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| Copyright © 2002 by The Voice of Prophecy |
| David B. Smith |
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P.O.
Box 53055 |
| May 8, 2002 |
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Out...and Then Back In! - 3 Recorded by David Smith
DON: Amen! It's always a pleasure. DAVID: …and you know, we always have such an unbelievable
response. Our listeners and you're ministry, there's a natural marriage
there, an affinity. DON: I'll tell you stories that will go on forever.
I know last year at least two-hundred people wrote me, and I stopped my
car in traffic, and said, "You guys are giving out your address.
The truck driver said, "I listened to you're program for three days,
and on the fourth day, I pulled over to a truck stop and I gathered all
of my friends." Of those friends, thirteen long haulers as they go
across country are stopping and visiting prisoners. DAVID: Oh they are? Wow! Don I want to talk today about
just the reality of changed lives in the prison. When Jesus comes in through
your ministry, and through other ministries. It's not just a Band-Aid.
Something miraculous happens to these people. DON: We have seen very serious gang guys, very tough
convicts turned to Christ legitimately. Now a lot of people do use Jesus
as… DAVID: Sure. DON: …brownie points for the parole board. I know one
guy that's got a hundred and thirteen Bible study certificates. He's no
more Christian than, Charles Manson is, but God is so good. And when a
man sees change in other people, and when he sees any kind of a legitimate
opportunity to break away from the gang, from the environment, because
to be set free in Jesus, is to be free in deed. DAVID: But prison life; I mean you how tough it is,
the reality. DON: I could tell you, forever, of the terrible situations
going on in prison today. Again I said yesterday I believe there is no
rehabilitation, give maybe a little bit, but… DAVID: That's the big R-word. Rehabilitation instead
of more cells, let's rehabilitate. You have a different word? DON: That's regeneration, and it works. Yvonne, teaches
remedial reading using the Bible. We had tough gang guys not wanting to
learn anything about the Lord. Not wanting to learn the Bible, but they
want to learn to read and write so they can do they're own legal work,
and the Holy Spirit just smacked them over the head, and they've joined.
We had the head of the BGF, one of the toughest gangs in any prison anywhere,
and he came to the Lord and left the BGF. The Black Gorilla Family is
one gang you don't leave, but he not only left, he's still walking and
talking, and so when you do the crime do the time. But men are sent to
prison for punishment, not as punishment, and the corruption, the drugs,
the sexual abuse. Everything going on in prison today is terrible. DAVID: And your right there. You're seeing it… DON: Yeah and we have a lot of men, and women, boys,
and girls in prison listening to this radio program. And I would love
for them to write, and tell us about real conditions and maybe next year
we'll read some of these letters. Folks let me tell you. When you make
some decisions to get committed to the Lord, sitting in a cell somewhere
is a man, women, boy, or girl that you can lead to a better way of life. DAVID: Now tell me this, Don, this is really the important
thing. Someone comes to Christ through a Bible lesson, Discover; through
you're visits through these various ministries. How then do they live
as Christian's seven days a week for ten, twenty, twenty-five, thirty
years? How do they stay Christians in prison? How does that actually happen?
DON: It is very difficult. See there are all kinds of
gangs, but unfortunately, there is Gods prison gang. Now when you join
this, it's sort of a hands off by the other people. Now Christians are
abused. David, I know guy's that will go to chapel loyally with their
Bible tucked under their belt so no on sees it, because they'll get harassed.
