First Attempt

Diane drove Karin and me in to Meisters this morning for the Berean work. We were joined by Eva Jean, Rachel and David. We were so thankful for David. He was put to work hauling the heavy Bibles in and out of our office pretty much all morning.

 Rachel was put to work reading letters.

 Below a letter came in requesting an invoice with the Bible. Diane took that home to make an invoice. We have a few prisons that are now requesting that.

 Diane R was also put to work reading letters. 

 Karin worked on filling the boxes until the Bible labels were printed then worked on Bibles the rest of the time. We actually ran out of postage so 25 of the prisoners asking for Bibles will have to wait until Tuesday.

The prisoner who filled out this Bible study wrote a personal message to us at the bottom.

 This check came from a prisoner. Amazing he works for pennies an hour and yet sends his paycheck to us as his tithe. Truly a 'widow's mite'! 

 Below David is hauling Bibles in to the office, Karin is lining them up on the table to get ready for labels, postage and return addresses.

 Rachel, Diane and Eva Jean sealing all the envelopes with their special 'likkers' Everyone here loves their likker. 

I tried to make a short video of the Bible assembly line with my phone. I've never used that function before so if you watch the video just don't watch until the end. It was posted on the Berean Facebook page This was my first attempt and probably my last attempt on using the phone for a video. And now for a few letters of the day.

 The letter above we have some prisoner art and the letter below had us chuckling. This prisoner sent us a self addressed stamped envelope for us to mail him a Bible.

