12-13-2008 WORSHIP SERVICE AT THE PRISON IN FAYETTE, MS

We had our first service at the prison in Fayette, Ms Saturday night December 13. The devil has been fighting to keep us out. I was approached 6 months ago about going in, but the door kept getting slammed. Ten days before the thirteenth, Chaplain Wiggleworth made it all happen in about 5 minutes, I had turned it over to the Lord the week before and thru up my hands.



Thank you Chaplain Wigglesworth, Warden Caho, Chaplain Turner and the staff at Fayette.



We had 8 people to go in that night, we first ate at Mr. Arthur Davis's restaurant in Lorman, The Country Store, best fried chicken in the South. If you don't believe me either ask him or try it yourself.



The service started at 6:10 and last for 3 hours, Amazing. We had 6 people had to cancel at the last minute, we went in with no singers, but the Lord provided a singing group and a young man that sang and played the guitar from within the facility. We even had Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, show up and tell about his engagement,the birth of Jesus and his marriage to Mary.



Arthur Davis and Richard Cruel are planning on going in on a regular basis and we plan on going once every other month to have a worship service with them.



The Lord now has us working in the prisons in Fayette, McComb, Columbia, Hattiesburg and Angie, La. Thank you Lord for using a poor old rag tag group like us to carry your gospel to our Jerusalem!

11-8-08 OUTREACH AT RAYBURN CORRECTIONAL CENTER

Everytime we do a Saturday Outreach at a prison, it seems to get better and better.

We want to thank the Warden, Chaplain and all the staff at Rayburn for the wonderful treatment we get from you. We were allowed to work all the lock down units on Friday night. We had 8 men go in and were joined by John and Walter, Inmate Chaplains. We talked and prayed with every one in the lock down that would allow us. AND most of them allowed us.

IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE!

We had breakfast at Mike Monroe's house at 6 AM. Thank you Mike, Betty, Uncle Johnny and Aunt Jeannie. We arrived at the prison about 7:30 and took in about 25 volunteers from Mississippi and Louisiana, even our daughter Jacquelyn came with us. She got to ride on my bike since Cheryl was unable to go. Her first trip in the prison and I hit mud in the first yard we rode in and dumped my bike. The only thing hurt was my ego and the windshield.

We took the bikes on all the yards but Sun Unit. But we sent a team of Circuit Riders to have a worship service with singing, testimonies and preaching.

There were 2 worship services in the gym and had about 700 inmates come worship. The attendance gets better everytime. The inmates know us, love us and accept us, because a group goes in on a weekly basis and they know that we come for them and not for ourselves.

Everyone that wanted to sing or speak had the opportunity and we had the prison church choir sing and several of the inmates. There is a freedom that the Lord has given us that will raise the hair on your neck.

Thank you Lord for all the blessing you have given us at Rayburn Correctional. We do not keep records of people prayed with, talked with, or those that make decisions. The Lord keeps count and we are not there for numbers, we plant seeds, water, cultivate and participate in the harvest. But the Lord does the convicting and saving, we are the messengers.

We also served 1,000 hamburgers and chips, etc. to the inmates, infirmary and to the staff. Thank you to the mentoring group that helped cook and assemble the food and distribute it.

If you have not gone to a Saturday Outreach, you are missing a blessing. We also do the Saturday night worship service each month.

12-19-08 DEVOTION BY ARTHUR RHODES, INMATE CHAPLAIN AT RAYBURN CORRECTIONAL

WHO MAKES YOUR CHOICES

Joshua 24:15 "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourself today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living: but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."



There is not a day that goes by that we, human beings, do not make hundreds, and sometimes, thousands of choices. We make these choices either consciously or unconsciously, either willing or unwillingly. That is what is means to be human.



Genesis 2:15-17 "Then the Lord took the Man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God then commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.



There is no doubt God could have created mankind without a choice; he could have made us like the birds of the air or the fish of the sea, or the beast of the field. Had He done so, we would instinctively praise and worship and serve God, but we would not do it by choice, but by force.



