“Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all
the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For
I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
~ Romans 8:35-39 ~
If I could some up this last week in one paragraph, it
would be accurately portrayed in Romans 8:35-39. I would have never imaged what
the week was to hold, but my Heavenly Father knew all along. If we could only learn
to simply trust Him, we would find
Him trustworthy!
Last week marked a new chapter not only in my life, but
in the lives of countless others. I had the privilege of helping facilitate a
Journey to the Heart at the
Union Correctional Institution with 9 other
volunteers. We worked with around 60 inmates who were all 50 years and older.
The Journey to the Heart that I was to help with was
actually supposed to be at a completely different facility, but through the
miraculous hand of God plans changed at the last moment and we found ourselves
at Union CI. This was new ground to me but the Lord had already trodden it and
was waiting to show Himself strong!
As we had this open door of opportunity to work with
these men, we also were given the privilege of reaching a far larger group than
was originally expected. The Chapel lived streamed our joint sessions to death
row (which holds around 320 male inmates), to confinement, to all the general
population dorms and other places!!! WOW, what a mission field God split wide
open for His Word to take root in the hearts and souls of men!
In short, between our team at Union CI and other
IBLP
volunteers who were working elsewhere, we
worked with 350+ inmates, covering 4 correctional institutions over the period
of 7 days… PRAISE THE LORD!!!The responses of the inmates were resounding and
God accomplished a mighty work to the pulling down of Satan’s strongholds. It
was a life changing experience for me and MANY others that will continue on
into eternity! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! Please continue to pray for the
inmates, officers and staff that God’s Word would take root and bear much fruit
for His Kingdom as this journey in life continues!
With MUCH thanks,
Nate Paine
Isaiah 61:1-3
