|
2003 in Review
It has been a crazy year, full of blessings keeping us busy...
I met Scotty on January 7, 2003 and by February, he was saying he knew
that he
knew that the Lord was going to bless him with me - I told Scotty to take
a hike because the Lord didn't tell me anything.
January 25th: I was visiting a prison in Ocala and teamed up with "Champions
for Life".
In February, I was blessed by someone I didn't know (didn't even know their
name or even what they looked like) with a FREE 1993 chromed out
motorcycle (800 Intruder). This allowed us to broaden our prison audience because
women and men are segregated, but motorcyclist are not. Now, I can go in, not
only for the women, but for the men and youth, too!
February 21-23: I was in prison in Orlando and again teamed up with "Champions
for Life".
On the 6th of March, we started doing the Bill Glass "Champions
for Life Follow Up" in Hernando Correctional Institution (HCI)
averaging about twenty women per Thursday evening.
March 15th: I was in prison in Ft Myers, teamed up with "Champions
for Life".
April was busy with our church doing our Easter Presentation and, of course,
continuing on with our faithful Thursday night crowd and watching as the
number of women attending grew.
May: when the "Champions for Life Follow Up" came
to the end of it's course, we volunteered to continue on but were informed we
needed a name of our own
since their material was no longer being used. We came up with the name,
"Passion for Prison".
May 31st: We (Scotty and I) rode the motorcycles into their first prison,
Avon Park Men's Main Unit.
June: we got our first prayer requests on its way to the East coast to our
faithful correspondent Carla, in Titusville, FL.
June 28th: we were in prison in Pensacola, teamed up with "Champions
for Life".
July: Scotty was becoming a big part of helping me find my way to prisons
and jails. When we got back from Ft Lauderdale, I told Scotty that I gave up,
he won.
I was going to stop fighting it and surrendered to his courtship.
July 19th: We were in prison in Ft Lauderdale, teamed up with "Champions
for
Life". A storm came, lightning hit a transformer and the gates were seized shut. We
had to ride the motorcycles out through the halls of the building!
August 28, 2003 was the birth of a ministry that had been conceived just months
earlier and we legally became, Passion for Prison, Inc.
September: Scotty took me to the Holy Land Experience in Orlando and
proposed at the well after reading Genesis chapter 29. When he got to
verse 20, he explained to me that he had the same love for me that Jacob
had for Rachel and got on his knees and asked me to marry him. I cried and said,"Yes!"
September 20th: we were in prison in Tampa-Pinellas, teamed up with "Champions
for Life".
In October, my ex-boyfriend (who is on parole) housed us while on a prison
mission weekend. We took him to church and encouraged him before heading
back to Tampa. It was also the first time Scotty and I were separated
during a prison trip. Scotty went to Dade CI while I was in Homestead.
October 4th: we were in prison in Homestead, teamed up with "Champions
for Life".
November: we had over sixty women come to hear about the Lord on
Thanksgiving evening in Hernando CI. Our over-all attendance had grown and were
now
averaging over forty on our Thursday evenings. While in Tallahassee, it was
our first weekend to visit the women's, youth's, and men's unit all in one
weekend.
November 7-9: we were in prison in Tallahassee, teamed up with "Champions
for
Life".
December: we started looking ahead and trusting the Lord all the more as I
stepped down from my 40 hr a week job to a new employer with only 20 hours
a week so that I could have more time for ministry needs. Scotty was blessed
with a FREE airbrushed 1994 750 Vulcan which will now replace the old duck-taped-together
1983 Honda Magna.
We covet your prayers as we enter 2004.
Edifying and Evangelizing to those incarcerated,
Jessica and Scotty
Matthew 25:35-46
<><
|