February 1, 2017
Dear Family and Friends,
Julio* and Ernesto* have both been in ministry for a long time. They grew up in the city. One emigrated here from another country a long time ago and the other was born here. They both share some rough aspects in their background, before they knew Jesus. Both turned to the Lord years back, were discipled, and now live faithful lives of obedience to our Lord and building His Kingdom. Through difficult, strange and insane circumstances, they were both arrested and put in the LA County jail system. According to a CNN report from just a few months ago, the LA County Jail system is the largest in the U.S., by a lot. The number of inmates from month-to-month is what New York and Chicago have combined.
This is a massive opportunity and responsibility for the Kingdom of God in a couple of ways. First, there are men and women languishing in jails and prisons that are desperate for meaning, connection, purpose, transformation, and community. It is not random that visiting those in prisons was a highlighted population in the famous Matthew 25 passage about the sheep and the goats. We have a call as Kingdom People not only to be visiting the incarcerated, but also investing in them, loving them, and advocating for them.
Second, this is an incredible source of people to recruit from for Kingdom-building once they are released back to society! Isn’t this just the way of God, to take those people that society has thrown away, ignored, written off, or even tried to kill, and to use them for His glory in the discipling and transformation of the very communities these men and women were taken from? I love how God redeems and reconciles.
World Impact, in partnership with Prison Fellowship and Awana, has had increasing favor and success in their investment into this population for the last seven years or so. We have seen entire prisons undergo serious culture transformation. We have had prison chaplains and wardens that were incorporating our TUMI curriculum and program get calls from officials from other prisons asking them what they are doing to see such change in their population.
Julio and Ernesto have only been in their current jails for a few months, and already they have been involved with some of our TUMI classes and have been used by the Lord to minister, preach, and pastor their fellow inmates. People in jail are desperate for change. They are in crisis. They are open to what the Lord may be trying to teach them in ways that maybe they never were before. Will you please be praying for these two friends of mine? They both want to be released back to their families, but at the same time they are also exemplifying deep trust in their Lord that justice will triumph and that the Lord, in all His wisdom and perspective, is going to use them to do what He needs to do through them for now. Please pray not only for these two, but for those who are incarcerated everywhere. Consider what the Lord might be calling you to in this regard as well. Thank you, as always. I am deeply appreciative of your love and support and effort and generosity.
Trusting Him,
Bryan Cullison
*Names changed for privacy.