But when you know its you're only way out. The only light at the end of
the tunnel is Jesus Christ. The only way to get away from the loneliness. DAVID: Are there services in prison that these men and
women can go too? DON: Well that's something that is very sad, and maybe
we'll talk about it now. Religion in prison is not a priority. As such
this is getting cut back. An example; at Corecran Prison the Chaplain
has seven thousand inmates. His budget for the year is twenty-five hundred
dollars. DAVID: Basically nothing. DON: Nothing! We collected for him almost sixty thousand
religious books. After we collected them the prison wouldn't let them
in, because the Muslims, and the Catholics, and the other religions, didn't
want to share shelf space. So it ended up nobody got anything. Christianity
is a way to stop recidivism, but in the prison systems of this country;
prison is big business. They don't want men and women changed. DAVID: Lets talk about residaism a bit, because that's
the famous word, the rate of return which is staggeringly high. Give us
some numbers on what it usually is? DON: Probably nation wide now, about 79%, and if you
don't know what the word recidivism means, return to prison. Meaning basically
eight out of ten men, women, boys, and girls, leaving, are going to come
back. So our prison systems don't work. Now the programs that do work,
like I told you earlier, we kept track over the last two years, of one
hundred men. We sent them both Christmas cards and, birthday cards. We
kept in touch with them, and now they're all released. Of the hundred… DAVID: These are Christians… DON: Christian inmates… DAVID: X-inmates DON: …yeah, all have left prison, and only six have
re-offended. DAVID: Compared to 75-80%. DON: So, Jesus works. DAVID: The Christian faith, and Jesus in the heart… DON: The key is accepting Christ in prison, and gentlemen
and ladies this is to you. When you get out join a church. DAVID: Yes, get with a local group of Bible believing
students… DON: Yes, and that's the strength. Frankly David, I'd
rather preach in prison then in some of our churches, because Jesus is
real there. DAVID: You and Yvonne, have had some unbelievable worship
experiences in prison… DON: You want to get to Wal-Mart, don't you? DAVID: Well no…What I was going to say was, the singing
is so alive there. The praying is so alive. These people are on their
knees because they have nowhere else to be. DON: The last service we had in California; I'll never
forget this one as long as I live. They have this stick rule, eighty men.
No more and they knew it was our last service. We had a hundred and sixty-five
people in this small chapel, and Yvonne, when she saw the captain coming
with the security squad, knew they were going to close us down. We said,
"Please captain, Don't." " In the name of Jesus, let us
finish." Not only did we finish. When we made the altar call, one
of the security team came forward. DAVID: Now you mentioned Wal-Mart. Now let me ask you
to tell that fabulous story, because baptisms in prison are a challenge…go
ahead. DON: We were at Solidad, and two guys that were getting
out early, both Christians, wanted us to do the baptism, but we didn't
have a baptismal tank. My wife is very ingenious. So she was driving to
prison on the morning, and she passed Wal-Mart. It wasn't open, and she
almost knocked the door down until she got somebody to come. She said,
"I need a kiddie wading pool." The guy said, "We're not
open." She said, "I work for the Lord, and He needs a kiddie
wading pool to take to prison." DAVID: There's no stopping Yvonne McClure. DON: …and he said, "no." She said, "look,
I have to have it." So he say's, " O.K. I'll get it, you stay
here." So he went back and got it, and he said, "Its twenty-nine,
ninety-five plus tax." She says, " I've only got twenty-five
dollars." He took it, she took it, and we probably did forty-five
baptisms… DAVID: In a kiddie wading pool. How deep was the water? DON: It was about two feet deep. The first guy I baptized,
to get him completely immersed I had to stand on his chest. DAVID: I remember Chuck Fulsome, who is a great Baptist
prison fellowship type of a guy. He wanted to baptize a great big prisoner,
and of course Baptists baptize by immersion, just like we do, and they
said, "All we got is a bucket." He said, "Well make it
the biggest bucket you can find." DON: Amen! DAVID: But the Lord is working through these various
avenues in a Wal-Mart swimming pool. DON: Well, Plus the fact that when this kind of stuff
happens, anything in prison is contagious, and people want it. In the
same respect, everything bad in prison is contagious. Gangs run prisons,
and the violence in prisons today that you don't here about, the warfare
in prison you don't here about. The killings you don't here about, the
stabbing's which you don't here about. The over- abundance of drugs is
bad. If it's not a Cadillac, if you can get it on the outside, you can
get it on the inside. DAVID: You really need Jesus in those prisons. DON: Amen! DAVID: We'll pick it up right here tomorrow. Don: O.K.! DAVID: Thanks, Don. |
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