Breaking Free October 1997 Issue

Breaking Free October 1997
Issue #12

When God Abandons Us

I was asked recently to fill in for a volunteer chaplain that had to be out of town. I decided to show a short video and then have a discussion with a small group of about 20 men. The service was held at the Oklahoma City Community Treatment Center.

After showing the video "A Man Without Equal" We had a very nice time of questions and answers. As we were preparing to pray and dismiss a man who had been listening silently began to speak. When he told me his name I recognized him immediately. He was a guy that I had served time with back in the 1960’s at the Oklahoma State Prison. He related to me a series of events that had happened to him since I last saw him nearly 30 years ago. From the tone of his voice and the way he chose his words I sensed that he was very embarrassed to be back in ‘stir’ again. He told me that he now had a 20 year old son. He told me that he had become a born again believer and for a long period of time God had virtually answered everyone of his prayers. He had gotten married, built a successful business, fathered a son etc. Then one day God just quit answering his prayers. He expressed that over time he had become frustrated with God’s silence and began to experiment with drugs. He went through a divorce and eventully back to prison. His question to me was, "Why did God abandon me?"

Having heard that same sad question asked of me time and time again I felt frustrated at not being able to give an adaquate answer. I told him a story about how to teach a child to walk. First of all you have to hold his little hand and help him along until his little legs get strong. This is a very necessary step in the child’s training. However there does come a time when you have to back away and allow the toddler to fall a few times until the child gets the hang of it.

"That’s the way we are with God," I said. "At some point during our Christian growth God has to teach us to walk on our own spiritual legs so that we can be worthwhile servants." There was silence in the room. It seemed that God’s truth had dawned on all of us at the same time. "God wants to build our faith so he backs away from us so that our faith can be deepened" I said. He looked at me for a long thoughtful moment before he said, "You know, I never thought of it that way." How many of us are failing right at the time when God is preparing us for a great ministry opportunnity?" Many Christian inmates never learn to live outside of a prison environment simply because they aren’t able to understand that their greatest time for faith strengthening comes at the time when they cannot feel Him. We all need to feel that He’s around from time to time, but if we are only able to trust God at times when we feel him then we will always be like the kid that couldn’t do anything outside of his own front yard. Or in cases I’m more familiar with, outside the prison yard. Inmates are so conditioned to trusting the state to meet all their needs that they become desensitized to the fact that they can let God care for them. And He does a much better job of it. All of us and that includes me, need to take a long hard look at what it means to say I am a Christian. It takes a year to adjust to prison when you go in. Why do you not realize that it takes at least that long to readjust to life back on the streets when you get out? What does it take to follow God? It takes trusting Him! You will never follow God until you learn to trust Him. Therefore when you encounter hard times rejoice in the fact that you have a great opportunity to build your faith. The word states that everything that is not of faith is sin. Let us rejoice and hold fast the confession of our faith. Let us be strong in the knowledge that He is nearby even in our heart and mouth as it states in Romans 10. Let us prove the Word of faith which we teach by holding fast to the trust we have in our heart. Oh yeah! while you’re waiting read your bible every day and spend some time alone with Him. There;s more to being a Christian than just doing things for other people although you should do that too. What Christianity is all about is being Christlike. It is becoming like Christ is. Its an attitude! Go on the potter’s wheel and become the clay. Let Him be the potter and he will mold you. see you next issue. Don

Health Praise Report

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I had my last chemo treatment on July the 28th,1997. Two days prior to that the doctors, after viewing a catscan, could find no evidence that the tumor they removed on May 25th had any recurrence. Thank you Jesus! An additional problem was the fact that my numbers on my liver count had been steadily climbing and were far above what doctors considered normal. For example, one set of numbers that they carefully watch had risen from about 200 to near 1200. The liver doctors felt that it was one of two things either rejection of the new liver or the hepatitus ‘C’ virus (HCV) had returned. A couple of months have passed since then and the numbers have steadily declined since I stopped the chemo treatments. They went from1200 to 1000 to 800 to 600 each week when I would give lab samples. This week I had appointments with both the liver doctor and the cancer doctor. The liver doctor thinks that it must have been side effects from the chemo that was causing.my liver numbers to escalate. The cancer doctor says that the cancer was originating from my old liver. He now feels like that if they got it all during the surgery in May that there is a good chance that it will not recur. .

Thank you once again for your continued prayer support. With each one of these incidents my faith in God grows stronger. I also feel that your faith must be growing by leaps and bounds as well. I thank God for you. He has taught all of us that we must walk by faith and not by sight. God bless you and please keep praying as there is much faith work to be done.

