Happy Tuesday!

I just sent my paper off to Bruce for editing, revising etc…and in a little while I will send this off to him for the same task. What would I do without him!!

I have missed writing to you these past few nights. Happening #40 was the most amazing Happening in a long time. There were 8 participants. We were in Zion Lutheran Church in McGregor, TX. It is a really beautiful church in a really small town that has a church bell with a rope that can be heard all over town when rung. Travis was told repeatedly as we would walk up the stairs for times of worship not to touch the rope!

Bruce will leave for the Kairos Prison Ministry in Wichita Falls, TX early Thursday morning. Our freezer is filled with cookies, Bruce has written his talk that he will give inside the prison. Bruce will be serving as a table leader on this weekend and will attend the closing event on Sunday. The closing event allows “free world” people to sit with the “brothers in white” as the men share what this weekend has meant to them. It is a very powerful and moving time in the weekend.

Ephesians 1:7 “In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death, and so we have forgiveness of sins.”

In a prison no one is free. The brothers in white are locked away in a place where there is no trust in anyone; where human life is expendable over a cigarette or a piece of chocolate; where humiliation happens numerous times per day and these souls have no control over their own lives. Freedom is something these men have only heard about and few have not experienced in a very long time.

Jesus spoke of freedom. But Jesus spoke of freedom that does not come through power, but through submission. This freedom does not come through control but through surrender. This freedom does not come through possessions, but through open hands. God wants to free His people and turn them from slavery into sons and have them governed not by law but by love.

The Kairos Prison Ministry offers a remarkable ministry that is partly facilitated through cookies. 2,000 dozen cookies are home baked and sent to one of these weekend events. Each participant is given a dozen cookies for just themselves Thursday evening. Then, Friday evening, after they have heard talks about loving others, are given a dozen to give to their best friend. On Saturday evening, after hearing about forgiveness, they are given a dozen cookies to present to their worst enemy. In prison your worst enemy could desire to take your life. The risk these men take in this simple cookie presentation is enormous. But they go forward in faith with Jesus covering their back and attempt to make peace with one who wants to kill them. They make this presentation as forgiven sinners and covered in the blood of Christ. They may be prisoners on the earth, but their spirits have been loosed in heaven and are condemned no more.

Do we live in prisons of our own making? Are we free? Yes, we are free through the blood of Jesus that covers us and washes away all of our sins and presents us as clean before the Father. Jesus did not come to judge us, but to love us and model the life God intended. We need not be prisoners any more. We are truly free. And when the Son makes you free, you are free indeed.

Please pray for the Kairos weekend. Pray for the safety of the team and the spiritual growth of the participants. Pray that I may sleep while Bruce is gone.

Take care my friends. I love you bunches. Love, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.