What is a Closing ?

We found God is more real than this building!

I have seen my brother give his life to the Lord, I didn’t know how to share my love until Kairos. I do now, I have gotten more love from this than from all my family put together.

I found more love than I can handle, more than I can use, more than I can hold, all I can do is let it go… Share it, give it to others.

I thought I had all the Jesus I needed then I met "The Woo" (a name used for the Holy Spirit) I have stayed away from Jesus for 17 ½ years, and I thought I had all that I needed, but I needed this, and Jesus knew I needed this, to be hear. I am taking "The Woo" back with me, "The Woo" is on the lose!

I feared love, I didn’t know that I was worthy of it, I fell into sin and now I have HIV, Jesus needed to go a long ways to find me, I didn’t like where he had to go, but he has brought me out and cleaned the filth off me. I’m 16 years HIV positive, and now God is loving me and He will never let me go. I asked not to be here, I didn’t want to come but Jesus wouldn’t let me go and now I have accepted Him. I will never let Him go!

I came here hating you, I wanted to make sure you failed. I didn’t care if I lived or died, I just wanted to destroy. Well I’m not yet ready to give in to Jesus, I still have a lot of issues to work through, but I know where to start, and I don’t want you to fail, I want to be able to dedicate my life to Jesus. I know what my obstacle is, I have to forgive the man who raped me when I was 12. I know God wants me and I want Him, I want to be part of the Body, pray for me.

I got a picture in my letters that didn’t have a word on it. It was just crayon markings! But that said as much as anything I got. A child doesn’t know how to lie, but he does now how to love. He or she was loving me and giving me a gift, just because… because… they had enough love to share. I am going to share that love, but I’m going to keep the picture.

I found a new family, I’ve been here 10 years, I’m adopted, I have a new family, a family that will help me become more than I am not less. I’ve been married 17 years with two kids. My wife is in jail too, we were going the wrong way. Now God is sending me to help folks and not to hurt them when I get out. God can do the impossible. He did it for me, I’ve been popping pills for years, but now I’m into the real world. I have flushed my pills, I’ve never done that, I feel reality and it feels good. I know I still need help, but I know where to get it and I have a family to help me, encourage me to do right, not help me to do wrong. I’m a small person, but my heart is huge!

For 18 years I would not let a Bible come near me. I have stolen souls from God. I have sinned, I have taken another man’s life in Satan’s name. Thank you Jesus, if you can forgive me with all that I have done, as evil as I was, you can forgive anyone who asks and repents. I didn’t know how awful my load was until You took it from me. Thank you Jesus! You have set us an example of dedication and action, as hard as I worked against you, I will work twice as hard for you. You paid the price for me, I belong to you, I am yours.

I have Hepatitis C, I got it from my mother. We shared a needle, she gave me life and she has given me death. I’m not mad at her, I wanted the drugs, and she shared with me. I came here thinking I was OK, but I wasn’t, I was dead but still walking around. You have given me love and life. My mother shared death with me, I will share life with those around me. Thank you Jesus for being gentle with me. Thank you for the love in all those letters, in the pictures, in the place mats.

I’ve been gay for 28 ½ years, and when we burned our papers, (lists of people who the candidates need to forgive) I forgave my mother for what she did to me, and how she has treated me. The Lord has wiped my tears and wrapped his arms around me, and that’s so powerful. I don’t know when I am getting out and right now I don’t care, I am learning from Jesus, and Jesus is going to make sure that I don’t have any distractions until I finish my lessons. He has told me, through you, to keep my head in the sky, because when you focus on heaven your feet will just naturally take you in that direction.

I’ve had a lot of birthdays, and Christmases but I have never had nothing like this, and like the commercial says this gift keeps on giving, at least as long as I am willing to give it away. Thank you Jesus

I picked up an nickname "Tyson" because I fight good, but it was just a façade, it was my pain that did the fighting for me. I come from a good family that was too busy making a good life for me to have time for me. I was a male prostitute, it wasn’t about the money, I had plenty of money, it was that for an hour or maybe only 20 minutes I knew that someone wanted me, that they loved me. I know because they told me so. I had long blond hair & I boxed "I looked like a girl but I hit like a man" now I am going to look like a man.

I am going to be a leader, but I am going to follow the one is leading me. I don’t understand what has happened this weekend, all this you did and you didn’t want anything from me…

You can’t learn all you need from a Bible college through the mail. I needed my brothers to teach me how to forgive, to teach me how to love, real love not what I thought was love. Some of you know how low I was, and I don’t want to be low anymore. I carry a chip that is almost as big as I am. I was ashamed but now I am innocent. I’m going to be trying, but if I fail, I want your help, I want you helping hand to get back up.

It took prison to open my eyes in the Word. In the world I was gimme, gimme, gimme. Now I see that Jesus is all that I really need. The world can never give me what I want because the world doesn’t have what I need. Only Jesus has enough love to give me enough to fill my holes!

I realized today that I have two birthdays. I couldn’t believe what has been happening to me here. As each day passed my "buddies" back on the pod (the building where the inmates live) wanted to know what I was getting. They wanted my food, they wanted my cookies, they wanted things to eat. I couldn’t share that, except the cookies that we could take to the house, but then I got a great treasure, a bag of letters, I was so excited that I had something that I could share completely. But they didn’t want them! That’s when I knew that the real food that I got here was the Body of Christ!

I’ve lived and Alternate lifestyle and I could have anything I wanted in prison. But six months ago thing began to change, I began to realize that everything I wanted wasn’t enough. I was a taker, I stole from my own mother to buy crack, but crack isn’t enough to make me forget the pain that my lifestyle brings. I know that I was not born homosexual, it was a choice I made, and with God’s help I am going to change.