One of the most amazing insight we can have of God is that it is His plan and purpose to bring about an Eternal Kingdom in which the people will praise and worship and serve Him because they chose to, not because they are forced to.



Acts 17:29-31 "Being then children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone or an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness, through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."



We have all heard the saying, "Time waits for no one." That is certainly a true statement, but, it has no significance unless you are in a hurry.



Here is a statement that, if you seriously think about it, will have meaning to you, no matter who you are--- "Tomorrow is not promised."



That's what Joshua was telling his people so long ago when he said, "CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE."



Joshua had made his choice, he said, "AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD."



Of all the hundreds or thousands of choices you've made today, this ONE is the most important --- CHOOSE TODAY TO SERVE THE LORD!

Thursday Oct. 2nd

I have some pictures here of the outreach this past Tuesday at William Carey Univ.

If you missed it , you missed a great time!

The weather was perfect! Blue skies and cool temps made it so comfortable and enjoyable to be outside.

We want to thank Tommy King, Brian Cleveland, FCA and the BSU for inviting us.

We cooked about 200 hamburgers and hot dogs, which I have to say, our burgers are pretty darn good!

Celia Broom came and sang a couple songs for us on very short notice. ( Thank you Celia )

If you have never heard her she has a awesome voice!

Thanks to all of you who came and volunteered to help.

Tommy King told us yesterday how much the students appriciated our coming to serve them.

It is our hope now that the school and local churches can reach out, not just to the student but also to their neighbors and Three Fold will help any way we can.

By the way, William Carey won 3 to 2 in the last few minutes of the game! Congrats to the WC womens soccer team!

Dont forget the worship service this Saturday in Angie and the cookout at the prison in McComb on the 11th.

There are some changes to the outreach on the 25th but I will let Steve explain that, just keep that date open. We have something fun planned for our volunteers you dont want to miss!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

We had a tremendous worship service at Rayburn Correctional Saturday night. We had Tabitha White and Celia Broom singing, Apostles Paul and Philip showed up and told about their experiences with the Ethiopian Eunich and Paul's salvation, along with a dramatization by Eddie Bishop and another inmate and brother Dale Broom brought the message. The Church choir led by Cory sang several songs and are wonderful. Every service we have ever had at the prison has been fantastic. If you've not experienced the spirit, the love and the wonderful music, testimony, dramas and preaching, you are missing a blessing. COME JOIN US!!

COMING UP!!! We have been asked by William Carey University to come back on Tuesday, September 30 and have another outreach to the soccer teams, fans and staff. We will cook hamburgers, hotdogs and trimmings. We will have some kind of music, singing or CDs and have a lot of one on one time with the people. We are showing that Christians can love other Christians without expecting something in return, BUT we are also planting seeds to reach out to the community around William Carey with the students and staff involved with us.

Jay Sanguinetti will be leaving the Shell Station at Hwy 11 and Hwy 59 Intersection at 5:30PM for William Carey, bring your motorcycle. I will be arriving at William Carey around 4:30 to set up the grills, tents, sound equipment, etc, if you can, come and help set up.

October 4th at Rayburn Correctional, we will be conducting the Worship Service. We will meet at Old Hickory Restaurant in Angie between 4 to 4:30PM, eating supper and going into the prison about 5:30 and be leaving around 8:30. IF you are not on the approved lists, email or call for an application. It takes about 10 days to get approved.

October 11th at Pike County Work Center in McComb Ms, we will be having a Saturday Outreach, where we will cook, have worship, preaching, testimonies, dramas, etc. we will leave Columbia around 7:30 AM and be back around 3:30PM.

We have other events on the callender for the rest of the year and will tell about them later.

God Bless,

Steve & Cheryl

Waiting on Gustav

I thought you guys would like to see this...Robert and Steve waiting out Gustav together on the couch! And yes!!!!!!!!! Robert really does have a wife, and I have proof! Here she is at our house helping out during the storm.

