The Sailors Family

Who knew you could find free hearts and kindred spirits in a maximum security prison. Barry Strickland, NWA Missionary Leader of our Texas branch, has been a part of prison ministry with Kairos for over 3 years. Kairos is a valuable ministry in and of itself, but Barry’s desire was to bring what we do through NWA and the message of the heart as well as the new covenant into the prison. Through Kairos, Barry met Father Casey, an Anglican Priest, who is the director of Christian Prison Ministry. Papa Casey is a volunteer chaplain at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, George Beto Unit in Tennessee Colony, Texas. Barry and Casey became fast friends and through that friendship, Barry was able to assemble a team and bring Wild at Heart into the prison.

It was August of 2007. There were 190 men in white prison clothes. Some with Bibles and others with smirks. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into and neither did I when I visited the Beto unit a year after Barry’s work began.

Last night Mark and I, along with my new friends, Buck Rodgers and Papa Casey, with Barry went to Wednesday night chapel. I had been to a prison before, but never to a maximum security unit. I was surprised, but I did not feel any reservations. I felt very free.

We got there early and got a chance to hang out with some of the inmates. Guys like Wilcox, a long timer who is a major encourager and works in the library. Other guys like Pablo and Eli who work in Chaplain’s office and minister to many of the inmates before they get to the Chaps. There were men like Yates, a long timer who is always smiling and has a servants heart. These men are freehearters!

After being there for about an hour, we went down the prison halls. Some wings felt very dark and ominous whereas others you could feel the joy of the Lord. We passed through one of the darker sections on the way to the Craft Shop, a place of major light on the darker north side. These guys are major talents. They surely are not cutting out construction paper hats and airplanes but rather making some of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever scene. Picture elaborate leather work, hand tooled and precise. Think of amazing jewelry makers and carpenters; craftsman of every sort.

After our visit in the craft shop, we headed back to the chapel where the praise band was practicing for Sunday worship. These guys are amazing. One of which, the guitar player, is a studio player. They rocked and were really worshiping the Lord.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of a chapel, I generally think of a nice little white building, with a few pews, a bench to kneel at and a stained glass window. The Beto chapel is more like a gymnasium. It will seat over 600. It has some amazing artistry. From murals all over the walls depicting beautifully many different scenes from the Bible to stained glass and baptistry laden with beauty. All of this art done by inmates.

This trip made a major impact on me. Many of these men, although locked up with many of them serving life sentences, are free of heart. Barry and Casey’s work as well as the team has and is making such a major impact. I am really look forward to reconnecting with these men again sometime in the future and am excited to hear stories from Barry about the healing and rehabilitation that is taking place there. Please be praying for the ministry NWA is doing in the prison in Texas and for further opportunities to impact men wherever they are!

Tags: Beto, Prison, Texas, Wild at Heart

Ron is one of a kind. (Ron, from moreron.com) There is no doubt that he is a man of God who loves his family while rooting for the wrong team in baseball. But there is also no doubt that he is one of the most unique creatures God has ever made! God broke the mold with Ron…not only in his stature as a man, but also in his personality.

Ron loves music. Good music like Eric Peters, Andrew Peterson and The Normals… Normal, however, is not a word I would stretch for Ron. He’s like 7 foot 10, or whatever, with Andre the Giant hands as well as the Giant’s amazing good looks, like one of the Soggy Bottom Boys .

As I was thinking about Ron and his website, I thought I would ask one of the experts on Ron…his friend and employer…Aaron Kenny from Safe Eyes. This is what Aaron had to say about Ron:

Ron is one of the biggest geeks I know. Literally…have you seen him, he is HUGE! He has a watermelon of a head, that is usually adorned with a Yankees ball cap, which I think was originally made to be an advertising banner on a water tower. One of the funniest things to watch, is Ron typing on his BlackBerry with his sausage-sized fingers. In college, his huge ogre feet earned him the name “The Cat Crusher” when he killed a poor kitten by jumping on it.

The only thing bigger than his physical size is his opinion of himself. He is always telling people they “can’t get enough Ron”, or that they need “More Ron!” He likes to talk about his “awesomness”, that he claims is being extracted for a new drink call Diet Mountain Ron.

But if you have spent anytime around Ron it will be obvious that the biggest things to him are his Family, his Friends, and his Music.

Go to Ron’s blog! I know it will in-lighten-u! Ron is a good friend and likes to have fun, his blog is one worth reading. From his whit to his rants from his encouraging words to his views on politics and the church, you will never be bored. Hold on to your seats and go to: www.moreron.com and get ya a little more of Ron!

Tags: Blog, morons, Ron Davis

I have been reading A Child is Born, a book about the process of having a baby with very vivid pictures of the whole process (no we are not trying to have a baby right now and are not pregnant). It is so beautiful to see how life is formed and how intricate God’s design is. He is the master craftsman and has called us through our intimacy with each other and him to create life.

One thing that struck me was the baby human’s journey. Once conception occurs, the embryo makes its way down the fallopian tube over an 8-10 day journey on it’s way to the uterus . It’s looking for a safe environment to be cultivated. It knows it has to find a hiding place in the folds of its mother.

This journey, however, is full of possible problems. From the mother’s bodily rejection to getting hung up at the mouth of the uterus, the road to life is treacherous.

Once the embryo finds its way to that environment of cultivation, rapid multiplication occurs. It is a very beautiful thing. The baby at its embryonic stage explodes into, at first hundreds and then thousands and millions of cells. All coded to do different things to make the whole of the body.

We could run with this analogy for a long time. Going through the whole process of pregnancy. However, I want to get to what God was speaking to me about through all of this.

1. Journey

2. Intimacy

Don Williams Jr says, “The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”

So often, over the years, I have got caught up in my desire to get to the destination. I would work so hard to get there and not enjoy the process of getting there. Or, especially in painful situations, like my father’s death, I would block out what was going on at the moment in leu of helping others in essence robbing myself of the much needed grief and magnitude of the moment.

Our society tells us that we do not have to experience pain or loss. It says that we do not have to experience rejection or make hard decisions. Society often says, “take the easy way out!”

The ‘Journey’ builds the man. It builds character, trust and authenticity.

Our souls long for intimacy with God. We are designed for that. And if we do not give our heart’s to Christ and have intimacy with God, we will most definitely give our intimacy and need for God over to something else.

The above analogy reminds me of the scripture of a mother hen gathering her children under her wings of protection.

God wants us to run to him during our journey. He is desiring great closeness and intimacy. I know for me, it is difficult. I move through life at a feverish pace much of the time. Not stopping during my journey to experience the fullness of each moment.

Charles Spurgeon says,

Jesus feels for thee; Jesus consoles thee; Jesus will help thee. No monarch in his impregnable fortress is more secure than the cony in his rocky burrow. The Master of ten thousand chariots is not one whit better protected than the little dweller in the mountain’s cleft. In Jesus the weak are strong, and the defenceless safe; they could not be more strong if they were giants, or more safe if they were in heaven. Faith gives to men on earth the protection of the God of heaven. More they cannot need, and need not wish. The conies cannot build a castle, but they avail themselves of what is there already: I cannot make myself a refuge, but Jesus has provided it, His Father has given it, His Spirit has revealed it, and lo, again tonight I enter it, and am safe from every foe.

Run to Jesus beloved and enjoy the journey and growth with Christ.

Tags: Desire, Intimacy, Journey, Spurgeon