Participants: Aaron Chancy (Host), Cleveland Houser
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000013
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:03 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:05 may be too candid for younger children. 00:11 Welcome to "The New Journey," 00:13 the program where we meet real life people 00:15 with real life testimonies, 00:16 with real life working ministries for Jesus. 00:19 Today, we'll meet a man that heads up a program entitled 00:21 "Don't follow me." 00:23 So many times in life we're caught following someone 00:25 or something which may or may not always lead us 00:28 in the right direction. 00:30 In today's program we'll uncover 00:32 the "who" of who we should spend our time 00:34 following and emulating 00:36 as well as how this relates to prison ministries. 00:38 I'm your host Aaron Chancy. 00:40 Come join us on The New Journey. 01:11 Welcome back to The New Journey. 01:13 Today, we have a guest 01:15 by the name of Dr. Cleveland Houser. 01:16 Dr. Cleveland Houser, we like to thank you 01:18 for being on the program. 01:19 It's my pleasure to be with you today. 01:21 Amen, amen. 01:22 We want to jump right into our programming for today. 01:26 You know, we talk about following people, 01:28 don't follow me or follow me, things like that. 01:30 In actual reality in life, who should we spend 01:33 most of our time following? 01:35 Of course without question, we should follow Jesus Christ. 01:37 Oh, yeah. 01:38 He is the way and if we follow Him, 01:41 certainly our path will be a lot smoother. 01:44 Oh, yeah. 01:45 And then we wouldn't fall into a lot of the pitfall 01:49 that we fall into... 01:50 Okay. 01:51 We won't get caught up in quagmires. 01:53 Amen. I like that word quagmires. 01:56 That's a good word. 01:57 Now, you've been involved in prison ministries for how long? 02:01 I worked for approximately 27 years I-- 02:04 It wasn't really my desire to get into prison ministry 02:08 I have no intimation... 02:10 Okay. 02:11 Any reason to want to get into it. 02:14 Wow. 02:15 But after leaving the pastoral ministry, 02:18 I came to Nashville and I was looking for an employment 02:23 and of course every thing that I tried to get into, 02:27 seemed like the Lord closed the doors. 02:28 Okay. 02:29 And I went to the state employment office 02:32 and they had a position open called psychiatric chaplain 1. 02:37 Okay. 02:38 And I filled out an application and about two weeks later 02:42 the prison called me and set up an interview 02:48 and actually the interview process had been closed. 02:51 Okay. 02:52 Closed and so when the Lord opened it up for me, 02:59 I just have to say Him, 03:00 Lord and said in southern common vernacular, 03:03 Lord, You don't show it out again. 03:06 And so I knew that that job was for me 03:09 and very, very next day the senior chaplain called me 03:13 and told me that he'd like for me 03:15 to become a part of the chaplain's staff 03:18 in state prison. 03:19 Okay. 03:20 So how long were you involved with the, 03:22 as a chaplain in the TDOC 03:24 Tennessee Department of Correction. 03:25 I've spent 16 years as chaplain for TDOC 03:30 and after that I took an early retirement 03:33 because Elder J. Alfred Johnson, 03:36 the director of Adult Ministries 03:38 for North American division. 03:40 Okay. 03:41 Asked me to come and to be the prison ministry 03:44 training consultant, because he had absolutely no idea 03:48 of what to do. 03:50 And so I was happy for the privilege and it has opened up 03:54 doors for me to travel all across the United States, 03:57 and Canada and to teach people. 03:59 It's amazing where God will take you in His work. 04:00 It is. Oh, yeah. 04:02 It's very amazing. 04:03 Now working with the North American division 04:04 of Seventh-day Adventist, you said that you do 04:07 consulting and training. 04:08 What's all involved in this consulting and training? 04:10 Consulting and training involve teaching church members 04:15 how to work with prison inmates. 04:16 Okay. 04:18 How to set up transitional houses? 04:21 How to work with their families of inmates? 04:23 How to work with the children, the juveniles? 