DAY FIVE: PRISON TOUR-TUESDAY: FEB 26th

8:30am: Lawrence Correctional

Met Chaplain  at the door, he is on fire. The facility had just come off lockdown, and they allowed us to come in. There were 200 men came out and 4 accepted Christ. The Assistant Warden attended the event, and she was so pleased wants us to come back. There was so much tension in the building, you can tell the guys were afraid to do anything wrong, very little got into the music and it was like pulling teeth. Kit Cummings guest speaker talked about 1 thought and the brain, it was awesome!. They had arrange lunch for us and the culinary program in the prison had prepared the food (meatloaf, mac and cheese, green beans, desert, sweet tea). The food was pretty good, we had a great time. Prayed in a circle with the administration, for safety, etc…. and we left.

 12pm: Robinson Correctional

We were greeted by the Chaplain who was from African descent and his accent was beautiful. He was excited to have us. The program was held in the gym and there were 140 guys attended the event and 50 guys accepted Christ. The band and the choir were playing music as we arrived. This was the 1^st prison where we sang Lift Every Voice & Sing (the choir led it) and they performed 1 song (Freedom).  Everything went well the Warden & Assistant Warden attended and said the program was great! The Holy Ghost was fired up and once again we went in (the inmate musician) begin playing on the keyboard and it was over.  We ended with salvation at 48, Charleston came to tears at the end and God touched his heart.

 

6pm: Vandalia Correctional

This was prison #15 our last stop and the program was held in the chapel, we were told that only 56 guys were coming out and we ended up with 110 and 40 rededication and 10 accepted. The Assistant Warden Cameron welcomed us and was excited we were there. She had a great time, and said it felt like I was at a CLUB on a Friday night, she is a Woman of God who happens to be a member at our friend Pastor Dan Willis church. The spirit was so high in there we switched up the program and done invitation after the Word and rocked out on the end. 

DAY 4: PRISON TOUR- MONDAY

Woke up this morning with my mind..........you sing ".....on Jesus"...Well we are dwindling down, and almost at the end. I have certainly enjoyed my self and what God is doing.

Our lobby call today was 7:30am with an arrival time to the prison at 7:50am. The prison was only 12 minutes away from the hotel.

Taylorville
We arrived for 8:30am Program and the guys was waiting in the chapel for the program to start. The chapel was set up they had great sound and the guys were attentive and one of the guys is the and he began to play William McDowell's "I give myself away" while E.D. was doing the invitation, he leaned over and asked me did I know it. After that the atmosphere shifted....worship was coming and they stopped us. 33 people attended and 4 people accepted Christ.

12p:Jacksonville
We arrive about 15 minutes behind schedule, but we got in and the program was in the gym. The guys had the gym set up and had a stage in the middle the brothers were on fire. We huddled with the choir as they were praying, and the spirit begin to move in the circle. The choir song "Something About The Name Jesus", they were jamming, and you could feel the spirit of God...and they had some talent. We all did a great job during our part, but when Kit was ending his message, and getting ready to introduce TGC you could feel the energy be sucked out the room. The presence of a person entering the gym shifted the whole environment. We were told to turn the music down, while TGC was performing and then the sound begin to go in & out. IT WAS SO DEMONIC...TGC didn't kow what was going on, but we did...but they could feel it...Overall the guys loved the program, there  was 175 men attended and 30 men got save. We met a guy name Lenny while we were transporting to the next prison. We stopped at the gas station in this small town, and had the door open while we waiting on Big Jake. The guy walked up to the van and ask "What are doing here, and who are yall?" We shared with him, he told us a little about him. We offered salvation but he rejected it, we did plant seeds, and he allowed us to pray with him. HE CAME FROM OUT OF NO WHERE.

6p: Graham
All I can say is WOW!!! Prior to entering we prayed in the van, (Mary led us, and Jacob followed up). This was the best service yet, the energy in the room was electric.The brothers who were chapel volunteers set up the sound and it was perfect!! We had service in the chapel, and the men was on fire.

I performed my normal set of songs, and God did something...I began to go into exhortation, rebuking strongholds, speaking things into the atmosphere...a brother started running around the chapel. It was something different, everybody added something different to their set God used us all, the anointing was all over us!!! There were 120 guys came out and 30 guys accepted Christ
One guy told me that I was coming here to learn about my heritage for BLACK HISTORY MONTH...and said you were talking to me, but I learned about my true heritage GOD HERITAGE.