A Few Long Letters

Below are a few letters that came in on Thursday but were so long I waited until today when work is not so pressing to post them.
The first one was easy to read:
Chaplain Paul,
   A follow Christian gave me this info and your lesson #1 to the basic bible study program which is en-closed. Thank-you!
    He also told me that you may be able to help me get a bigger and better Bible.
    Buy bigger I mean large print and better King James study bible if possible.  Once again thank-you
The Second one:
Berean Prison Min
    Thanks so very much for my new large print KJV Bible and the bible studies.  these are awsome as i mention in last letter im  preparing A short storie serices called Gang Bangers for Christ.  I've never wrote A book befor. So far ive got 20 pages, the Testimonies are true life. 
   One other area i also need prayer on is building strucktured blue Prints, I would like to produce some Bible studies for inmates that short term and longer term inmates - some thing mats geared towards helping inmate being released to recognise triggers and areas of recidivism.. Some of you may have heard of Master Life, Make Peace w/ Past, theirs one called --- "Now Life Behavior" its a long studie but reveals a lot by Psycological and Biblical knowlege that exposes the componets of the life believer and human heart from childhood up.- Its good real good in itself but guys like me w/ rough childhood we take the course 203 times and something new is often revealed about my character each time.
   I had a Parole violation some years back, during this time i made it a point to study ISRael Jurney and destiny of Captivity over and over though written thousands of years ago the exact issues one humbly Speak to the had heart of men and women today. (confine). As matter of 
Fact while in jail I come across A work book Study from the Prison Outreach of Expected End Ministries. This is one the better workbooks the Holy Spirit talk to me on my bunk old test captivity a super good enlightlement God talk to me on my Bunk like this lady w/13 yrs. --- on back
  I Pray a door may open for you to check these Book The key to your expected End" one reason i like this book it inspire prisoners to take action - to reach out to God his Children it be A good out let a teach Platform for Courts to enist 1/2 way howse or Probation and Parole offenders- some juvieniles-
  I belive the compoents of this and New Life Behavior would produce good quality fruit among challange Society of those needing tools to create bldg block to goals ect destiny
  Im praying my druge charge will be dismissed, Mat i com get my house remodel get electirct back on their was fire May 14 damage wires city code has to green tag it. Pray i find a mentor & Sponser to work and at age 56 i pray i com get some rent housese reasonable so when i get older i have some income beside ssi.
    I like to become team leader helper so one day when its said done some one will say - that guy help me in a sad chapter of my life, now in sowing A seed for betterment of mankind.
  As A Gang Banger for Christ i see God places a lot of value on the human soul all walks of life.  Some like to fish they don't like the cleaning part but to me seeing the visual changes of people developing in Christ center life and Testimonies.  I will admit first pace of the world spin out control a bro needs purpose, structure- family friends at least i do i have no familly so i feel ald handycap at times and ive don time so at time i feel like few understand me. I humble appreciate you your prayer I feel them best off God hears answer them. Thank you again Bible studies
That was a long hard letter to read then type, but it is typed as written. Reading through this letter there were a couple real red flags. First the prisoner does not admit to why he is in prison (he writes it was a parole violation) which is what ALL INNOCENT prisoners claim. Although there were clues, he wants the drug charge dismissed and that there was a fire probably means he was cooking drugs. The good thing about the letter above is he really wasn't asking for anything other than prayers.
The next letter is typed below:
The guy last name is Worthy, he was the one God scent to me.  He ask if I would like Jesus to save me.  All I could do was say yes  As I started to pray he stop me and say we need two witness so he went to get two guy from the othe cell at the same time this lettle vise said all they want to do is use what you say against you so thay can get a dil from the judge so they can get out but I did not care by this time he came back with the to witness I started to pray again but this time I broke down and cry like a little bady hear I am in jail crying around man. I was alsway told you do cry in jail because so will try to make you his girl. But all I could do was cry because God live me as I and ask Jesus to save me from my sin and come it to my life to lead me in His well something happen in side me it was like everything wals going to be alright. I realy do not know how to put in words all I can say is Jesus Christ is my LORD and Savior and G-d
Praise G-d!!!! Thank you Jesus Christ!!!!
The next letter today was short and sweet:
   Sir first id like to thank you for sending the King James Reference Bible and the study lessons.  I greatly appreciate you taking time out to help me with request.  I am trying to turn my life around for the better cause I have 3 little boys and a  amazing wife whom I want to show the Lord can change people for the best.  I dont want my children to grow up in to the life I use to live so ive given my life to the Lord and asked him to guide me as I know he will. Thank you again for helping through this journey.  All your help is appreciated.  May God Bless You, Respectfully Yours
It is funny but the more letters we get the more we appreciate the short and to the point ones. It is hard to take the time to read and try to understand what the writer is wanting when the letters are long filled with misspelled words, poor or no punctuation, and bad hand handwriting. The next letter was written as an outline:
Hi! My name is Bieygene.  I would like to request a large print King Jaimes bible, for two reason.
     One: to further my walk with the Lord.
     Two: I like to read at breakfast time in the morning and its kinda hard to rad small print with a little bit of light I do have.  So if you would not mind sending me a large print King James bible I would be very thankful for it. I am at draper. Thank you and God bless.
The next had a prayer request. Our readers are asked to pray for each letter writer as they are reading them.
Dear Chaplain Paul and Berean Prison Ministry,
May God bless you and your ministry. I want to personally thank you for the bibles that you have provided for us here at Suwanne work camp. We did not have bibles, but now we do thank you very much.
     I have been praying for your ministry may God bless your ministry and my you lead many to Christ.  We all thank you and love you here at Suwonne work camp you are in our prayers.
     I have a prayer request please.

Prayer Request

Please pray that I win my appeal, which is in the appeals court. I was over sentenced and so I filed an appeal in hops to have my sentenced reduced.  Also pray for me and my fiancee we have both accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We are believers and wish to become married.  Please pray that we become married and God blesses our marriage. 

Thank you all very much. God Bless You!

The last letter I will type today is another long hard to read letter with very very small printing: He writes:

This is something I wrote one late night, I relized it may help someone somewhere so if you agree please use it!