04:27 And also I do all underwriting and research 04:30 for prison ministry for the North American division. 04:34 So do you go to churches and you train people, 04:37 do you go to communities, what's the process? 04:40 Where do you go to train folks out? 04:41 I go churches and in fact I just came back from Hawaii. 04:45 Oh, wow. 04:46 I do training for prison ministry. 04:49 Okay. 04:50 So it's-- if it's a church or if it's a conference 04:53 or if it's some leadership seminars 04:57 or something of that nature, 04:59 then Elder Johnson sends me 05:02 to do to prison ministry training for them. 05:04 Okay, okay. Praise the Lord. 05:06 I want to talk a little bit about your program 05:08 "Don't Follow Me." 05:09 How and when was Don't Follow Me started? 05:13 Don't Follow Me was started in 1988. 05:17 Okay. 05:18 And the way that it got started, 05:21 when I look in our communities, 05:25 young people were getting involved 05:27 in so many acts of violence 05:29 and I was looking in juvenile detention, 05:32 you got 65,000 there, you have 2,200 in adult prisons. 05:39 You got 3,600 in adult jails and... 05:43 Okay. 05:44 And homicide, the leading cause of death 05:46 among young people between 5 and 15. 05:50 Wow. 05:51 And I said something got to be done 05:53 because the guys in prison, 05:55 they are trying to get out and the children... 05:57 They are going right in. 05:58 They're trying to tear the walls down to get inside. 06:00 Yeah. 06:02 And so I contemplated and the name came, 06:05 Don't Follow Me, I walked that way before. 06:08 Okay, okay. 06:09 So the purpose of your program was basically to prevent people 06:13 from getting incarcerated. 06:15 You chose the name, Don't Follow Me 06:17 because you didn't want people 06:18 to follow bad examples, correct? 06:20 That's correct. 06:21 Okay, now your employees per se are very interesting people. 06:25 I went on your website and I've looked 06:27 at some of your "employees." 06:30 Who do you use in this work in Don't Follow Me, 06:32 in the Don't Follow Me program? 06:34 Initially until 1999 I used primarily inmates 06:41 who are incarcerated. 06:42 Okay. 06:44 The warden, then the commissioner of correction 06:46 gave me the privilege to take inmates 06:49 all across the state of Tennessee. 06:51 Wow. 06:52 And sometimes I would have 15 inmates about myself, 06:55 we went to high schools, communities... 06:57 Were they still incarcerated at that time? 06:58 They were still incarcerated. 07:00 And they were following you throughout Tennessee... 07:02 They were following me throughout Tennessee. 07:03 That's amazing. 07:04 And thing about it, they protected the program. 07:07 They did not allow anyone to mess up the program 07:09 because it was a privilege. 07:11 Yeah, yeah. 07:12 For them to be able get out and to talk to people 07:15 and to try to keep them from following in their footsteps. 07:19 It's awesome program, but on the outside since 99, 07:23 I use ex-offenders. 07:25 And minimum I have about 11 in the base group. 07:30 Okay. 07:31 Six of them are Seventh-day Adventists 07:33 and they have joined the church, we have... 07:35 Through the prison ministries. 07:36 Through prison ministry. Okay. 07:38 And currently At Hillcrest they serve as deacons, 07:42 elders, director of Men's Ministry, 07:45 youth Sabbath school teachers, 07:46 they're doing a tremendous job... 07:49 And I call, what I call is 07:54 engage with the varsities. 07:57 Okay. 07:58 In which you allowed them to talk about their situation 08:01 through young people and is, and of course is totally 08:05 disclosing out themselves. 08:07 And telling everything about, and I say to them, 08:10 you have to totally disclose yourself 08:13 in order to help someone else. 08:15 And through this disclosure, it not only helps to cure 08:19 to those who are listening but it also helps them. 08:22 Because the more that they talk about it, 08:25 the more it gets out of their system 08:26 and they began to look at positive ways 08:29 in which to live and so far that's why in my base group 08:34 I have a 100% out of people who are involved 08:40 who have not gone back to prison. 08:42 Okay, that's good, very, very good statistics. 