Total: 338 attend  64 Saved

DAY 3: PRISON TOUR

Goodmorning, lobby call was at 7:10am, we loaded in the van and Mary led us in prayer with expectation for a great day with our brothers behind the prison walls.
 Southwestern Correctional 
We arrived at the facility for an 8:30am program and held in the gym 150 men came out and 9 souls were saved. What we begin to notice is majority of the facilities were looking alike. After a while we began to ask, "Didn't we come here already?".


Big Muddy Correctional
The show started on time and we were in the gym they were lined up in the hall to come in. They piled up in the bleachers, and was excited to be there. The sound system was awesome we had 177 men came to the program and 14 accepted Christ.

Pickneyville Correctional
We arrived at the prison and we met the Chaplain who was a young guy over 6 feet tall. You can feel the strongholds and the tension.  The sound system was pretty good, there were 88 guys that signed up, but only 24 were allowed to come out (don't know what that was all about). After all, they knew we were coming. However, the program went well, but six officers came in the gym and just stood. Our thoughts was why 6 officers are in the gym to watch 24 inmates.  We worked hard to pull down the strongholds, but we had a great time. We had a possible maybe to Christ (insider lol). One of the brothers asked our friend Kit (guest speaker) what was he doing there for Black History month?See Kit is a white guy, and he asked some more questions, I won't go into.

The night ended with us traveling about 2 hours to get to the next city for the tour. We made a Burger King stop for dinner, because there was not much open in the small town we were headed to. Of course I slept most of those 2 hours.

THE DAY BEFORE & DAY 1- PRISON TOUR

Thanks for taking the time to READ!!

I am EXCITED because The Gideon Crew and I are making 15 stops in Prisons in Illinois & St. Louis. We have joined with Prison Fellowship & Operation Starting Line for their Black History Program. So, I decided to blog about the experience and share with you for the next 7 days.

PREPARATION DAY
 We traveled to Mattison, Illinois to leave our car at the church. We were picked up by Mary and traveled to East St. Louis. We ran right into the storm, it was snowing hard then starting raining ice. We saw cars, semi-trucks off in the ditches, and police helping those stuck on the highway. It took a
 3.5 hour trip 6 hours to get to the hotel. St. Louis closed their airports and majority of the town we were staying in closed at 6pm (movies, Walmart, restaurants,etc...). We found a TGI Friday's open for dinner we ate there, checked into the hotel and THANKED GOD FOR SAFE TRAVELS.

DAY ONE: Mennard & Veinna Correctional
I woke up early and went to the exercise room to do about 30 minutes before time to go, grabbed some breakfast after the workout and went back to the room. We learned that our 9am program at Mennard was canceled because the prison was on lockdown. So, we got extra chill time (I was able to do my homework). So now our departure time wasn't until 10am. Then, we got a call from Chaplain David from the prison we are schedule to go to on the 26th, who said they were on lockdown. An officer was attack with a broomstick and his arm was broke. The enemy began forming his weapons, but we know they can be formed but they won't prosper. So, he prayed with us, then Mary E. (PF Director) called and believed God would be making some moves before we arrived.

MENNARD:
We arrived at Mennard and we got through security with no problems really smooth. We had the program in the annex room of the gym. There were 33 men that attended, because many go to work on the outside. However, we had a great time, the choir sang 2 songs and had great harmony. I am introducing my new single on the ears of the inmates, "For the Love" a remake of the Isley Brothers song, and so far I have gotten 2 thumbs up!!

VIENNA:
We arrived at Vienna, the officer checks us in as we wait to go back, he reads Charleston shirt "GOD OVER EVERYTHING". This begins a conversation about the Lord, and he shares his testimony and his evangelism tool he use to witness to the guys inside about the thieves on the cross. So, after about 10 minutes we go back to the chapel to find the sound system they guaranteed they had, guess what? it was a tape player. I said, "I didn't know they still made tapes". The State of Illinois the inmates listen to tapes, in Michigan its MP3's. So, we had to scramble for a cd player, found one it didn't work, and one of the inmates located a DVD player from the school. Thank You Jesus, it worked! 200 men came out to the program on fire, they had great participation. Jacob presented the invitation to Christ and 15 men came to the Lord. We went to Walmart to pick up a portable cd player, just in case and went to O'Charley's for dinner.

DAY 2- PRISON TOUR: SATURDAY-Feb 23

This morning was an early rise, no working out for me. I ate breakfast and our lobby call was at 6:30am to be at the first stop by 8am.

