Blog

07Feb
2017

Another year!

Another year in the books! Year 12 here we come! Thanks to so many who have been a part of this work from the beginning and those that have come along over the past 11 years. So many of you share the vision with me of bringing the worst of society to the grace and mercy of God.

Before I started working with men in prison, I thought I was fully aware of the evil that exists in the world, but I really had no idea. I recently spoke to a newly converted inmate about his former life. He shared with me regarding his and his wife’s drug addiction, and how they agreed she would prostitute herself out to make money for their drugs. He never really had a problem with it he said. It seemed normal to them. I must say his comments and calmness to talk about it struck me. I don’t think I had ever heard a man admit to me before that he willingly encouraged his wife to prostitute herself so he could get drugs. Believe me when I say, there are very few things I hear anymore that surprise me regarding the evil these men have engaged in. I immediately thought of what Paul said…

Romans 1:24–32 (ESV) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

I think in the last eleven years, the men I have been involved with in the prisons have shared with me their involvement in all the sins listed above. Last year I had the opportunity to study the scriptures with an Odinist – Worshipper of the gods of Asgarth – see Thor. He wore the hammer of Thor around his neck. Two years ago, I studied with 2

and baptized a former priest of Satan – devil worshipper. I have worked with men who have been involved in every kind of sexual evil imaginable. They have sold themselves to other men for money, abused children, committed adultery, bestiality, etc. I have had men describe to me their hatred for another man as they killed them. Men who have tried to kill their wives. I spoke to a grieving mother of a man we worked with at Lawtey a couple of years ago, and transferred to another prison. She informed me he had hung himself while there. I have worked with men who have abused old people and children physically. I talked with an inmate once who confessed to stealing his mother’s pain medication while she lay dying of cancer. Men that have rebelled against their parents and all the good they were taught. Men that are arrogant and still relish in their sins. I have heard men speak of stealing items from men who are sick and in the hospital at the prison. Men who have stolen items from the bodies of dead men. Men who have… well you get the point.

These men are sick. Jesus said only the sick need a physician – Mark 2:17. Paul had seen what I have seen. Corinth must have exposed him to things he had hardly ever heard of before.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV) Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Even the sickest are worthy of the washing of Christ. In a few cases, we have even seen the sick healed. Thank you for your continued prayers, support and love for the sickest among us. We continue to see ourselves when we look at them.

Daryl Townsend