08:45 Now, have you noticed that in using, like before 1999, 08:50 using the current inmates 08:51 and after 1999 using ex-offenders, 08:54 have you seen a great success rate 08:56 in using them to speak out 08:58 to ones that have not been incarcerated before? 09:01 All right, I have, I've seen a great success rate. 09:04 And not only to speak out to those individuals, 09:08 but the thing that amazes me 09:12 is that USA Today stated 09:16 Don't Follow Me as one of the top ten drug busters 09:19 in the United States of America. 09:20 Wow. Amen. 09:21 The American Black Journal Association, 09:24 we won first place as the best news documentary. 09:29 The Frees Foundation said that we were the best 09:32 innovative group in middle Tennessee 09:34 in which we won a first place. 09:36 Okay. 09:37 And teachers say that we had a best program 09:39 that has ever entered a school system. 09:41 And thing that happens when we go into the school system, 09:45 no matter how tough the children try to be 09:48 that when we're there, they're quiet as a mouse. 09:51 Okay. 09:52 Now in a few seconds we're gonna get to the youth. 09:54 We're gonna transition into talking about the youth 09:56 in a few minutes. 09:57 I want to know, can people from other states 10:01 get involved with DFM, Don't Follow Me 10:04 or is it just a state wide thing? 10:07 Can they become a member? How does that work? 10:09 Well, people can become a member in a way, 10:12 so what I am suggesting is that 10:14 that Chapters of Don't Follow Me 10:16 be started all across the nation. 10:18 It's a program that can be replicated. 10:21 And if you follow our bylaws and guidelines 10:26 that we have set up then the program will vary, 10:29 so we believe that using ex-offenders 10:33 is the best way about this 10:37 is because ex-offenders really don't have to attend 10:40 pen state or you know University of Michigan, 10:44 they already have a PhD in the streets. 10:47 Yeah, that's true. That is true. 10:48 You know, if you talk about drug dealing, 10:50 they are street pharmacist. 10:51 Yeah. They know all of this stuff. 10:53 And so if you utilize people in that way, 10:57 then what we do is we stop, you know, 11:00 proliferation or recidivism among them 11:04 because, you know, it costs us right now, 11:06 it costs us between 22 and $ 60,000 a year 11:10 to keep one man locked up. 11:12 And think about the economic grain 11:14 that is happening to the community. 11:16 Your pocket book and my pocket book 11:18 because we're paying the taxes for them to be locked up. 11:21 Wow. 11:22 So it makes all the sense in the world to me 11:25 to use ex-offenders, to reach other ex-offenders 11:28 and to slowdown the proliferation of incarceration 11:33 among those who get out as well as to retard 11:37 the progress of young people who are trying to get in 11:40 by the lifestyle that they are living. 11:42 You know one thing that I find interesting, 11:43 little side note story of myself. 11:46 One time I was incarcerated when I was 17 11:48 and I got released and I went to check my mail one day 11:52 and in the mail was a bill for me staying in jail. 11:55 I was in jail for two and half months 11:56 and they sent me a bill for over $2,000 12:00 as if I needed to pay some rent for being in the county jail. 12:03 You know I didn't necessarily asked to be there 12:05 but I did deserved to be there. 12:07 You know what I want to do right now is transition over 12:10 to talking to the-- you're talking about the youth. 12:12 On your website you have some very interesting information 12:14 about the youth and you look around 12:16 at the young people today. 12:18 You know they are not interested in spiritual things. 12:20 They are mainly interested in anything 12:22 that's entertaining them. 12:23 What do you believe are some key factors 12:26 in keeping young people from ever entering the system? 12:29 And I think there are several factors. 12:32 One I think that relationship with God and attending church 12:37 and being involved in church 12:38 and youth activities that a church has. 12:42 I think a strong family ties with mom and dad in home. 12:47 It usually helps out a lot. 12:50 I think education is another key factor. 