"But no weapon that is formed against you will succeed. People might bring charges against you, but you will prove that they are wrong. Those are the things that I do for my servbants." (IS. 54:17 NIRV)

Chicago Weekend of Champions

We had a wonderful time of soul winning during The Bill Glass Weekend Of Champions which was held September the 12th thru the 14th. I was asked to be a platform guest speaker which was quite a different adventure than my usual job of counseling for them. I spoke to 3 different groups the men, the women and the juveniles. It was really neat to share my testimony with so many others who really needed a message of hope. I passed out about 800 of my Wanted Dead Now Alive brochures. The inmates kept wanting more and more of them after my supply was exhausted. I could have easily distributed 3000 of them and they all would have gotten read and passed around to the others. There was 5 people from Oklahoma City that worked at the weekend. Allen Arms was very effective as he always is. Carl and Dorothy Dutton did a great job of counseling and soulwinning. Mary Lou Farris a former college professor from Norman, OK was a first time counselor. She did an excellent job also. For anyone interested in doing prison work this ministry would be a great place to learn the ropes. They have a very good orientation team to train beginners. Anyone interested in traveling with the Bill Glass team should contact John Brett of Heritage Baptist Church in Oklahoma City.

Wanted Alive Mailbox School Grows

The correspondence school for prisoners has now found a home ar Heritage Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. We now have a walkin closet with plenty of shelf space. We are using 7 different courses and 2 children’s courses. This week I had the honor of enrolling a 5 year old and a 7 yaer old. Their daddy is serving a sentence in a minimum security unit in Northwesterm Oklahoma. The dad wrote me and asked if his wife could take a lesson even though she was not a prisoner. I sent one to her and our children’s course to the two kids. In just 3 or 4 days I got all the completed lessons back and the two youngsters wanted to enrol three more of their friends. I now have 5 of them and the mom too. If this keeps going that young mom will have her own little bible study group. I can’t describe to you the joy I get from helping young ones learn about Jesus. Please keep this mailbox ministry in your prayers. I can visualize having mailbox schools spread to hundreds of churches all over America. It is an excellent way for the church to use part of their tithes to educate inmates and build character in them and instill hope in the lives of their families. A good moral education for these young men and women is the only way to really fight the crime problem. Just locking people up does not help. Without the word of God the inmates come out worse than when they went in. Prisoners love to get mail. They will study God’s word if it is sent through the mail. During mail call you can hear a pin drop as inmates wait quietly waiting to hear their name called. Most prisoners never get any kind of mail.

Crystal City, Texas 12 Saved

In my last newsletter I mentioned Crystal Eaves who is ourJails Co-ordinator at the Crystal City Correctional Center, a private prison in Texas I went to visit Crystal there to encourage her and talk to her about speaking for her before the Pardon and Parole Board when they meet to consider her on October the 15th,1997. While I was there the Warden invited me to speak to all the girls that wanted to hear my testimony. We met with about 60 girls on the yard and I testified to them. Afterward we all read the 4 Spiritual Laws booklet together and 12 of the girls prayed the little sinner;s prayer that is written in the booklet. It was a very full and rewarding experience. Please remember to pray for these girls. Crystal City Correctional Center is located about a 2 hours drive out through the sage brush in Southwest Texas. Many of the girls are using their time there to learn about Jesus. Crystal has enrolled scores of them in mailbox bible studies and she also shows the Campus Crusade videos called the transferrable concepts on Wednesday nights.

Testimony Of Lore Marie Rooffener

My name is Lore Marie Rooffener. I’m 27 years old and a mother of three children. I was raised in a single parent home. My mother was an abusive, depressed, alcoholic raising two children by herself.

At the age of 14, I joined a Mexican gang. I began using drugs for fun. Soon it became my addiction. I married a drug dealer who supplied my habit up until our arrest. On March 14, 1994, my house was raided. Three kinds of drugs and guns were found in our home. I was arrested on 14 different counts of drug trafficking.

I was a 24-year old woman, lost, with no direction. I sat in an Oklahoma County Jail cell crying over what my life had become. The guilt and shame of my sinful life controlled all my thoughts. I felt hopeless and just wanted to die.

One morning I woke up and decided that I had to make a choice. Either I would choose to live and change my life, or choose to die and take my life. I got on my knees in my cell and asked God if He would forgive me for all the things I had done, and help me to change my life. I made a commitment that day to never turn back. I began to read my Bible and to do bible studies offered through the County Jail Chaplain’s Office.

For the first time in my life God became real to me. As I began to walk in fellowship with Christ, God began to change me.

After 17 months in County Jail they dropped 7 counts of drug trafficking. It was hard to see God’s hand in the situation because I was still left with 7 other counts that carry 10 years to life on each count. I became depressed and asked God to help me deal with what I was about to face. When I took my eyes off the situation and kept them focused on Him, things began to change. I went to court and was sentenced to 15 years on each count in the department of corrections. But praise God, Each sentence ran concurrently.

For three years, God has kept His hands on me during my incarceration. I was sent to a prison that held church services every night. God has blessed me to meet wonderful, God fearing people. He has taught me a lot about who He is, and what I am. Being a Christian did not come easy for me. I had a lot of old garbage to get rid of. However, today I know my purpose in life. That purpose is to tell other prisoners my experience, and bring someone into the family that I now have in Christ.

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