To Whom it may Concern,

My name is Cody, I am a recovering meth addict.  I am currently incarcerated at bdcc on Simp Burglary, Criminal Consipiracy and drug paraf charges. I am a first time felone and must say, I never would have thought Id write a letter like this.  Im not sure to whom I'm writing so I keep it brief. Let me begin with no matter how you look at it, two or more wrongs never make a right.  I am 23 years old.  I have been locked up for almost two months.  I have a loving mother, like most, who I completely neglected in my pursuit of getting high.  Not only did I neglect her tho, my family in general, all of by real friends, everyone who cared about me, and even the people who went out of their way to tell me where I was going wrong at.  To everyone who believes they have a wrap on their drug additction, sorry but your wrong. You may say who am I to Judge, nobody im just saying its like playing with a snake. Its not if its gonna bite, its when! I was an extremest and did everything to the max so I found out fast, the bite is way nastier than the bark.  Most people describe me as a laid back, kind, good hearted person, that is until I choose the wrong path.  Everyones trails are different but if its anything like mine, theres only a few destinations.  I thank God for where i'm at, yea i'm behind bars, but it could be much worse-trust me.  We always seem to find Jesus in hard times, theres a reason for that we werent looking before ! OK yea I found God in prison and I'm proud because if I woudnt have, theres no telling what my life would be like.  We are not promised tomorrow and I want more people to know that.  The only promise I can give is that knowing he is in my life now, I am no longer worried about what tomarrow holds.  He will guide me through it. I don't have a doubt in my mind, whenever I do know freedom again, I will appreciate every bit of it.  More than ever.  I cant wait to hold the one I love and who love me, I cant wait to eat good home cooked food again. I cant wait to play with my dog again. Thats what Jesus has done for me, and my path with him is just begining. Of course Im ready to go home, but it will happen eventually, and when it does im having a funeral for the old guy I was and a welcoming party for the new man Ive become. I guess my message is to anyone who can relate - life is short and when its over which road would you have rather taken?

Hard Workers, NOT Just a Job

The walk was cancelled again with the temperature below zero. At least the wind wasn't blowing too hard. I drove in early to pick up the mail before the Berean volunteers arrived. Below Diane is opening more of the plastic sleeves we use to mail out the Bibles.

 Rachel is opening and reading letters

 Eva Jean is opening the studies

 Rhoda is also opening the studies

Below Diane R and Rachel busy reading letters.

 Below Lisa's boys are busy stamping our return address on thousands of envelopes. This is one job that we never have finished. We use close to 1000 each Tuesday and Thursday.

 We had a good crew today and were able to finish everything by 2:00 pm. Below everyone is working hard a very necessary job.

 My cousin Dave Meister III (Skip) arrived so we showed him what our volunteers were busy with today. Skip is also on the Berean board. Below the workers in the conference room were busy putting stamps on the studies. That pile of studies on the table was just 2 days of mail.

 By 2:00 pm we were all ready to quit. Mark came with me to the post office to help with the Bible boxes. This week we got out 285 Bibles from our office alone.  Peoria County Jail, Tazewell County Jail, Sheridan Correctional facility plus a bunch more jails in prisons all over the United States take these Bibles and give them to prisoners. The number going out of Berean is probably more than 2000 a month but it is hard to know the exact count.
So do we treat this as a job? We actually had a prisoner write that today, below is the note:

Would you guys read this?  

