PRAYER LETTER

body,html { overflow-y: hidden; overflow-x: hidden;}

     
   
 
 

 

April 3, 2012

 

Dear Prayer Warriors,

The Lord continues to open prison doors for the ministry of the Gospel! Thank you for your prayers; please continue to intercede for us with diligence and passion!

Recently, our board of directors gathered together as it does three times a year. This time, we chose to meet at a prison and spend time with some of the inmates we serve. Warden Burl Cain hosted us at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. This facility houses over 5,000 inmates, and over 80 percent of them will never be released. They will die in prison.

The amazing reality at Angola is that Jesus has changed so many souls there, He now claims more followers than does the Evil One. Whole dorms do not have guards because the men behave with such civility. The church steeples are higher than the guard towers. Songs of worship fill the air, and prayer is constant. The change has been so dramatic, that Angola now sends out prisoners as missionaries, going two by two, to minister to other prisons in Louisiana.

Warden Cain challenged the leadership of Prisons Fellowship Ministries to take Angola as a model of what can happen at prisons in other states. Right after his exhortation, we started to receive invitations from other states to “come over … and help us” (Acts 16:9). Recently, Florida suggested that we consider sending men from The Urban Ministry Institute program at the South Bay Correctional Facility two by two to other Florida facilities. Can you imagine prisoners becoming missionaries, going from prison to prison to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and lead His Church inside the walls? I am getting goose bumps! I feel like I am back in the Book of Acts!

We need your prayers now more than ever. Ask God to release the resources required to walk through the doors that governors across the country are opening to us. Pray for volunteers to rise up and teach in the prisons. Intercede for inmates across the country who have come to Jesus. Ask God to build them up and protect the integrity of their Christian witness. Pray for doors to continue opening, and that we would be granted the ability to move through them as God desires. Pray for revival to sweep our land!

Thank you for praying for me as I travel. I can feel every petition. You will never know this side of heaven how deeply I appreciate them. God is answering. Stay on your knees and witness His work.

I love you all!

 

Jim Liske
CEO

 

P.S. As many of you may have heard, Chuck Colson fell ill during our Wilberforce Weekend. He is resting well after undergoing successful surgery on Saturday to remove a pool of clotted blood on the surface of his brain. Attending physicians have confirmed he did not suffer a stroke.

Chuck is resting comfortably and responding well. Please keep Chuck and his family in your prayers.
 
 
Pray for
Chuck Colson and Jim Liske as they travel:
 
 

Prayer Letter from Jim Liske is published by Prison Fellowship:

 44180 Riverside Parkway,
Lansdowne, VA 20176.

 

Remove your e-mail address from the Prayer Letter mailing list.

 

To make changes to your profile information, go here.
If you would prefer not to receive emails from us, go here.
Please send any comments about this email to ServiceRequest@pfm.org

 

 



     
   
 
 

 

March 1, 2012

 

Dear Prayer Warriors,

I must start this month’s prayer letter with praise and thanksgiving! Last week, our board of directors, some ministry partners, and a number of staff spent Thursday at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, and then met Friday as a leadership team. What we experienced Thursday caused us to hear from the Spirit clearly as we made ministry decisions on Friday.

Angola, or “The Farm,” as it is also known, was once the bloodiest prison in America.  Under the God-fearing leadership of its iconic warden, Burl Cain, it is now one of the safest. The tallest structures on the grounds are not guard towers, but church steeples. There are even units in the prison – a maximum-security facility where the majority of inmates are serving life sentences – where the guards go off-duty at night. Former gang leaders in the prison now pastor their fellow inmates! That's right, seminary-trained, incarcerated pastors lead vibrant flocks of Jesus followers and have changed the entire culture of the prison. As we went from unit to unit, the love of Jesus permeated the old walls and cells, and inmate after inmate asked us to make sure others prisons look like Angola! These men who will die inside are asking you and me to make sure every prison in America is permeated by the Gospel of Jesus! 

I was touched to my core as I walked, talked, ate,worshiped, prayed and learned with men who want to make their lives count for Jesus. Praise God for Angola, Warden Cain and these men. Pray for PFM as we seek to make every prison in America as Jesus-centered as Angola.

Just when I thought that was as "good as it gets," I learned that the State of California was releasing the news we have known about for a month. Beginning immediately, Prison Fellowship, in partnership with World Impact, will dramatically increase the number of California prisons in which an inmate can enroll in The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) – from five to 26 over the next two years! That is what changed Angola, and it will happen in 26 more prisons. This will bring the total number of TUMI units in the U.S. to over 30. Praise God, and pray for those classes to be packed full of men and women who will leave prison commissioned and ready to serve in local churches – to evangelize where they used to break the law. 

