Since I had a thought a short time ago of possibly pulling off of Holloway Street the Lord has showed me a number of situations that confirm I am not going anywhere. Today while visiting the Durham County Jail with Chaplain Vinny Abbruscato there was yet another one. We were visiting with three inmates when another one tapped on his window pointing to me and saying that he wanted to see me. When we finished up with the others he came out and sat down. He looked kind of familiar but I could not place him. As he started telling about his visit to the ministry it brought back to my mind our meeting. He had looked at the wall as I ministered to him. He is a young Crip gang member in the jail on a murder charge. He had also brought his gang affiliated brother back to show him the wall. For those that do not know the wall is in our headquarters located at 1512 Holloway Street and it contains all those that have been murdered since I started ministry here in Durham. (January of 2009) There are over 250 names on the wall now. Chaplain Vinny and I saw a great deal of potential in this young man as he spoke to us. What was really something was his honesty. Chaplain Vinny asked him if he committed the murder and he confessed to us that he did it. One thing we find is that just about everyone in jail are not guilty of what they are in there for. Law enforcement just goes around and picks these people up for no reason? He told us of how he had no intention of it going down the way it did. All that was going to happen is that the man was going to be robbed and that was it. There were times of tears but he was quick to wipe them away so that no fellow inmates would see any of what they would call weakness.
As we continued talking with the young man he said that he would not be able to do before the district attorney and say the same thing that he said to us. That quickened me to start into the scriptures with him. I asked Chaplain Vinny to open his Bible to Revelation 21:8 as I continued talking with him. I asked him the question “what would you be doing if you went before the district attorney and told them a different story”? He said, “I would be lying”. I then asked Chaplain Vinny to read the verse.
Revelation 21:8 "But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
We talked to him about the importance of doing what was right in the Lord’s eyes. He told us then of his concerns about getting a heavy sentence like life or the death penalty. I quickly responded with “if you were able to get an attorney to get you off on a lesser consequence you would still have to face the Lord one day and pay in full for the sin that you have committed”! I assured him that if he did not do this the right way that one day his sentence would be eternal hell! We assured him that if he was going to go the right way with the Lord that we would be right by his side throughout this charge. I looked him in the eyes and said, “if you want to lie and not be faithful to the Lord then I have to be honest with you and tell you that I will not stand with you”. He had told us about his 2-year-old son and we talked to him about the importance of being honest and upright so one day his son could be proud of him. I pulled a picture out of Micaiah and told him of the things I am already doing in his life to bring him up right in the Lord and to have him be proud to have me as a dad. He listened very intently as the tears welled up in his eyes! He like so many others told us of how his dad was not there for him. This is a massive problem in dealing with the youth today. “Baby-mama/Baby daddy” is a disease that is crippling so many lives!
Even though this young man has taken someone’s life I still see a great deal of potential that could be used for the Kingdom if he is totally faithful to the Lord as we spoke to him about the importance of being. I assured him that if did this right that I would commit to being in his life to mentor and disciple him. A huge problem with dealing with people in the jail is that the Americanized church system has messed their minds up so bad that you must do so much untangling before they understand what the actual Word of God is actually saying. We can see when we bring the truth of the word to them that they brighten up as to see that there truly is hope in Christ Jesus!
We have had so many gang members come through the door of the ministry. The Lord quickening my mind to putting up the names on wall has been a draw for them along with many others. What I received today from this meeting is that we will seldom know right away of the impact of the different meetings that take place at the ministry. I did not think too much about the two times that this young man came in but with this it will make me think more about the importance of anyone and everyone who walks through that door or the door of the café. For me sometimes it gets so repetitive of people coming in that I lose the thought of each person that we minister to is a seed planted for the Kingdom. No doubt that the way this young man spoke about me and the ministry that it definitely impacted him coming in! Times like this help strengthen us to be more impactful in reaching people for Jesus! Thank you Lord for this time that Chaplain Vinny and I had today not with just this young man but with all the inmates that we visited!
As we continued talking with the young man he said that he would not be able to do before the district attorney and say the same thing that he said to us. That quickened me to start into the scriptures with him. I asked Chaplain Vinny to open his Bible to Revelation 21:8 as I continued talking with him. I asked him the question “what would you be doing if you went before the district attorney and told them a different story”? He said, “I would be lying”. I then asked Chaplain Vinny to read the verse.
Revelation 21:8 "But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
We talked to him about the importance of doing what was right in the Lord’s eyes. He told us then of his concerns about getting a heavy sentence like life or the death penalty. I quickly responded with “if you were able to get an attorney to get you off on a lesser consequence you would still have to face the Lord one day and pay in full for the sin that you have committed”! I assured him that if he did not do this the right way that one day his sentence would be eternal hell! We assured him that if he was going to go the right way with the Lord that we would be right by his side throughout this charge. I looked him in the eyes and said, “if you want to lie and not be faithful to the Lord then I have to be honest with you and tell you that I will not stand with you”. He had told us about his 2-year-old son and we talked to him about the importance of being honest and upright so one day his son could be proud of him. I pulled a picture out of Micaiah and told him of the things I am already doing in his life to bring him up right in the Lord and to have him be proud to have me as a dad. He listened very intently as the tears welled up in his eyes! He like so many others told us of how his dad was not there for him. This is a massive problem in dealing with the youth today. “Baby-mama/Baby daddy” is a disease that is crippling so many lives!
Even though this young man has taken someone’s life I still see a great deal of potential that could be used for the Kingdom if he is totally faithful to the Lord as we spoke to him about the importance of being. I assured him that if did this right that I would commit to being in his life to mentor and disciple him. A huge problem with dealing with people in the jail is that the Americanized church system has messed their minds up so bad that you must do so much untangling before they understand what the actual Word of God is actually saying. We can see when we bring the truth of the word to them that they brighten up as to see that there truly is hope in Christ Jesus!
We have had so many gang members come through the door of the ministry. The Lord quickening my mind to putting up the names on wall has been a draw for them along with many others. What I received today from this meeting is that we will seldom know right away of the impact of the different meetings that take place at the ministry. I did not think too much about the two times that this young man came in but with this it will make me think more about the importance of anyone and everyone who walks through that door or the door of the café. For me sometimes it gets so repetitive of people coming in that I lose the thought of each person that we minister to is a seed planted for the Kingdom. No doubt that the way this young man spoke about me and the ministry that it definitely impacted him coming in! Times like this help strengthen us to be more impactful in reaching people for Jesus! Thank you Lord for this time that Chaplain Vinny and I had today not with just this young man but with all the inmates that we visited!