I've been with you guys in 21 lessons now and write a small letter each time.  My question is ---Why doesn't anyone ever write back?  I just get a lesson - No feedback.  Do you care about me or is it just a job?  I went to court on Feb 4 and was sentenced to 10 months probation & a faith based program. Now, will you guys pray that I make a first good Impressation, and make Friends, & Find Joy in the Lord there.  I'm a little scared and really need your prayers. PLEASE!!!
Rachel wrote a nice note back that we will pray for him and don't treat this like a job we are all volunteers. We have OVER 34,000 prisoners taking this study and will try to encourage our graders to remember to write notes on the studies.
The next letter was very neatly printed and easy to read but kind of sad. This prisoner writes:
First off I would like to say, I am a new Christian and sometimes find it extremely hard to stay on the straight and narrow.  I serverly fall victim to temptation.  And to respond to the question marked wrong, I put "No" to following the saying of Jesus is, because I am not fully a Christian, and I fall prey to temptation like gossip, lust for women, etc. because the Devil knows my weaknesses; which is why I am trying to grow spiritually so I only answered the question with sincere honesty.  And no I did not misread the question by any means, So I guess that leaves I'm not yet Born Again if that means I'm spiritually weak...
And I am in Prison, because I made payroll checks on sucessful corporations like wal-mart, Dillards etc. And I myself cashed one.  So there is no room left for imagenation, because now you know.  And I would like to thank you for helping me in strengthing my spiritual weakness. God Bless You 
PS Your not kind of offended me. 
The letter below asked for color, the Bible we send out has color maps in the back so one of our volunteers wrote on his study to look at the back of his Bible.
I would like to thank you very much for my nice New Bible.  Also this is my first ever Bible study. So far I enjoy looking up all the versus. When you mail back my next studies can you all so mail me in color some pictures of all the countries around the world. All of the oceans and Islands included. It helps to know where other place are on a map. Maybe some pics off the internet of maps around the world. Thank you very much God Bless.
Diane R was sufficiently chastised by the letter below, hey we were just glad SHE opened it and not us:
 I am very disturbed by the peoples actions that you work for do you people work for god.  I asked that my wife to be, might recieve a bible from you people, she has lost a lot of faith behind your not sending her a Bible that I promised she would get about two weeks ago. I kept it a secret until then. I guess I made a mistake thinking that you and god would make her day with one of your beautiful Bibles like you sent to me. 
Every time we get a request like that we write on their study that EACH MUST REQUEST OWN BIBLE and we wrote it AGAIN on his study. We don't have many rules but the number one rule in this ministry is that EACH MUST REQUEST OWN BIBLE. Of course the next letter Diane R opened was a nice thank you. The next letter Diane R opened though was a very nice thank you note mentioning how amazing our program is.   He wrote to request a Bible and 2 weeks later had a brand new Bible. The next letter was just a nice short thank you note:
Thank you for helping me with my walk with the Lord.  It is really helping me out with things that I would never be able to overlook in my life.  I just thought I would tell you that the Bible study's that you all are sending really does help me out.  I hope that it helps other people just as much as it helps me out. Thank you very much for your time that you are giving to everyone.

4000 Pounds

After a uncomfortably cold morning walk Diane drove me in to Meister's for our usual Tuesday Berean work. Not long after we arrived Jacob delivered 2 skid loads of wrapped Bibles, that was 120 boxes of Bibles each box weighing in at 32 pounds and all 120 boxes needed to be taken off his truck and loaded into the foyer of Meisters. They were so heavy we were a little afraid the floor was going to cave in so spread them out  in 3 different locations. We formed a chain to get them off the truck and into the building with Jacob on the truck handing a box at a time to Mark who would hand it to me.

 I would hand it to Elden, Elden would hand it to Joe's son and Diane would show them were to put it. by the time we were done we had Bibles in 3 locations around the room. 

While that was going on we had our normal group of volunteers opening and reading the mail.

 Above not pictured is Eva Jean then Shirley, Dave and Kathy are all working on letters and below Joyce is working on the studies

 We had almost more letters come in today than studies but with such good help we were able to finish by noon. Below Kathy and Dave are reading the letters then putting them in order by city which makes it easier to enter them on the computer.

Because we got done by noon we had a leisurely lunch at Dennys.  I brought some of the letters home but don't have time to post them tonight. That will have to be done tomorrow, it's almost 11:00 pm here, way past my bedtime.

A Prisoner's Request

Gail Hodel sent through a couple items for here and the Berean Facebook page.
The first is a request form sent in by a prisoner. When we read this we all started laughing.

