Monday, January 19, 2015

Doing Time 5 Monday-Morning-Phone-Call

This is the 5th installment of Spark's Notes on Jesus doing time at the Peoria County Jail written Jan 27th, 2014:
   I'm writing this on a Monday morning half waiting for a phone call I know I won't receive. Uncle Ed passed away about 6 months ago and before that happened I would always get a Monday morning phone call and he would say, "Spark, I need you to come down here and see me sometime today.  Call first and make sure I'm here."  These calls started right after dad died in 2004.  Before that he would call and say, "Spark, do you know where your dad is?  Can you tell him I need to see him.  Have him call first to make sure I'm here." He was almost always there.  Most of the time all he needed to talk about was the blessing we had received during Sunday services.  He was always so excited about what the Holy Spirit had done either through audience participation or the preacher.  I would receive that same call on other days of the week also, and when I would go down to his office it might be about a donation check he had just gotten in the mail for Berean Ministries.  One time it was a large check, another time it was a $50.00 check that came from an elder of our church that was on the west coast.  The one I think he was most excited about was for about $3.00.  It came with a letter from an Illinois correctional facility.  The inmate had found the Lord through the Berean Prison Ministry and wanted to tithe from his pay he received for working in the bakery at the prison.  He was serving an 18 year sentence and is now on work release at the time of this writing.  He has been faithful to God and has tithed for years now.  He writes to us every month and has been nominated for early parole.  I hope he gets it. Uncle Ed had numerous inmate's names in his memory that he would say, "if he was the only one saved, it would still be worth it." I used to think these calls were a pain, but now I miss them. 

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