“To: New Creation MinistriesWhen I was a teenager I was a football star in Detroit. That lead me to College. I was popular with a wild sense of humor filled with foul mouth jokes and often was the life of the party. I kept a bright smile like I was on top of the world, yet underneath it all I was a boy soaked with insecurity and low self esteem.
Archives for July 2017
Jacque E
Dear Tena,
Howdy There? I hope that you are doing great and that you are preparing to have a wonderfully Merry Christmas and a Marvelously Happy New Year.I just reread your letter from March that found me in November, and my ears teared up again. I don’t feel that I can properly put into words how you have helped me and blessed me through our journey that we have taken together. [Read more…]
God’s Power in Our Weakness
–By John H
I want to share an incident that happened at the prison we minister in on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. This prison is known as the reception and guidance center. Men who go to prison in Michigan start their sentence in this prison, after thirty to sixty days they are moved to a different prison. Here they are classified level 1,2,4 or 5. This classification determines which prison they will be moved to. They are also examined for physical and mental health. The levels indicate the crime committed. Level one, non-violent, level five-extreme violence.
Now for the story. At this prison the men sign up to see us. We have four volunteers each day. When the men come to spend an hour and a half with us each morning and again in the afternoon, we are seated at four tables with four or five inmates on the other side of the table. This morning there were five men at my table. I always begin by asking each man, “Who is Jesus to you?”. I don’t remember all of the responses, but typically they will be like this; “I don’t know, that’s why I’m here” or “My Lord and Savior” or “The one who died to save us”. One of the men this morning, an African American in his early twenties said, “A Prophet” and made it quite clear that he was a Muslim.
I went through a presentation of the Gospel showing from the Bible Jesus as both man and God, that through His death and resurrection we can spend eternity in heaven. Also that we do not deserve and cannot earn our place in heaven, only through surrendering our lives to Him as Lord and trusting in what He has done for us is this possible. We talked about being born with a sinful nature and what it means to be born again. During this time I asked a lot of questions and we had a good discussion though the young Muslim man only listened.
When our time was almost over I went back to each man and asked, “Have you asked Jesus into your life and surrendered to Him or is this something you still need to do?” Two of the men said they had not but they wanted to accept Jesus. Two of the men told me they were Christians, and this is where I failed to do what I should have done: I did not ask the young Muslim, it was obvious, as a Muslim he could not have asked Jesus into his life, but I should have asked if he wanted to do that. The two Christian men left the table to get some literature and I proceeded with the men who wanted to accept Christ. The young Muslim asked if he could stay and when the other men prayed to ask Jesus into their lives, he gave his life to Jesus also! Then the young man asked, “Do you want to know why I came this morning? I had a dream.”
If you have an opportunity to share Jesus with someone don’t worry about getting it just right. God shows His power in our weakness.
Charles S
God has truly changed my life and heart forever. I don’t act, think, or speak the same. I use to be on a dark path before I got locked up 8 months ago. I hurt too many people in my life. I thank the Lord for His forgiveness, healing and love everyday! He has a path for my life, I believe will be great. I trust my Savior with my whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. One of my fav verses in the bible is Joshua 1:9
New Logo!
In case you haven’t noticed, we have updated our logo. We are excited about the imagery of new life in Christ that it depicts. We have also added “prison” to our name to try to reduce the confusion with other ministries with a similar name. We are now New Creations Prison Ministries! There are a lot of organizations with similar names so when doing a Google search or looking us up on facebook (or wherever), make sure you are looking at New Creations Prison Ministries in Grand Rapids, MI.
If you shop on Amazon, you can support New Creations Prison Ministries by registering with Amazon Smile. Just follow this link for Amazon Smile and enter your regular amazon login information. Amazon will donate .5% of smile eligible purchases to NCPM! such an easy way to help NCPM just purchasing the things you normally buy anyway. If you have friends and family that shop on Amazon, spread the word! All those .5%s can really add up!