The name has been blotted out but hopefully it can still be read, if not this is what the prisoner is requesting.  Can I please get a different conditioner... Not the M.O.P. kind. It makes my head itch bad.  Also need pencil and eraser and if possible a valentines card for a six yr. old girl (granddaughter) and one for my daughter also.  God Bless and Thank you. And a get out of Jail free card if you have one of those... LOL :o)
Nice to see there is still a sense of humor when one is locked up. The second is a poem that was written and read by a prisoner today in the Sunday jail service. Gail writes: Author read this today. She started crying while she read it. Very touching. 

This says: I Don’t ever want to see the inside

Of these walls again

So I’ll say to you

See  you later my sister

See you later my friend

This is not good by no

But something I need to do.

So Lord here is my hand

I want to be made brand new

Make me brand new Lord

I need a new way

Open my eyes Lord, to a brighter Day

Fill me with your Holy Spirit Lord

And show me the way

Make me brand New Lord

Please here what I say

I surrender I submit

To your will Lord and your way

So make me brand new

Right now here today

AMEN

Doing Time 10 He's in the Pods!

This is the 10th installment of Spark's notes as chaplain at the Peoria County Jail. This is also the last of what he gave me so if you know Spark and want to hear more start hounding him for more stories. I'm sure there are thousands of stories.
He's in the pods!
   Only about 100 of the approximately 400 men at the Peoria county jail are allowed to attend the church services on Sunday morning. The jail allows us to send approved volunteers back to the pods that are not allowed to attend so that we can have a Bible study in the pod.  A pod consists of about 14 cells in a 2 story room with about 3 round tables on the first level.  After the guard lets us in we invite anyone that's interested to come and sit around one of the tables. Amy times we only get a few that will come down to the table at the start, but when you start reading, the Word draws them with their questions and thoughts.  Sometimes it's hard to get out when it's time to leave.  There are one-way glass windows on the second level where the guards can observe the pods.  I was nervous the first time I went back in the pods.  When it was time to leave the door didn't open and no guard came to let me out.  All kinds of thoughts go through your mind when you think about where you are and who you're with.  One of the inmates said, "we'll get you out."  Now I'm thinking " will this be legal?"  He and some of the  other inmates take their shoes off and start throwing them at the one-way glass. Sure enough, eventually the electric lock on the door clicks and I'm out. 
    My brother-in-law had an interesting experience in the pod that he told me about.  Fedi decided to go into the work release pod one Sunday to see if anyone was there.  There was only one inmate there and he was playing darts. (work release has more amenities than the regular pods) The inmate told Fedi "My god is what ever makes me happy at the time." He told Fedi that he had played darts competitively and that's what he wanted to do now.  Fedi, who had played darts only about 3 times in his life, asked him if he wanted to play a game and that if Fedi won they would have a Bible study.  The inmate said, "you're on".  After Fedi had beat him so badly, (three bull's eyes), and the inmate found out that he had only payed darts 3 times in his life, he asked Fedi how this could be.  Fedi told him that he had prayed first and told God that if God wanted this inmate to hear the word He would have to help Fedi win.  They had a good Bible study.
Below are a few letters that came in on Wednesday.
In this first letter, there are capital letters where ever this prisoner thinks they are important and no capital letters where he believes they are not.
Sir Could you Please Send me a Large Print Bible. 