Vienna Bootcamp IIP:
Arrived at the bootcamp and the guys were standing outside in the cold w/o coats on. I wondered, not this is mean, but I guess its bootcamp! We went inside to check in and they didn't even know we were coming, but happy to see us. Now this was interesting, because it has been over a 2 months in the making. So the program was held in the Cafeteria, it was a small intimate setting. Now it was time to set the sound up, they brought out their system, it was an Artist nightmare. It was 1 mic and a guitar amp that only allowed you to do one or the other (use the mic, or play the music). So, of course E.D. do what he always does, makes a way. We got the desk CD player , we saw on an officers desk and play the music through that. Although, it wasn't as loud, we put the mic to it and song w/o mics, because it was a small room. We did 2 shows to make all could participate 240 (17-34 year old) we ministered to both men and women. They really enjoyed it, and 23 men accepted Jesus Christ.

Shawnee Correctional:
Well we were not far from the Shawnee, about 40 minutes so stopped a Dixon Springs State Park that was nearby. We went inside the park for some nice views, a waterfall and beautiful rocks. So, we took pictures and made sandwiches and ate snacks in the car. Because the travel into town would be too far to buy something to eat.

We entered the facility again welcomed by nice officers. Chaplain Williams met us at the door with joy, excitement and an awesome spirit. We had services in the chapel and 110 men came out to the program. While The Gideon Crew was perfoming, the rest of our team that flight was cancelled coming for Atlanta finally arrived. After TGC was done, they presented their message for the first time it was a powerful testimony. The invitation to Christ went forth and 7 men accepted Jesus Christ. The men had a great time, we greeted them and had a great fellowship over dinner with the team and Chaplain Williams and his wife at Red Lobster.

Marion Federal Camp:
This would be our last stop for the day, and it was a joy. The facility was laid back and didn't have bars or fences and more luxuries than some in poor neighborhoods. The program was held in the gym, and the sound was set up like a concert was ready to happen, mics, drums, guitars, etc... A group inside the prison performed 2 songs and they were good, sound like a Lyfe Jennings and Blues mixture, they were good. Of course, I had to come behind them, but the sound was clear so I was happy. Once again I introduced the new song, they loved it I challenged a brother to Ballroom (Chicago vs. Detroit), now you I'm just playing. I met 2 guys from Detroit, they were happy to talk about the city and memories with someone who could relate. The program was nice and we had about 125 men to attend and 17 men accepted Jesus Christ. We hung out with the guys for a minute, they could be out to 10pm. But we had to hit the road for a 2 hr trip, which Jacob & I slept all the way back, after acting silly for a minute. Arrived at the hotel about 11pm and we crashed, lobby call is at 7:10am.

MY REVIEW of the MOVIE: "DREAMS"

Hello Everyone,

Since I am not a Big Football fan, SuperBowl Sunday I normally catch a movie. Well, just so happen Detroiter Marvin Winans Jr. movie DREAMS was in theaters. So, my mom, daughter and a friend went to the 5:00pm show after dinner at Outback. Dreams had some heavy hitter actors and actresses and great job especially to Loretta A. Morman (Lil Loretta, kinfolk).

The movie was very interesting and had awesome messages intertwined within the storyline. As I began to connect the characters and their stories with their dreams, I saw the irony. The movie was relational for me and very helpful. The experience working with young people with issues, yet gifted, can be difficult to get them to their Dreams.




What bothered me the most is what happened after the movie. While I was in the restroom, my mom and friend were approached by other attendees, asking if they liked the movie. Of course, their response was, "The movie was great". It is the response from the ladies who asked the question that immediately got under my skin as they shared this with me. The SUPERSANCTIFIED SAINTS response was, "It was so demonic, and messed with my spirit, we just feel so heavy now, we have to go get in the prayer line at Wayne T. Jackson church". My mom continued to say, "The movie was about real issues that are not discussed".

It was a reason God put me in the restroom at this time, because I am allergic to RELIGIOUS FOLKS...I get as irritated as the scratching of the chalkboard sound, when they open their mouths.

When I watch a movie, I am looking for the message and the lesson I can learn to apply to my life. These type of people missed the fact that childhood issues could be holding many people hostage from fulfilling their dreams. The reality of molestation, rape, abuse, prison reentry, parent/child relationships are in the church and outside the church. But if you are looking for a scripture, churchy, deep religious thought, YOU MISSED THE POINT of the film. The last 2 words of the film was WAKE UP! duhhh!

Furthermore, if you need to go get in a prayer-line for someone else to pray for you, your spirit already messed up!! #getyolife

The movie continues at the Star Southfield until Feb. 7th...go check it out! SUPPORT