Ministry Overview
In September of 1984 I started living for God. Since that day in 1984 God has honored His Word and brought me to the place I'm in today. My wife and I met a couple that mentored us in the things of God. They had been walking with God for about 25 years at that time. In 1986 I was introduced to Kenneth Hagin Ministries at a conference in Chicago. It was then that I signed up for the correspondence course the ministry was offering. In December of 1989 I had finished the course. Shortly after that I started Bible studies in my home. The focus was to learn more about God and His ways. God increased the size of the study and friendships evolved out of them.
It was in the summer of 2002 that God called me into the prison ministry. I fought Him tooth and nail because of my feeling of inadequacy. He won!! My first experience was at R.Y.O.C.F. with Bill Glass Ministries [located in Texas]. I was hooked on the call!! From there the ministry has grown every year. God has given this ministry much favor and is expanding it every year. It started with me and now I have between 7 to 10 people to minister with me. Some are trained in the ministry through their participation.
We offer Bible Studies to the inmates at no cost to them. We average 30 to 35 students at any given time. When they complete the course they receive a new Study Bible and a Certificate of Completion with their name on it.
In closing, I want to thank all of you who make their tax deductible donations to help purchase Bibles and the office supplies that give hope to the incarcerated.
Mike
Mike's Testimony
I was about 11, or 12 when I began to experiment with drinking and smoking. My parents were professional muscians, and they worked six nights a week. Because of this I was never able to participate in school activities, so I started having booze parties at my house on the weekends.
By the time I was 16 years old I began having blackouts. My parents were not of a Godly nature as my father used women and my mother was having an affair with my uncle.
When I turned 17 I enlisted in the Navy with my father's signiture. I was in the troes of drinking and my time in the military was spent in bars and in the brig. My military service ended when my father died from cirrhosis of the liver, my mother died a year later from the same thing.
I tried A.A., and the longest I was sober was about a month. On my 32nd birthday I went to celebrate my sobriety by partying. I was in a blackout for a week and was shortly arrested for armed robbery. After the third day in the violent crimes division in Chicago the lead detective and said there was no postive ID on me but the witnesses thought I was one of the men that robbed them. The lead detective was going to let me go, but said that I was facing 50 years in prison if I were to be convicted. He gave me the chance to get myself straightened out but warned me not to be seen by him ever again!!! So he let me go that night.
The next day I called the alcohol rehab unit at the North Chicago V.A. and in October 1984 the following week I entered into the 35 day program. It wasn't long before God got a Bible in my hands and he led me to Romans 10:9, 10. At that moment I was delivered from drinking and have never had the desire again!! He did it for me, and He can do it for you!! It was not an easy walk in the beginning, but worth the trip.