Please pray for spiritual protection, continued favor with state officials, more volunteers to teach and care, revival inside the walls of America's prisons that spills into the free world, and healing for the impoverished urban centers and rural areas of our country.

God is moving, friends! Ask God to use each of us to join Him as He brings His Kingdom to earth through us. 

Love you all. We can't do this without your prayer!

 

Jim Liske
CEO
 
 
Pray for
Chuck Colson and Jim Liske as they travel:
 
 

Prayer Letter from Jim Liske is published by Prison Fellowship:

 44180 Riverside Parkway,
Lansdowne, VA 20176.

 

Remove your e-mail address from the Prayer Letter mailing list.

 

To make changes to your profile information, go here.
If you would prefer not to receive emails from us, go here.
Please send any comments about this email to ServiceRequest@pfm.org

 

 



         

body,html { overflow-y: hidden; overflow-x: hidden;}

     
   
 
 

 

February 1, 2012

 

Dear Prayer Warriors,

I want to start this month’s letter by saying that you are vital in God’s work as we see Him build His Son’s Church inside the walls of America’s prisons. Way to go!

Thank you for interceding for PFM before God’s throne! Always remember God’s promise in James 5:16b: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” As you lift up the concerns of our ministry and those we serve, know that God is active in the earthly and spiritual realms to bring about His rule and reign in the hearts, lives, homes, communities, jails and prisons you are praying for. God is answering your prayers!

This past week I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, speaking to about 1,000 young adults from over 40 different area churches at a weekly gathering for worship and learning. These men and women are passionate about Jesus, and God is awakening them to the plight of the incarcerated and their families. As I spoke, the Spirit moved. We now have the potential not only to partner with these 1,000 energetic disciples, but also with all 40 of their churches. Together, we can fight for the shalom of Christ, and the discipleship of those in prison and re-entering communities in North Carolina.

Earlier in the week, Chuck and I were with the leaders of Family Life, a wonderful ministry that provides discipleship for married couples and families all over the country. We asked them to consider partnering with us to help those affected by incarceration build (and rebuild) strong marriages after they return home.

I also had a great time with Joe Gibbs this week, solidifying a partnership with his Game Plan for Life ministry. Joe is active in building men of God, and this partnership will be vital to the discipleship of men inside and newly outside the walls! In other news, a judge called me this week wanting to come alongside us, and a university in Oklahoma called to tell me what they are doing to initiate a student movement. Your prayers are raising up an army of advocates for the grace and truth of Christ all across our country!

Keep praying, and don’t believe the notion that the Church of Jesus is slowing down. To the contrary, it is on the verge of revived activity! I sense a movement of the Spirit of God rising, and intercessory prayer is at its core! You are on the front lines for us. Thank you.

Please pray that the doors of state houses and governors’ offices will continue to open for us. Pray for legislators, that God would grant them wisdom. Pray for wardens and corrections officers, that they might extend us favor and access. And pray for pastors, that they might open up their churches to minister to the least, the lost and the forgotten!

Pray hard.

I Love You All,

Jim Liske
CEO
 
 
Pray for
Chuck Colson and Jim Liske as they travel:
 
 

Prayer Letter from Jim Liske is published by Prison Fellowship:

 44180 Riverside Parkway,
Lansdowne, VA 20176.

 

Remove your e-mail address from



     
   
 
 

 

January 18, 2012


Happy New Year!

Dear Praying Friends,

2012 has had a gentle arrival, bringing temperate weather to most of the country.  But at Prison Fellowship Ministries® (PFM), the New Year has been rung in with gusto – there is nothing “temperate” about what God is doing in America's prisons and churches!

Right now we crave your consistent intercessory prayer! Not because we have a crisis, but because God is opening doors in states all across our land in ways only He can. So our prayer requests for January 2012 are coupled with heaps of praise.

God ended our calendar year with great financial blessing. His people were generous.  Praise God, and thank you! As you praise Him, ask our Heavenly Father to continue to open the eyes and hearts of millions of others so that we will never be limited in our ability to build the “Church inside the walls” because of a lack of finances. 

California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Oklahoma have thrown open their doors to the ministry of PF. Only God could bring this about. We are being asked to "come and help." It is truly humbling. Ask God to provide all the resources we need, and also ask Him to bless the leaders in those states who are taking courageous steps to bring the Gospel into the correctional facilities they steward. 

