quit school in the 10^th grade because I thought I knew it all. I got married at the age of 19 and that’s when my son James came along. Things weren’t really that bad for me then, but there was on important thing missing (Jesus). Because I know Jesus I have had a spiritual guidance in my life from the age of 12 to 14. My father’s second wife was a very good Christian person and was a great encouragement for me. At the age of 21, I left my first husband even though he was a good man. I thought I was missing something like freedom to do as I wanted to. If only I knew what I know now. That’s when my life began to go down hill. I started out using marijuana and smoking cigarettes and hanging out with the wrong people that didn’t mean me any good.

Then at the age of 25, the drug habit got bigger. At first, it was primos and drinking like crazy. And to top it all off, I got a bingo habit too. I really had it bad. This went on for about 2 years then I started on the pipe with crack cocaine. I stopped caring about myself and anyone else, family, good friends and good men. And the most important person in my life, James Arbertha I lost as well. I did all kinds of crazy stuff, I stole, robbed, sold myself, lied, cheated, and you name it. The only thing I didn’t do was to kill. But the bible says that there is no sin greater than the next.

At the age of 27, I started getting into trouble with the law. I was going in and out of jail. Then at age 30, I got some prison time for drugs; 5 in and 5 out. I turned my life over then, but I played church because my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted the blessing, but not the Blesser, and the Blesser is what we really need more than the blessing. I got out and wanted my own way, thinking I could do it on my own. After He blessed me like He did I spent only one month in prison in 1995. I prayed and prayed Lord please let me go home and that’s what I got in return. I made some very bad mistakes in my life and I blame myself for my own choices I made because I know deep down it didn’t have to be like that. Because we serve a good God all the time and all He wants is a relationship with us.

So I ended back in prison again in 1996 which where I am right now. And I know the Lord didn’t put me in prison because He’s not that kind of God. But I count it all joy, because this time in I’m doing things differently. I am getting to know Him with all my heart, body and soul. He has been good to me all the time through my bad and good. And this last 1-½ years he has done miracles in my life and my husbands’ life. He has kept my marriage together and restored my family back. My mother, who didn’t write at first, writes me now. Praise the Lord. And I’m not praying just to go home, I’m praying for His will to be done in my life, because when He does it His way I will be free indeed. I will not have to look at these prison doors again and I will be a living testimony he wants me to be for people who may go through what I’ve been through. The joy I have now is beyond my comprehension. I see a brand new miracles coming to me. Jesus is the most wonderful thing that has happened to me. Keep praying for all my loved ones and me and I will do the same. God bless you.

Your sister in Christ, Deitdra Arbertha

Site Design by
Terry Fritts and Jason Fritts of

E-Mail: jfritts@smartbusiness.com

Visit Testimonies.com
Hosted By Integrity Network Services