     and any other Books that will help me grow Spiritually.  any thing on faith or Concerning the Spirit of God.  I don't Read anything Worldly.  such Books an't Spiritual I will Not Read.  your help in this Matter is Really Needed.  without Christ Jesus as the Center of My life, Life is defeated, so daily I surrender my will to him. My Walk is a Walk of faith, Not sight, feelings or my emotions.  So if you Could Please give me favor before you as I have of God through Christ Jesus Luke 2-52. to be in Prison I am free Spiritually! the Word says if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed So I am free. 
Thank you Very Much!
The next letter was encouraging for us and yes we did as asked:
Dear chaplain & Members
I will be released from Jefferson county Jail and going back home on Feb 6th, 2015. I have served my time and have learned a lot about Jesus, The Father, and myself during the past 6 months of lock-up and I want to thank yall for the lessons and keeping me grounded in the Word of God.  I would like to continue these lessons while at home and continue to learn more about the Word through your help.  If it's possible can you send my next lessons to my home address. Please and Thank you!
The next letter came as a response to one of our many many graders.
Hi, Hope this finds you in good health and happeness. I got the lesson that you graded and I got the  this one.  I love doing these I have leared so much through these Bible lesson's.  You ask me if I went by the name Bad and the answer is yes.  Tell Bad Rad hi and I am praying for him and his mother and father. It really feels great to get small letters from people. I reall don't have nobody out there that wrights.  The one's that are still here do not write.  I learn a lot from these studies but most of all I get to meet wonderful sisters and brothers in Christ. Thank you for letting God work through you to uplift me with these special words.  May God Bless you all. 
ps I could not tell what your name is. 
Our graders are instructed to write encouraging words on the studies, especially if the prisoner has really tried. Now I'm not sure who Bad Rad is and the other words are typed as the prisoner wrote them. The next letter had a question we actually get asked many times:
I am including the letter because I will be getting out in a few weeks, but I would like to complete my lessons and receive my certificate.  I've just completed lesson 44.  Is there any way possible that I could still complete my lessons when I get out?  I really would like to finish, especially since I am so close to finishing.  I would dearly appreciate it.  I don't like to start something and not finish my goal.  Thanks very much for you very much for your consideration.  I have really enjoyed doing these Bible studies.  They have really changed me and my way of thinking. 
We wrote on his lesson that if he returns it with his home address we will continue to send the lessons and his certificate once finished. The next letter again typed as written had us chuckling:
I am sorry it took  me so long to send back these next lessonds.  I have had a brain tumor operation and my brain was going down into my ear and I almost died.  had to learn how to think a little bit all over again but now I am comeing back with Gods blessings and answeres to many many prayers. I look forward to finisking this corse because if I don't I will feel like I let the evil one win one and I'm not going to let that happen again. Thank you for your patience.
The last letter I will post today is actually a sad one:
I am stuck in jail for something I have not done.  I have lost all people and things in my life. I do not have money to purchase a bible. I would like to learn more about how to help others so I can fullfill what it is God wants me to do here, so I can get out. and try to get my family back. 
Diane picked up Emily and I for our usual Thursday Berean work. We were joined by Eva Jean, Diane R, Tiffany, Rachel and Terren.
All the mail today was just 1 day's worth of mail, just Wednesday's mail as Ellen didn't pick up today's. Below Tiffany and Rachel are working on Bibles while Terren is stamping our address on thousands of envelopes.

