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Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
What a wonderful and blessed time we had last Saturday at our first annual Onesimus Ministries benefit breakfast. Excellent food, lively fellowship, inspiring updates from our chaplains, and 9 people took home a treasure from the silent auction. We met several goals that were set as we shifted from our one big annual event to several, smaller events spread throughout the county. One big goal was to get the word out to new people in our communities about what God is accomplishing through this ministry in Chester County prison. More than half the attendees (47) have not been previously connected with the ministry. Another goal was to engage more closely with our partner churches – the Pastors, Staff, and volunteers at Waterway church were so gracious and absolutely amazing!
The final goal was to maintain our budget with these smaller events, and God abundantly provided financial resources through the generosity of his people. It’s amazing and kind-of fun to see God working inside the prison through our chaplains and volunteers, and outside the prison through all our supporters – He is so good! Thanks be to God for all of you and your ongoing support through prayer and other means. Your partnership is the lifeblood of our ministry continuing to do God’s will in and around the prison – hearts on all sides are being changed!
We pray for God’s guidance and blessing as we continue planning our next event – an evening of inspirational music at our first annual benefit concert at Grace Covenant Church in Exton on Friday, May 16.
Grace and Peace,
Rick
Prayer Requests from last Thursday (12:00 Chapel Service, plus Inmate 1-1 sessions):
- Kenneth– a guy I know in jail (Skee) is a Muslim gentlemen with stage 4 colon cancer and given 2 months to live. Pray for his family and that he comes to know Jesus. Also pray for my desire to read the Bible more.
- Mikhail– my daughter (Serena).
- Javier– my family.
- Manuel– for my family and everyone here.
- Bradley– my court case got moved back, pray it all goes well.
Prayer Requests from Medium Security (7:00pm Monday service):
- Travis– been going through some spiritual harassment, need forgiveness for being persuaded to follow the wrong path. [we assured him all those in Christ are forgiven]
- Joel– my legal situation, my kid, everyone in here, and just for my life.
- John– that God would return us to our families soon.
- Jon– family, forgiveness, strength, all of us to go home, leniency in our cases, and for wisdom and understanding.
- Tim– family, recent loss of my father, my legal situation and to have patience with it, and give my family strength. My case went south, pray that my appeal works out.
- Drake– freedom from sin, and protection from sinners. Thankful for wisdom from God, His guidance, and pray not to be influenced by worldly things and people.
- Phil T– to know God’s will on where I can serve Him best, and not lean on my own understanding.
- Dan T– for the right opportunity to witness to my Brother-in-law, and he would be receptive to the Gospel message.
- Jose– for the salvation of everyone in Chester County Prison.
Prayer Requests from Minimum Security (8:30pm Monday service)
- Rick C– for our brother Jim to recover quickly from heart surgery.
- Jeremiah– my sister (Tameka), and others in my family going through painful experiences.
- Elizer– for everyone in the jail, and for the volunteers who come out each week.
- Jeeter– pray for the process I’m going through.
- Matt R– my Dad (John) had a procedure today to remove blockage from his carotid artery, pray for speedy recovery.
- Jeff– all the immigrants going through some tough times.
- Havier– my family, son, wife, everybody here, and for the volunteers.
- Logan– heal the brokenness in my family.
- Donny– family, and for myself- getting really stressed out about some things.
- Mark– everyone here, myself, for all the volunteers to get home safe tonight, and for my court case in a couple days.
- Andy D– reconnecting with some old band-mates in a few days, they don’t know the Lord. May I be salt and light to them.
- Ryan S– for my buddy Wayne- taking care of his wife who had a stroke 6 months ago, now in the hospital to get a pacemaker because his heart keeps stopping, and while in hospital his daughter died of a heart attack and he has to tell his wife. So much pain in this situation.
Prayer Requests from Onesimus Ministries
- Very thankful for a blessed benefit breakfast event, pray everything comes together for our first benefit concert in May, and potentially a benefit motorcycle ride over the summer.
- Thankful for our wonderful prison Chaplains – Rhonda, Heinrich, Jack – pray God’s blessing on them and their families.
- Thankful for all the volunteers serving inside and outside the prison, and those waiting to serve.
- Blessings upon the prison staff, especially those in leadership, and all their families.
- Resolution to staffing issues (shortage, retention, etc) impacting opportunities for more volunteers to serve inside the prison.
- Bless all the incarcerated women and men, and their families who are also “doing time”.
- Thankful for all the Aftercare ministries and other support organizations across Chester County that minister to men and women released from prison.
If you’d like to find out more about mentoring and discipling a man or woman coming out of prison, drop us a note at outreach@onesimusministries.org.
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