Each Week our volunteers hand out many Bibles, booklets, and Bible Correspondence Course lessons at Egeler and Huron Valley. Among the books that we hand out are 3 books that Gene Goulooze, our founder, has written for inmates. It was time to order another printing of Path’s Worth Choosing and we needed to come up with $6,600 for the 20,000 copies. After praying that God would provide for the printing, we started making calls to raise the funds. Can you believe that we only had to make 3 phone calls? Each person was quick to respond to our need. After thanking the second donor for his generosity, he suggested that perhaps the next call I made would pick up the remaining amount (which was still a large sum). I kind of chuckled and said, yeah, wouldn’t that be great? And wouldn’t you know, that is exactly what happened! What a blessing it was to see God working. I’m sure he directed me right to the people that he intended to help us. I’m sure that if we had called all of the faithful donors that we have, many would have joyfully contributed to this cause, but how encouraging that we didn’t need to. Thank you, God for reminding us of 2 Corinthians 9:8; “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” And a special thank you to Frank & Sally Jonkman, Bob & June Ribbe, and a donor who wished to remain anonymous for answering the call.
Ken A
To: ALL at New Creations Prison Ministries!
THANK YOU!
From the leaders to each and every worker, the custodians, biggest to smallest, largest to smallest!
For your perseverance in this quest, standing up against a direct attack from Satan himself, and overcoming! In victory and peace!!
From every student takeing these lessons! And me! 🙂 Praise God!
Call to Prayer for Our Tennessee Ministry
In 2014, Gene, our founder and president at the time, moved to Tennessee with his son and family. In this modern age of technology it was possible for him to stay connected with New Creations via phone and email. The hardest thing was for him to stop going into the prisons for Bridge Builders meetings and One-on-One visits. It wasn’t too long before he began going into the Northwest Correctional Facility in Tiptonville, TN. The next thing we knew, he started handing out lessons for our correspondence courses and our Tennessee ministry began. Around January 2017 Jack H. began going on visits with Gene and things were on track to begin setting up a Bridge Builders program there as well. In January, 2018, a new weekly Bible study program was launched at the Day Reporting Center (DRC) in Jackson, TN, with the potential of expanding to several other locations as TDOC began opening more Day Reporting Centers across the state.
In February, 2018, Jack had to stop going on One-on-One visits due to his health, and Gene began to have health problems as well. Shortly thereafter, Gene was diagnosed with Parkinson ’s disease and had to step down from ministry entirely. We have been able to continue sending correspondence courses to the inmates in Tennessee who had already started, but with no one to go into the NW facility or the DRC, the only way the new inmates are reached there is by the referral of our current students.
Would you please join us in prayer for the ministry in TN? That God would raise up the right people or group to reach inmates there and that avenues would be opened for us to continue to grow there. We know that God cares for those men and women even more than we do and that he will create a way for them to hear his word. One thing we know for sure, God is still working, even if we aren’t there to see it!
Ventura Baptist Church
Paul & Marilyn Gess will be speaking at Ventura Baptist Church in Holland on Sept 16th. Stay tuned for details.
Frances G.
Frances has been with New Creations since 2003. She started as a Bible Study Partner and volunteering 1 1/2 days a week in the office. In 2013, we underwent major changes to our processes, mailing, and computer systems. Frances wanted to learn all the new programming (even though she was 87 at the time!), and began volunteering 3 days a week. Her knowledge of many of the processes involved in the ministry have given her a keen insight. She is continually coming up with new ways to reach out to inmates and rescue students who have fallen through the cracks. She is a pillar in our organization. Some of the things that she does here in our office are:
- She enters nearly all of the incoming completed lessons from the students into the computer and generates the new lessons.
- She enters all the prison visit information and runs the related reports.
- She runs and prints various student tracking reports including follow-ups.
- She sends out new student enrollment packets.
- She assists in the reformatting of the new lessons.
- She helps other volunteers with processing and data entry questions.
Now at almost 91, she is an inspiration to all of us in the office. She is truly a “Good and Faithful Servant”.