 When he got 2 boxes finished Diane put him to work on opening copy paper. Diane kept that copier running none stop today.

 Below Diane R, Diane and Eva Jean are opening mail and reading letters. Emily helped for a while then started entering the studies on the computer.

 Once the labels are on the envelopes the studies are taken into the conference room to separate into the piles by number. The stuffing of the new studies are also done in that room.

There were 8 of us working and all of us kept busy from 9:00 am to noon. We dropped off the Bibles at the post office and ate lunch at Tyroni's.

The Number is 25,000

Diane brought mom, I drove in by myself as did Rachel as after our Berean work Diane and mom were going shopping at Kroger, Rachel was heading over to Pekin to grocery shop and I was headed to Sam's club and Aldi. The roads were not good on the way in to Peoria, snow covering a layer of ice. It was hard to actually stop at the stop signs, the car just kept sliding through the intersections. I'm very glad there isn't much traffic out here. The temperature was at -6 when we went out to feed and -3 driving in to Peoria. We had a good group of volunteers today. Below is Tiffany working on stuffing envelopes, Dylan stuffing the Bibles into the sleeves, Rachel and mom reading letters, and Eva Jean opening the studies.

Diane kept the copy machine running full blast today and Terren was stacking Bibles once Dylan was done filling them.

 Diane R arrived and was put to work stacking Bibles then stuffing envelopes.

 We had a light mail day and were able to finish by noon although we ran out of postage for Bibles and then ran out of Bibles. Ellen got more stamps printed off, Diane drove to TEMCO to pick them up and we were able to mail out all the Bibles we had. I think we were 24 Bibles short. Sure hope the Roanoke and Goodfield young groups get busy wrapping and by Tuesday we can get another thousand Bibles in. Diane ordered 25,000 of the plastic sleeve envelope we send the Bibles out in and another 25,000 postage paid business reply envelopes. We went to Denny's for lunch and were joined by Dan, Mark and Philip. After lunch I bought 12 loaves of honey wheat bread from Aldi's along with some cuties (little easy to peel oranges) and muffins at Sams then drove to church to drop off the food for Sunday. Johnny Hoerr had just pulled in to start plowing the parking lot.

 That is such a big job. It had a good 6 inches of fresh snow covering the entire lot. We will have tall mountains of snow piled up at the back of the lot by the time he is done. A big thank you to Johnny!

I brought home a few letters from prisoners. The first letter was hard to read so the words in parentheses are what I think he wanted to write:
Berean Prison Ministry, 
Hollow (hello) i have recive the bible from you. And i want to thank you from the bottom of my heart it was a blessing to me.  I was wondering what i could give yall. I have any money.  So one way is to let yall know that i will use it other is to give yall a small testimony to let yall know what God had done. let me start with my name is Rey i am 40 years old and i am doing a 6 year sentenecs (sentence) well i was a gangamember from that i started selling drugs with this time i have shoot 2 time in the back shoot other time in the am and stambed (stabbed)2 time in the leg and when i got shoot one weekend the next weekend got shoot again. and those were the times i was hit there were many more times now you tell me that that devil was trying to get me.  But my God was there all them time he wouldn't let the devil take me then i didn't know that i was looking for something to fill what i was messing (missing) inside. I tryed everything belive me. And i belivie that if God tooks care me all them time and i me all them time he haves something big for me.  I thank (think) God put me in here for me to leancen (lean or learn) to him i was always on the move.  Now that i have thanks (things) have been changing. I know when God is ready to let me go i will be a new man from the in side out God talked to me can you belive that me who would thank (think) you my God loves me. I can ask him the smallies things and i turn around and someone will come and tell me what i just asked him.  I would just thank (think) it was luck. No i would just ask something just to see everytime God is good well i have to stop doing it my way now i am doing his way. I am in a maximum secretly (security)  prison and there is a lot of anger Hate saness (sadness?) here I can feel it all the time around me but with all that is going on i feel love joy pices (peace) i tell God i don't want to be here i did like you  God does it's not time to me to leave yet so senck (sent) me to a trusty camp. So that's were i am at right now. That was just a lil of my testimony so thank yall and god bless you. Please let your ministry know that they are making a diffenc (difference) ! Thank You Rey
The second letter was much easier to read, printed up very neatly:
Dear Sir,
I got your address from a friend, and I helped him do his bible study so we could play Spaides, a card game.  I found the study very interesting.  Will you please send a large print Bible to me?  I'm 52 years old and my eyes are growing dim, Also will you send me the Bible studies? 
P.S. Thank you, and God, Bless you.
The last letter for today:
Dear Friend in Christ
I really appreciate the bible you was kind enough to share with me.  I would sure put it to good use.  I have been a son of the Lord for almost four years now. I have to admit that it is hard being a child of God and living in the same image of his son Jesus Christ.  And living by his laws which he put before us AMEN.
I would love very much if you will add me in your prayer. I'm always asking the Lord to free me from this prison and gives me another opporturity to go out in the world. And let everyone know that Jesus Christ died on that cross to save us of All of OUR Sins. I wish you every success in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. 
May God bless you and let his light shine down upon you and your loving family etc. Your brother in Christ Charles