12:53 Okay. 12:54 Because what I have noticed in prison system is that 12:58 82% of the guys who are in prison are guys 13:02 who dropout of high school from a tenth grade batch. 13:05 And that's true. 13:06 So either person has to get an education, 13:09 if you don't plan to get an education, 13:11 then what you do, you plan to go to jail primarily 13:14 because you got to be able to support yourself. 13:17 Yeah, yeah. 13:18 And people just not giving jobs if you're not educated. 13:21 You got to have something to offer to bring to the table, 13:23 so I think education is a key thing 13:27 for young people staying out of prison. 13:29 Okay, you know, that's very true because you know 13:32 when I was younger, you know, 13:34 I was pretty much through a school after the tenth grade, 13:36 you know, I don't even really know how I made it 13:38 through the tenth grade because, you know, 13:39 I really hardly ever went to school. 13:41 And, you know, I was so involved in criminal activities 13:44 and things like that, that I wasn't thinking 13:46 about education at that point. 13:47 All I was thinking about was that mighty dollar, 13:49 that fast money, how quick I could get it. 13:51 And I sat back and I looked at, you know, people that will work 13:54 full time and they always just seem so stressed out 13:57 and, you know, it seems like you work two weeks for a check 14:00 and it's just never makes do. 14:02 And, you know, the fast money plays a big, big factor 14:05 to people, to young people especially, 14:07 we see it all the time. 14:09 What do you believe are some things that attract 14:12 the young people to that negative type of lifestyle? 14:15 Well, I think there are a number of things 14:18 that probably attract them. 14:22 Noticing fact that there is a culture 14:28 that they are trying to fit in 14:31 and if you notice that young people, 14:34 even as early as a third grade, 14:36 there's starting to be a shift especially in guys. 14:40 It seem like up to the third grade they would be embraced 14:43 by the teachers in preschool and in third grade, 14:48 fourth grade they start drifting 14:50 and they start staying out of school, 14:52 they get in trouble, they've been put in school suspension 14:56 and next thing you go to the principal office 14:58 and the next thing you expel and next thing 15:00 you go to the alternative school, alternative to work 15:04 and so then they got to find a way to survive. 15:08 So what do they start doing? 15:11 They look at people who, other kids who are wearing 15:13 designer tennis shoe, designer clothes 15:17 and so they're going to do whatever they can. 15:20 To get them so what do they get to do? 15:22 They get involved in gangs. Yeah. 15:24 They get involved in a drug culture, start selling drugs. 15:27 And all of these things, you know, play a... 15:32 Some key factors. 15:33 Important factor in when a person stays 15:35 straight come into the prison system. 15:38 Now what young people don't realize a lot of time 15:41 is that when people deal drug, and you look at a drug dealer 15:45 he is standing on the corner and dealing drugs now, 15:47 six months later where is he? 15:50 He is incarcerated or dead. 15:52 Yeah are dead, so you really when you only have two choices. 15:56 Yeah, that is true. 15:57 Either that's prison or a grave yard, 15:59 so which one is attractive to you? 16:00 So we try, you know, those are so many things 16:03 that young people face as factors. 16:06 Now their poverty... 16:09 Yeah, poverty. Socioeconomic factors. 16:12 These are things that cause young people to get in trouble 16:15 because they're trying to survive. 16:17 Yeah, yeah, that's true. 16:18 Then you have fathers who are locked up in prison. 16:22 Yeah, so there's no father at home. 16:24 No father in home to provide the guidance for them. 16:28 In fact and when I even look at black families, 16:32 62% of black families are run by single parents. 16:36 And so what happen is that the mom has to be androgynous. 16:39 Yeah, yeah. 16:40 That means she got to be both the mom and the dad. 16:43 Yeah. 16:44 And so in her trying to take care of the kids, 16:47 she may have to get out and work two jobs. 16:49 Yeah, two and three jobs, yeah. 16:50 But then who is there to give them guidance. 