If you have an interest in the jail ministries, here is a candid peek into the work written by my son, Pastor Eric of Jacob's Well, Spokane Wa.

"We have the privilege of serving in four centers every month where women, men and children find refuge from the hells, horrors and hardships of life. They are a flock of all kinds of sheep and I know that Jesus loves them all, but that doesn’t mean everyone is easy to love.

They impact me and I carry them not just as stories but as people who become part of my life of prayer.

Precious stones in a priestly vestment worn over my heart (Exodus 28).

Sometime I lay my hand over these stones on my chest and sigh.

At other moments I weep, sing, groan or set verses on fire in hopes that the light will push back the darkness.

Sometimes the tongues of Angels fill the space between thought and word.

Here’s a few of these sheep to pray for:

Unapproachable Ursula: Sitting in the hard plastic chair at the far corner, head in her hands, curled in on herself like a turtle without her shell.

Mad Melanie: She’s Medusa, trapped here by the rule of mandatory chapel attendance. Her cold death glare is like striking serpents. Her eyes searching to freeze my resolve to sever her from her abuses, betrayals, deceptions, and destructions.

Running Rachel: The desperate mother clinging to her child, fleeing the Herod who has bloodied hands and wicked intent.

Medicated Mary: Slow with words, hesitant to allow you to know she’s willing to be approached. Reaching for her is like talking underwater. She clings to your words like someone drowning in a calm but icy sea..slipping away, numb, frozen and sinking.

Hemorrhaging Heather: Her wounds are gushing. A punctured soul artery has volunteer’s hands of prayer clasped over her desperations trying to stop the hemorrhage.

Jerking Judy: Coming into the room multiple ways at the same time. Meth aftershocks, body tremors like marionette strings being yanked by some unseen entity. I hear the lost girl in the voice of a lost woman ravaged by the dark genie that rose from a smoking pipe.

Worshipping Wendy: Others sit with hands under thighs, she stands with arms extended, hands reaching to the hem of God’s garment.

Dawn’s healing light has broken on her face and her singing fills the room with off key power like Noah must of heard from his doves.

Ezekiel‬ ‭34‬:‭11‬-‭12‬, ‭16‬, ‭25‬ “The LORD God proclaims: I myself will search for my flock and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out the flock when some in the flock have been scattered, so will I seek out my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered during the time of clouds and thick darkness. I will seek out the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the wounded, and strengthen the weak…I will make a covenant of peace for them, and I will banish the wild animals from the land. Then they will safely live in the desert and sleep in the forest.”