Cynthia and Robert were able to go home yesterday but Im not sure they have power. The last time Steve spoke to them they were hooking up a generator.

There are more pictures and a longer update on my blog, acceptance with joy.

P.S. Mike is now in Diamondhead cooking for the Ms. Baptist relief Organization, so keep he and Betty in your prayers.

I would love to hear your comments.. just click below this post where it says "comments" and follow the directions. If you have any problems just email us and we will walk you through it.

Poem By Inmate at Rayburn Correctional

Three Fold Ministries has been ministering at Rayburn Correctional for 4 years. Several of us go in each week and are involved in the Faith Based Programs as mentors. We conduct a Saturday night worship service once a month and also do a Saturday Outreach twice a year. At the Saturday Outreach we take motorcycles on the yards, have 2 worship services and feed the staff and all the inmates that come to worship, hamburgers and the trimmings. At the last Outreach there were about 700 inmates that came to the worship services. Praise God! AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO RIDE A MOTORCYCLE TO PARTICIPATE AND WOMEN CAN GO!!

The prison publishes a newspaper called the Chainlink Chronicle, that is fantastic. It is 25 to 30 pages and written primarily by the inmates. In the July edtion, an inmate Barry McGarry wrote a poem about the outreach and we have permission to print it.

GOD' GLOW

I felt a spiritual feeling away deep inside

my heart very soon became content,

I wished to see myself in time

just like those biker messengers God had sent.

I was raised as a Christian from my childhood

I learned Gods' love as I worked on my pride,

but those bikers of God really made me see the light

that just yesterday I might have denied.

It came to me as no surprise

that Jesus was written all over each face;

it had seemed as if they glowed or sparkled

and even chose a prison to shed God's grace.

They sang sweet songs within their hearts

as they told testimonies of their lives,

then I noticed some of the strongest here

shed tears and started to wipe their eyes.

I truly and desperately wanted them to know

how good they made our broken hearts feel,

but you could have asked anyone there

how they took satan down on their battlefield.

Jesus was that day found

for some who really didn't know,

all glory to the King

and those bikers who saw God's Glow.

by Barry McGarry

This inmate and others have expressed how much they have been blessed by our ministering to them, BUT, if you talk to any of the volunteers who have gone into the prison, WE ARE THE ONES WHO GET BLESSED.

Ladies Bible Study Begins soon

The Ladies Lunch Time Bible Study will be starting up again soon. I cant believe August is almost gone! It flew by so fast.

We will be doing Pricilla Shirer's He Speaks to Me. Work books are available at Lifeway Book Stores.

We meet every other Tuesday at noon at 518 High School ave. in Columbia and we start Sept. the 9th. Feel free to bring your lunch.

If there are any of you ladies who would like to be in a Bible study but cant come at lunch, let me know . I have Tuesday evenings free this fall and would be happy to meet with you if we could get a group together.

The picture above is of some of the ladies from our first bible Study when we did The Patriarchs.

cheryl

Outreach At William Carey University

We had a great time Tuesday night at William Carey! The Lord blessed by sending the rain in a different direction. We had about 15 volunteers who cooked, served, visited, played music and sang. We fed the soccer teams, the Carey staff that attended, all of the parents and students, and other spectators.

Pray for this ministry to grow into an outreach with William Carey to the neighborhood!

We want to thank Dr Tommy King and the staff for inviting and allowing us to be a part of the ministry team at William Carey. We pray there will be many more opportunities to work together.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all the precious volunteers.

Steve and Cheryl Gray

Our First Blog

Here It is !!! We Now have our own blog spot! On this you can catch up with what we are doing at Three fold, comment, share thoughts and ideas and see pictures of some of our outreach's.

Never blogged before? Its so easy even we can do it. At the end of this blog there will be a place that says comments.....click there....then follow the simple directions to get started blogging.

This blog will probably begin to take the place of a newsletter. We can now update you on a more regular basis this way.

So comment and have fun!