16:53 Right, at the end time, they have to raise themselves. 16:56 And so they start doing things that, you know, 16:59 a mom would not approve, I mean next day you know 17:01 they're in some deep water that they can't get out of. 17:05 And then you start looking at the environment 17:10 that they are in. 17:11 Where you got to do what you got to do to survive. 17:14 Yeah, get it how you live basically. 17:16 Right and if, you know, you got to fight, you got to fight. 17:19 Yeah. You got to do something. 17:21 You got to pack, then take a gun, you had to take a gun. 17:25 And, you know, and one of the things 17:27 that I didn't mentioned earlier, you know, 17:28 that kids take 270,000 guns to school every day. 17:34 Wow. 17:35 And so everybody basically have a gun so young people now 17:40 start to taking their turf, they have the macho image 17:44 that they got to take care of, 17:45 so if you step on the guy's toe, 17:48 you know, because of his image he may pull the gun out 17:51 and shoots you there. 17:52 Back in your day it might have been little hand scuffle 17:54 or something like that. 17:55 These days now, you know, young people pulling out guns 17:58 and not just little hand guns. 18:00 You know, I know people that have real big assault rifles 18:03 and things like that, that only the military 18:05 or the police are supposed to have. 18:07 And these young people have these things 18:09 and instead of fighting because they don't want to dirty up 18:12 their outfit or anything like that. 18:13 They see it's better just to, let me just end the life, 18:16 you know, which is not good at all. 18:18 You know, another key factor that I noticed 18:21 which there are many more music, 18:24 so many different things, but one I see is 18:26 well which was true of my life 18:27 was lack of goals in the life. 18:29 Lack of, lack of wanting to be somewhere. 18:32 You hear many people especially those that grow up 18:35 start playing in the NBA, NFL or whatever it may be, 18:38 they say, you know, there were lot of things 18:40 going on in my area, I grew up in a rough, rough area 18:43 inner city Chicago, whatever it may be. 18:46 But they say, you know, what, I had a focus, 18:48 I wanted to play ball, I wanted to get out of the ghetto. 18:50 I wanted to get my mom out of the ghetto. 18:52 I wanted to get my family out of ghetto, 18:54 and they held onto that focus. 18:56 But for me I know growing up, 18:58 I had the dreams of the basketball and the football 19:00 just like, you know, a lot of young African-American males 19:02 want to play sports, same thing for me. 19:05 And as soon as those goals got crushed, 19:08 it was like what else do I do? 19:10 You know what else is there in life to do? 19:11 I don't want to be a school teacher. 19:13 I don't want to be a firefighter. 19:14 Those things just had no appeal to me. 19:16 So the only other thing was to do was to resort to crime, 19:19 that was it. 19:20 And because of lack of goals many young people 19:23 are going that route as well. 19:25 Right. 19:26 You know how effective would you say your work has been 19:28 among the youth? 19:29 I think my work has been greatly effective among youth 19:33 and when I started looking at certain things 19:37 that has transpired in all of the accolades 19:40 that we have gotten, you know, for the work 19:42 that we do among youth and in fact 19:44 the governor cited me for being a leader 19:48 against the war on drugs in the state of Tennessee. 19:51 Okay. 19:52 But I know that we've done a lot of good things 19:55 to help the young people and especially 19:57 we went to a school once and there was a young person 19:59 that had half a kilo of cocaine. 20:02 And he said I am getting into the big time drug business. 20:05 Sure enough he would have a half a key, wow. 20:06 And so after we finished talking to him, 20:10 he flushed it all down the toilet of school. 20:13 And then he finished school. 20:16 Okay. 20:17 And went on to do well in his life. 20:18 That's great. 20:19 And we've had stories where kids will come up to us 20:22 in the malls, I remember you, you were, "Don't Follow Me." 20:26 And so, well, I was acting up in school, 20:29 but I have finished school. 