December 2007 Newsletter

December 1, 2007 

Dear Friends,

A few days ago our church secretary e-mailed me and asked if I could supply an updated letter for the mission board. She said the one that is on the board now is from last December. I said I would get an update to her and to my shock and surprise that was the latest letter. I realized that I have not sent one since. I do apologize for that and promise to do a better job of keeping all of you up on what we are doing.
O.K., with that out of the way let’s move on.
It has been a short year in many ways as time has flown by the past 12 months.
We are at a point in this ministry that we can’t seem to get around. We want to expand with programs but as of this writing we haven’t figured out how to raise the financial support to purchase supplies. We have a budget this year of $35,000.00. That would pay my support and give us money to buy the needed Bible study material and other course material, such as books to teach budgeting and material to teach people how to handle a check book.
I believe we need a curriculum that can be applied if we start a Christian housing unit, lead Christian programs in place of having a housing unit or start an aftercare program of some sort. These are all things we have been praying about and to be honest we don’t seem to be getting any answers.
One thing I have learned over the ten years (yes I said ten (10) years) of being a missionary in prisons and jails is if God doesn’t speak we don’t move. We just keep praying and wait for Him to open the doors.  That’s how Teresa and I started this ministry and that’s how we continue today.
If any of you have any ideas about fund raising please pass them along to me. I will take them to the board and we can discuss them.

I am still doing basically the same things today I have done for the last 10 years, One on one counseling, group study and victim/offender mediation.
Speaking of mediation, I have had an answer to this prayer. There is an inmate that I have known for several years and he is preparing to go home. He could be paroled soon or could serve his maximum sentence and be released in 2014. I have been praying that God would open the door to discuss his anger. Two weeks ago when he came to see me he said he had eavesdropped on someone else’s conversation on the yard. It happened to be another inmate I see and had tried to set up a mediation with one of his victims. It didn’t work out for the mediation to take place but it did give the man an opportunity to go back in his past and tell me his life story. This helped him greatly and even though it didn’t go to mediation it did open a door for him to write to the mother of his victim. They have written a few letters back and forth and she told him she had forgiven him. This made his year. To know that a mother could forgive him for killing her daughter! Well, he was telling two other inmates about this and he said: “if you have the opportunity to talk to Tom, do it. Even if it doesn’t lead to mediation it will make you feel better about yourselves by getting it off your chest”.
This man heard that and came to me with the request. I was shocked to say the least. Here I am praying for a door to open with this guy and here he is asking me to lead him through the offender half of mediation.
I explained the process to him and that he would have to tell me his life story in detail, including his crime.
I asked if he could do that and he said “I don’t know, but if I can’t tell you I can’t tell anybody”. Well last week we started down his life road and we will continue it to the end. PRAISE THE LORD!

The point to this story is that it gave me a new perspective on the victim/offender mediation issue. Maybe I am to start doing half of the process to be a person an inmate can talk to about their life and crime.
It has been an answer to prayer for me so stay tuned and we’ll see where God takes us.

This is the exciting thing about following the Lord. You never know where he will lead you but
you know it’s going to be a great ride and when you get there you say “thank you Lord, this is
exactly where I wanted to be”.
Another opportunity that popped up out of the blue is an invitation to spend more time at Hiawatha Correctional Facility. Currently I am there on Thursday afternoon. This may increase to all day Thursday (morning and afternoon). I would be helping the Chaplain respond to the many kites (Inmate requests for one time counseling. This has not been completely worked out yet but I believe it will be by the end of the year.
    
God bless all of you and I will write again soon. In the meantime we covet your continued prayer and praise God for you.
If you are called to financially support our ministry you may send checks to:
No Fence Too High Ministries, Inc.
4505 S. State Rd.
Harbor Springs, Mi. 49740
We are a 501©) 3 tax exempt ministry.

Tom and Teresa