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Jail Ministry
Statistics
Year 2000 - 336 came to faith in Christ. Year 2001 to date first time prayers coming to faith in Christ as savior....151
Year to date bible distribution to inmates........................... 90
Average attendance at both services (1/2000 to date................ 98

Periodically we post a report about the Saturday morning services at The Spokane Geiger Correction Center.

Periodic Service Report:
5/6/01 – 12/03/01 Average attendance at the services dropped to fifty due to new restrictions imposed by the new program director. The service times were changed back and forth several times so that staff and inmates did not know when services were being help. No new volunteer musicians are allowed to perform in the services and the program director feels that only people who are Christian already should go to the service. Eventually the changes stabilized and attendance grew again. Pray for this ministry. There will be a significant change in the program directors philosophy toward Christian ministry if God intends for Sue and I to continue ministry after the first of the year 2002. The services have all been fantastic. Many continue to respond to the message and more are coming to the Spokane Outreach Center after release. We have a very small core group (6 to 20) of over comers meeting on Wednesday nights for the 4p’s. Several have been successful for over four to five years. Others are in the process of falling, returning to jail and getting up again. One man is a professional musician in Spokane who plays all instruments and puts together bands for the bars as a living. He plays in our Geiger Church Band when in jail. This is the fourth time he has been in jail over the past four years. His stay is usually only a few months due to probation violations. Initially he came in with arrogance and objection. He barely complied with the Church structure so that he could play an instrument during worship. I gave him as much space as possible by allowing the music boundaries to expand embracing his talent. Each time he promised to attend The Spokane Outreach Center upon release but never did. Slowly his attitude has changed. He is less arrogant, submits to authority and accepts limits much better and demonstrates an attitude change. One Saturday morning he wept during a special prayer for an upcoming back surgery. One inmate commented, “I have known _____ all his life and know his entire family! That’s the first time I ever saw him cry.” He will be released in a few weeks. As usual he promises to “play for Jesus” with us at SOC. Our new location is within walking distance from his home! Changing means totally redefining how he makes a living so pray for him. This is only one of many stories that unfold as years of consistent ministry to people bound in destructive social traps continue. It takes five years of persistent patient outreach in the name of Jesus Christ to get results. The fruit is worth the effort no matter how few!
03/26 - 05/05/01
Attendance at the Easter service this year went beyond facility capacity. Consequently many inmates were denied attendance. We invited a Christian rock band named ELDERSTARR to present to Gospel in some and share the Word of God. The response was very positive! Approximately 150 inmates attended and twenty made a first time commitment to believe in Jesus Christ and seek Him for the power to overcome addiction. Attendance is consistently between 85 and 125, usually close to 100. Authorities are uncomfortable allowing many more attend due to facility and staffing limitations. Pray for the financial means to build a Chapel that will accommodate at least 400. In the mean time we are considering outdoor services or more Saturday morning services. Many incredible events occur during and after services each week, answers to prayers for healing, relationship restoration, and personal insights into living a new life are more abundant than it is possible to relate. `The Transition Program, recently approved by the county probation department, has over twenty students. Each one learns how to identify personal issues and how to prevent return to jail. Ministry leaped forward in effectiveness and scope since Easter.
02/25/01 - 03/25/01
Attendance at the services continues to be approximately 25% of the inmate population. Thirteen inmates are participating in the Transition Group Class after each service. This class consists of a teaching time followed by group discussion. Each student is required to write a life history focusing on events preceding incarceration and behaviors which are repeated each time. This class is also held at the outreach center on Tuesday a 4pm. Two men have faithfully attended this meeting over the past month and another two have attended sporadically. Also two women have attended sporadically. There are a total of 21 students enrolled in the program all together. Please pray for them. The students at Geiger are to are to attend the Tuesday meeting after they get out of jail. Four released people are regularly attending services at local Churches and one recently earned his licensee and social security card back.
01/13/01 - 02/18/01
During the past month we have seen an average of 88 inmates attend the services at Geiger. God has confirmed His love for them by answering many prayers. Brenda saw her children and the court ordered her mother to allow them to see her regularly. She has a job in Alaska and is getting out in a few weeks. During prayer at a service several months ago I felt there was a man in the congregation who had given up on ever restoring relationship with his mother. I felt that the relationship would be healed and restored if the man would pray daily, on his knees and trust for a healing. A man came to me after that service and said he had not seen or spoken with his mother for several years. He cried and we prayed. Last week he told me that he and his mother went to Church together the Sunday before.
God has been moving with power and anointing in surprising incredible ways every week.
Sue and I submitted an application to be recognized as a valid ministry by Redeemer Lutheran in Spokane, WA. This week the Board of Directors and the Pastoral staff approved the proposal. A week ago today Sue and I met with Senator Bob McCaslin in Olympia to tell him about the ministry. Circumstances led us to believe that God was directing us to make the appointment. He did not see how he could be of help with the follow up or the jail ministry. If you see benefit in this ministry please sends him a letter. He referred us to George Nethercut, as have several others. Finally the landlord came to me in December and told us we had to move. He gave a new location. Twice the size, 1800 square feet, prime business space, for $250 a month! We moved in January first.
01/06/01
A total of 66 attended both services this Saturday with 33 at each service. Six came to faith in Christ for the first time as indicated by a raised hand. The message focused on Romans 12:2, the renewal of the mind and the process of transformation into Christ's image by the Holy Spirit. There was a great deal of positive response to the service after each one. Pray for Don and Rich who want to study the bible in a formal way. Brenda heard form a local pastor in Montana about her children and is much comforted. Her letters have been withheld and the Pastor will deliver copies directly into their hands from now on. Joel continues to be successful on the outside in the mission two-year program.
12/30/00
This morning we met Tim Carpenter at Denny's at 7 am had coffee and went to Geiger. We set up the system and called the congregation to church. We had 68 attend the first service and forty-one in the second.

Tim played his trumpet, Sue played the piano, Pablo played the drums and Norman (an inmate) joined the worship team and we lifted up praise and thanksgiving to our Lord. It was a lot of fun.

Then Tim brought us even closer to God by preaching His Living Word with power. twenty-five hands went up when he asked, “Who is unsure and wants to be certain that they are alive in Christ". We prayed the sinners prayer together. Tim asked anyone who needed prayer for physical illness to come forward. He prayed for each one and many testified that pain immediately left.