20:31 Amen. 20:32 I got a job, you know, I am going to college 20:35 and when they tell us those things like that we know 20:38 that our job has been effective. 20:40 Okay, you know, that's very important what you said. 20:43 Many viewers may not understand drug terminology, 20:46 half a key or key or anything like that. 20:49 Because I spent time in a drug world, I know what that is. 20:51 And for a young person to flush that amount of drugs 20:54 which equals thousands of dollars, 20:56 that was big on his part, 20:58 that you had to make a very, very big impact 21:00 for that young man to be able to go ahead 21:02 and do that and flush that thousands of dollars 21:05 down the toilet. 21:06 That was really impactful. 21:08 Now, what I want to do is switch gears a little bit more. 21:10 On your website you talk about 21:12 getting involved in prison ministries. 21:15 For those who desire to get involved in prison ministries, 21:18 what are some of the do's and the don'ts of the work, 21:20 of going inside the prisons? 21:21 Okay, there're several don'ts and several do's. 21:24 Okay, talk about those? 21:26 Don'ts we suggest that 21:28 you don't carry anything into prison. 21:31 You don't carry anything out of the prison. 21:33 Okay. 21:35 No exchange of the money, no exchange of the telephones, 21:39 be yourself. 21:40 Okay. 21:41 Be honest, be frank and be fair. 21:44 Now, inmate doesn't care about you being frank with him 21:47 as long you're honest. 21:49 Don't compromise, don't promise something 21:51 that you can't do and you know that you can't do. 21:54 Follow the policy of the prison and if you are female 22:00 and you're working inside, avoid getting into 22:03 intimate relationships with the inmates. 22:07 Because when you're working in the prison ministry program, 22:11 if you get involved with the man in the prison, 22:16 then what it does, 22:18 it puts the prison ministry program in danger. 22:20 Yeah, it does. They can be scrapped. 22:22 So we suggest that if you are going to get involved 22:26 with someone, then please get off of the program. 22:29 And if they don't get off, we just tell the program leader 22:33 that you need to make sure that the person is dismissed 22:37 from the program so that it won't keep you from coming in. 22:39 Okay, you know, you said something very important. 22:42 You said don't bring anything into the prisons 22:44 that are not supposed to be there. 22:46 You know, I've seen so many and heard so many stories 22:48 of people that have brought drugs in for inmates, 22:51 different things like that. 22:52 And in turn while they are bringing things in, 22:54 they themselves may get caught and catch a charge themselves. 22:58 Right and case in point there was one gentleman 23:02 he had his mother bringing in drugs in pretty big baskets. 23:05 She hide it down into bottom of the chest, 23:08 ice and food in there 23:10 and she had drugs down underneath. 23:14 And so when she went out the gate, 23:16 well, before she got into the prison 23:19 they found the drugs in there, 23:21 so he called metro and she went to jail. 23:24 And I think it was really bad when a guy would 23:26 put his mother in that kind of position. 23:29 Yeah, yeah. 23:30 And of course, drugs get into prison in all kinds of ways, 23:32 the employees bring them in there 23:34 and they can put them in the baby diapers... 23:36 Yeah, that's true. 23:37 Cut cardboard boxes and put cocaine. 23:41 There is not a prison in United States 23:44 I don't care if he is trying to supermax of where it is, 23:48 guys on the inside gonna hold to drugs and alcohol. 23:53 And in fact at Tennessee State Prison there was a guy 23:57 who had a gun on death row. 24:00 Now, that's dangerous. 24:01 Yeah and I worked death row for, 24:03 you know, for about five years. 24:05 Sitting in the jail cell with some of the most 24:07 notorious killers in the state of Tennessee, 24:10 just studying the Bible, singing songs, 24:12 do a little seminars and different things with them. 24:16 Okay. 24:17 And so they enjoyed me doing that and in fact 24:19 I baptized a gentleman on death row 24:22 who's still an Adventist today. 