Spark's Notes Doing Time 15

October 11, 2015

    I've been dreading this day because I have to go and speak at a church in Peru Illinois that might be interested in supporting Berean prison ministry.  I was supposed to speak for about an hour at their adult Sunday school class first and then for about 10 minutes to the congregation before the main service.  During the congregational talk I got choked up when I told them how I told my father that I didn't want to help him with the jail ministry because I thought the inmates were getting what they deserved. I also told them how that the first Sunday that I attended the church service at the jail I was wondering who had committed the worst crime in the room and the Holy Spirit showed me that my pride was the worst sin on God's scale.  My shame was so great that tears were running down my face and I was wishing that I was somewhere else.  All of that changed when a man in the back of the church stood up and said "pastor, can I ask you a question?"  I thought he was a member of the congregation so I said " sure".  He said that he had been arrested over 100 times for things that he did not do and wondered if I could explain to him why the police would pick on him.  I told him that it sounds like the police were a lot like me in their judgement.  Then he confessed that his family wanted nothing to do with him and I told him that this church could be his family.  He walked from the back of the church to the podium, handed me a dollar, gave me a hug and then returned to his seat.  It wasn't a very large church congregation (maybe 50 people) but the freewill offering for Berean generated $452.  Many people in the congregation spoke with Carl afterwards.  He was homeless and sleeping outside.  I believe that church will help him as everyone recognized that God had planned the whole service.

HE IS AWESOME!!!

So if you know Spark tell him if you have enjoyed his notes and ask him to send more. This is the last one he has sent to be published. He has many many amazing stories of God working in the jails and prisons.