Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure— The saints' and angels' song. (refrain from The Love of God by Richard Lehman, 1917).
True love! The love of God is so rich and pure that our prison students are being redeemed and reconciled. Thousands of incarcerated men and women enter prison carrying familial issues of neglect, abuse, abandonment or grief. Many have never known their fathers, some have had little contact with their mothers. ALL of them long to see their mothers and fathers again, ALL of them long for the hugs & kisses of their parents and ALL of them want to talk about their families. Most inmates are also parents and wish they could be home loving on their spouses and their kiddos! Oh, how their hearts break just thinking about family back home, waiting for that next letter, or just reminiscing about their childhood. During small groups, talk is not glib. In our LIFE classes, conversations often revolve around homes, families, love and good times. But hearts still ache. Once a lost soul comes to the saving knowledge of Jesus and understands that it is only the love of The Father that can fill their aching heart, mend their broken soul and heal the pain of loss, then he or she can start the recovery process of hope, joy, healing and rehabilitation! It is through the nurturing of the Word of God that grown men and women are born again, and filled with a new kind of love, an unconditional love, a perfect love that only The Heavenly Father can provide.
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LIFE graduation at SCI Albion where 21 men finished LIFE IV: Looking at Successful Re-entry through the Eyes of William Shakespeare on January 28!
Thank you Ford & Irene Shreve, Matt Sibley and Dale Weaver for the love you share with your students.
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My Father by Jeanette C. Emmons, L.I.F.E. Board Member
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My father, Leroy Christensen, born in 1920 to Danish-speaking immigrants in rural Michigan, began his quest for knowledge in a small country schoolhouse 2-3 miles from his home.
After graduating from high school in the nearest town, he attended County Normal where he trained to be a teacher. The Army-Air Force drafted him while teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. He spent months in England loading bombs into aircraft. Shortly after the war, he accepted Christ as Savior and married my mother. His spiritual journey showed him to be an earnest student of God's Word, the Holy Spirit being his only teacher apart from his country church pastor and fellow believers.
There was no opportunity for Bible college or seminary. He owned no commentaries or books to enhance his learning. He listened so raptly to the Sunday sermon that he failed to even notice the struggles Mom had keeping us five wiggly children still and quiet in that hard wooden pew. His spiritual growth came in leaps and bounds. Soon, he was asked to teach the adult Sunday school class, aptly satisfying even those with years of Christian background.
Until retirement, he worked in a factory, farmed 80 acres, followed activities of his five children, served as church treasurer and deacon, so his Bible study time was limited to Friday & Saturday nights, and early Sunday mornings be-fore 10 noisy feet hit the floor!
My earliest memories of my father include scenes of him in his comfy chair reading the Bible, the teacher's SS quarterly and writing in a notebook. The evenings would end with him asleep in the chair, Bible and lesson book open across his chest...as if he were literally "hiding God's Word in his heart."
Leroy Christensen
1920-2002 |
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Sunday mornings he would rise early, get ready for church and sit at the dining room table, notes and Bible spread before him...and write in longhand the entire lesson he would teach that morning.
So intense was his desire "to get it right," he'd lose track of time, often arriving late to his waiting class. Comically, the pastor broached the subject with Mom, thinking we five kids (sharing one bathroom) were making him late. When he learned the truth, he was bemused and suggested a solution: Move the clock ahead 15 minutes...at least on Sunday! (It worked for a while!)
As years rolled by and we kids went off to Bible college, I'm sure deep in his heart, my father yearned to do the same.
My first semester in college, I used some of my wages to buy my father the Amplified New Testament which had JUST been published. He was thrilled and it became one of his trusty sources to ferret deeper meanings of Scripture.
For several years, that and the Scofield Reference Bible were his only tools with which he "mined treasures of Scripture" to share with his class. God equipped my father with great intelligence from birth, but at his spiritual-birth God equipped him with the gift of teaching and an insatiable hunger for the Word of God.
What a legacy and challenge for my siblings and me: to follow in his footsteps to find for ourselves the depths of the riches of God and then teach them in ministry to others. I'm thankful to say we EACH have done so all of our adult lives.
As for my father...He "graduated to Glory" in late 2002 becoming (I'm sure!) a rapt student at the feet of Christ, The Word of God Incarnate.
Following his funeral, we discovered drawers filled with his notebooks of Sunday school Lessons. On perusal by the pastors in our family, it was determined they were comparable to the most scholarly of theologians. This man - taught by God Himself - embodied the very essence of
Jeremiah 15:16:
"When Your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear Your Name, Lord God Almighty." |
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Our Volunteer of the Month is Ivan Lapp who leads the LIFE team at SCI Houtzdale. This is a picture of Ivan and his wife Katiemae of 33 years, their nine children, spouses and grandchildren! Ivan's first remark when sharing his testimony is: "Our Father God has been so good to us!"
Greetings of love to all volunteers, readers, supporters and their families! Six years ago, I began to go with a Christian Brother to SCI Houtzdale. Now I serve there weekly. It takes time, study, and dedication. My testimony is this: there is always a blessing in reaching out to those behind bars and sharing the Gospel with them; many of the men may never have a visitor except the volunteers. I enjoy building relationships with these men, knowing I can learn from them, and they learn from me. While I go to the prison every week, I can because my wife is supportive of this ministry and takes care of the home while I am away. I couldn't do it without her help! Verses of encouragement that I depend on are Galatians 6:9-10, "And let us not be weary in well-doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we therefore have opportunity, let us do good to all men, especially unto those of the household of faith." And I Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." Blessed be the Name of the Lord! Laboring together with Christ, Ivan Lapp.
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Leading Inmates in Faith & Education welcomes your financial support. Visit our website to make a donation online.
Checks should be payable to L.I.F.E., Inc. and mailed to:
LIFE, Inc.
4 West Street, office A
Newville, PA 17241
All donations are tax-deductible.
LIFE, Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
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