Fights in the Santa Barbara County Jail are preventing religious services
Dear Friends,
I spoke with Rev. Ivan Vorster, the Sheriff’s Chaplain at the Santa Barbara County Jail two weeks ago, and told him about our new “Adopt a Prison” program. He was very interested in our prayerful support and had an immediate request for help:
“Please help stop the fighting among the female inmates. As a result of fighting the jail has had to suspend many religious services.”
This fighting is keeping chaplains from being able to visit and conduct services. Please consider taking a few moments each day this month and specifically pray for a speedy resolution. Rev. Vorster will report back to us in May with a progress report.
Thank you so much for being a part of Light in prison prayer support team.
If you have any inspiring thoughts you’d like to share on this topic, please leave a comment below!
Sincerely,
David Fowler, Editor
LightInPrison.org
Healing our prisons and those in them
What does God know about this? ideas in Mind express their source only. No inhibitors. No warfare. No opposition. This is a false picture of God’s children. One Mind. One communication. One thing going on. This is just the material dream narrative. But evil cannot convince us of it’s reality by personalizing itself. In Genesis 1 each evening (need for light) is met with a morning. The shepherd leads everyone towards the light.
“Why stand aghast at nothingness?”(“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy.) John the Baptist and Jesus said: “[Change your thinking-the actual meaning of the word translated ‘repent’] for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew.
Unfoldment of good is natural and God’s law.
Thank you, David, for the opportunity to address this specific need through prayer. The first thought that came to me was of Mrs. Eddy’s poem, “Love.” Every line is so beautifully applicable to this situation of apparent inharmony among God’s ideas – which we know is a lie about their true nature as reflections of God, Love.
I was also led to Ret 22:13-23:21. These passages uplifted my thought as to the spiritual truth of man’s /woman’s being, as opposed to the apparent material history and record. In the last line, Mrs. Eddy states:
18 The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created
through the flesh; for his father and mother are the one
Spirit, and his brethren are all the children of one parent,
21 the eternal good.
I saw every woman in Santa Barbara County Jail as children of Good, “sister birds” sharing one branch, soaring above error’s lies and limitations, hearing heaven’s glorious greetings and singing in joy – freed from human strife.
As a result of this prayerful study, I have felt a tremendous spiritual uplift. I am continuing to pray with these ideas, and I know that healing is happening, right there and right now, for those dear daughters of God, Good.
What an imposition, — that such a need and a “call” for prayer could prevent chaplain visits! No, No, No! God is already there.
“They are the sign of Immanuel, or “God with us,” — a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense], And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised.” S&H xi: 15
There is One Mind. Therefore there is no anger, unloving, compitition, going on in the One Mind.All of these ideas are living in harmony in Mind. Peace and Love are the attraction and companions moving God’s ideas.
Love is on the field … and nothing else!
Feelings of competition and rivalry can’t stop the Christ message from reaching these women. One thing the services can provide is a feeling of true worth which recognizes each as a child of God, regardless of what they have done and regardless of different backgrounds. Acknowledging what they have in common is a step towards being able to receive God’s unconditional love. This love includes forgiveness and can resolve feelings of hostility.