Another delivered from prison

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1)

Yesterday afternoon we went back to the jail. (And yes, it was voluntary, and yes, they let us out when we asked, so get that smirk off your face!)

Missionary Jim Wilhelm went with us, since he's still in town (he'll be preaching tomorrow at the church.)

Last Saturday, by the time I got around to the last one-man cell, I was in a hurry -- time was running short, since we'd spent a long time at some of the other cells. There was a young hispanic man there, whom I asked if he read English. Since he did, I left him some literature and told him if he had any questions, to ask us when we came back through.

Well, this week with Brother Wilhelm, we were able to split up and get more done quickly. Pastor Gibbs led one man to the Lord in the 14-man cell while Wilhelm and I went through the 40-man cell and two-man cells. When we got to Adrian, I asked him if he had any questions from what he'd read. He said, "I read it, and I got to the end, and it say, 'What do you want for your life?' I want my life to change. Can I do this now?"

Fruit doesn't come much riper. I walked him through the plan of salvation again to make sure he understood, then led him in the sinner's prayer. He lives right near the church, so we're hoping that when he gets out of jail, he'll get into church, and he really will have a changed life.

This has been a great week or so for professions of faith. Adrian and the other man made professions in the jail on Friday. Brother Wilhelm led two to the Lord on visitation Thursday, and another pair of men from the church reached a young woman who had just started to descend into Mormonism. (I'm going back to visit her with them today.) This same pair led a boy to the Lord on Tuesday night visitation (one of this pair is actually a young man for whom these were his first two nights on visitation -- he's really fired up now!). I had another profession of faith in the jail last Friday (Robert, who also lives locally, and he and his cell-mate were showing some very good signs this week), and the older man in that pair from our church had another profession of faith last Thursday (mother of the boy they talked to on Tuesday).

Of course, things rarely go this well for long without a little hitch, whether that's just averages playing out, or whether there's something more to the problems. I'll talk about that hitch a little later.