PRAISE THE LORD I just received a call from the Park View Care Center in Buffalo. Marvin Schaar, the man with muscular dystrophy I’ve been visiting for the past seven years, passed away at 6:30 this morning. It was beyond time for him to go. He was a vibrant man who was 6’4” and 210 […]
LITTLE ALICE “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 Grandchildren are one of God’s greatest blessings. They are among the little children Jesus was talking about in Matthew 19:14. Little Alice graduated from kindergarten this past Monday. My wife and I were there to witness her […]
PRAY FOR JOE AND YOURSELVES I have been visiting Joe in a county jail once a week for the past few months. He is a hardheaded and angry young man who sees himself as a victim of the legal system and not as the perpetrator of a crime. You see, Joe has accepted Jesus Christ […]
TYLER GRADUATED!!! Remember I told you Tyler had a difficult time finishing what he started. The last thing he completed was high school, and that was by the skin of his teeth. Yesterday, he became certified as a Peer Specialist with 100 % attendance and A’s in all his coursework. He aced his final test […]
TYLER GOES TO SCHOOL Tyler has signed up for a nine-month Computer Support Specialist program at the Takoda Institute of Higher Education in Minneapolis. While going to school, he is able to stay at the New Hope Center, less than a mile away. In May, he will be graduating from the eight-month rehab program he […]
God’s Pocket Last Friday, as I left a medical clinic in Buffalo, I came across a grizzled, old black man sitting on a bench with what I assumed was all his worldly possessions in a large duffle bag. What was his story, I wondered? Where had he been? Where was he going? I didn’t ask […]
ABOUT TIM I gave a talk last night at Metro Hope Ministries, a Christian transition house in South Minneapolis. Tim approached me after the conclusion, eager to tell me something that was on his mind. “The cost of recidivism [committing the same crimes and returning to jail] is more than $30,000 per prisoner per year. […]
AMAZING GRACE If you’ll remember, this past February 10 I gave a presentation on Staying Out of Jail at the Wright County Jail, using the book Arm in Arm with the Holy Spirit as a reference. I gave free copies of the book to all 31 inmates who showed up that night. On March 5, […]
REDEDICATED Michael is the inmate I’m mentoring who is serving an eight-year sentence in a state prison. I previously referred to him as Rafael. He called me last Sunday to inform me he’d been baptized for the third time – at birth, before his marriage, and now. I thought I knew why but asked anyway […]
ABOUT JAKE 2 A month ago, I posted this entry on my blog. I had prison ministry last Sunday, with three inmates attending – Tim, Jake, and Jake. I had a sense from the Holy Spirit that something special was going to happen, and it did. There were two true believers who came in the […]