24:24 Wow. Amen, amen. 24:25 With the ministry on there and so I've found that in working 24:29 with inmates in prison that if you treat them with dignity... 24:33 Yeah, yeah with respect. 24:34 Respect, they will respect you... 24:37 And that's why in 1985 they had a prison riot 24:41 and the inmates told me before-- 24:43 they knew that they were gonna riot. 24:45 And they told me that look, you don't have to worry 24:48 about a thing. 24:49 If nobody else get out of this prison, 24:51 you're going to get out. 24:52 Wow. 24:53 I watched him tear up and burn up 24:54 and I stood on chapel steps 24:57 and then they walked me to the gates. 24:59 They held ten of my co-workers hostage. 25:01 So the inmates walked you to the gate. 25:03 They walked me to the gate. Wow. 25:05 They told me all the time we're gonna make sure 25:07 that you get out. 25:08 My thing in working with inmates and people 25:12 who are less fortunate in down front 25:14 is that at the end of the day when Jesus return, 25:19 I want to be saved into God's kingdom. 25:21 I don't want anything to hinder me from being saved. 25:25 Amen, true indeed, true indeed. 25:26 Now I want to ask you a real quick question. 25:30 You've taught people how to get involved in prison ministries 25:33 without ever going inside of the prisons. 25:35 Can you speak on that for few moments? 25:37 Sure, there are several ways to get involved, you know, 25:42 and a lot of people are scared to go inside of the prison 25:44 because they are scared of hearing those doors 25:47 hit that steel behind him real hard. 25:49 Yeah. 25:50 But you can get involved with van ministry 25:53 where you are transporting the families of men 25:57 who are locked up may be once a month. 26:00 Okay. 26:01 And you don't have to go inside the prison, 26:03 you just drop them off at the gate. 26:05 And you keep records and you have people to work 26:07 with toiletry ministries. 26:10 Lot of men and women don't have money to buy personal items. 26:15 Clothing ministry and all men have basically 26:18 when they are coming out of prison 26:19 it would be designer clothes which will have like 26:22 Tennessee Department of Correction on the back. 26:24 Okay. And they need clothes. 26:26 Transition housing that you can set up, 26:29 so they will have place to stay 26:30 when they get out outside of the prison. 26:33 Then you have children's ministry where you provide 26:37 things for inmate's families. 26:39 And children primarily and of course you have 26:42 support ministries where woman can come 26:45 and you can work with them and help them 26:49 to be able to make the transition during the time 26:53 that their loved ones are locked up 26:55 because when our loved one is locked up in prison, 26:58 also will be the family. 27:00 The family is on the time. 27:01 Yeah, family is on the time as well. 27:02 And those are just some, while there are several more 27:04 that they can do. 27:06 And it doesn't require you to go inside of the prison. 27:08 So that' why I say that there is no church, 27:11 nowhere under the sun that has an excuse 27:14 for not doing prison ministry. 27:15 Amen, amen. 27:16 At this point what I want you to do 27:18 is provide your website information, 27:20 provide your contact information. 27:22 So that people that are desiring 27:23 to get in prison ministries, 27:25 they can contact you and have you come to their church 27:27 and share this information with them. 27:29 Okay, if you desire for me to come to your church 27:32 and to teach you how to get involved in prison ministries, 27:38 please go to my website 27:40 www.dontfollowmeinc.org 27:46 And do you want to provide a phone number for the viewers? 27:49 If you want to call me, 615-818-9846. 27:55 Again that's 615-818-9846. 28:00 Amen, thank you so much Dr. Houser. 28:02 Viewer you've been watching The New Journey program. 28:05 You've learned some information, 28:07 maybe you want to get involved in prison ministries, 28:09 we encourage you to do so. 28:12 Check the website out, call the phone number, 28:14 have them come to your church and be trained. 28:16 Thank you for joining The New Journey. 28:18 Join us next time. Be blessed. |
Revised 2015-04-27