I'll give you as many details as I can about this, but there are still some things I can’t share. There is a state that is on the verge of opening up to having theological education in every single one of its prisons, and we could see 10 percent of its prison population studying a Bible school-level curriculum. Friends, 10 percent of its prison population studying theology would amount to more people than attend church on Sunday in that state. This is no longer just prison ministry – these are the seeds of revival. Pray diligently for the final pieces to come together.

Thank you for being on your knees for the least, lost and lonely. We can do nothing outside of God's power, and your prayers are vital.  You and your intercession mean more to me – and to this work of the Kingdom – than you will ever know.

Pray without ceasing!

Blessings,

Jim Liske
CEO
 
 
Pray for
Chuck Colson and Jim Liske as they travel:
 
 

Prayer Letter from Jim Liske is published by Prison Fellowship:

 44180 Riverside Parkway,
Lansdowne, VA 20176.

 



Prison Fellowship   Prayer Letter from Jim Liske
   
 
James 5:16b

 

October 1, 2011

 

Dear Praying Friends,

My father had a severe dislike for daisies. Growing up on the farm, I can remember walking through the fields and pulling out daisies by the roots. We couldn’t use herbicides because they would also kill the crops. So we would walk the fields in a line and extract every plant we saw. If we missed one, or if new a new daisy emerged in a day or two, my siblings or I would be dispatched to remove it.

Now, my father didn’t have some sort of neurotic issue with daisies stemming from his childhood, nor did he have an irrational reaction to their beauty – somehow wanting less-attractive fields. Dad was not anti-flowers. He did, however, understand the power of the daisies’ ability to spread and take over a farm. Dad knew if left alone to propagate, daisies would spread wildly until the whole field was covered with white. For a farmer, that meant a less effective crop or a less productive pasture for cattle. We pulled them before they could take over!

Daisies reveal a character of the Kingdom of Heaven. Rain, rivers, lakes, and oceans reveal the same anatomy of a movement – it might start with a drop, but it can end up in a flood! Trees grow, spread, and expand. They show us God’s expansive trait – the way the Gospel and the Church are designed to flow, flood, and dominate our world.

The Church of Jesus is designed to be just like daisies, water, and forests. Led by Spirit-filled men and women, the Church is designed to be a movement that grows and overwhelms evil and serves as the conduit of God’s mercy and grace. The Church is to be planted and empowered to grow. Followers of Jesus are instructed in Scripture to love one another so that communities of Jesus might have unity. In that, we see the expansive quality in God and in His creation. The Church is to be a movement that begins in every community, spreading and growing until the edges of each individual church’s influence connect across the country and world.

Prisons and jails across America are communities. For 2.3 million men and women, the world behind bars is the “Jerusalem” as we see it in Matthew 18:28. The Church is designed to be planted and grow inside the walls, too.

This is where I need you to covenant to pray with me and millions of people across the country.

Please pray that God would continue to raise up churches that will partner with Prison Fellowship to plant the church inside the walls of America’s prisons, providediscipleship of the inmates so they can lead the churches inside the walls, and prepare men and women upon release to join the movement of the local church in their home communities.

We see the churches in America’s prisons commissioning those inmates being released as missionaries to the communities where they once broke the law and empowering them to thrive as productive followers of Jesus. As Followers of Jesus, they bring peace and hope – more daisies!

Ask God to touch the hearts of pastors and church leaders – calling them to be part of this movement.

Ask God to touch the hearts of inmates – calling them to unity with brothers and sisters in Jesus in prison.

Ask God to raise up those who would serve to train the church inside and outside the walls revealing God’s image and glory by spreading throughout the communities where God has planted them – inside and outside the walls.

The church has the power to spread and sweep over the world. That is why the local church is God’s “Plan A” – and it is a good plan!

Thanks for praying diligently!

 

Blessings,
Jim's signature
Jim Liske
CEO
Connecting Reading and Prayer Guide
 
Pray for
Chuck Colson and Jim Liske as they travel:
 
 



 
 
Prison Fellowship   Prayer Letter from Jim Liske
   
 
James 5:16b

 

August 2, 2011

Dear Friends,

Of all the notes, articles, and letters I will write each month, the letter I write to you will be my most important. As prayer partners for Prison Fellowship, you are at the forefront of the efforts to build the Church of Jesus Christ inside the walls of America’s prisons. Your faithful intercession is the foundation of the efforts to bring the Gospel to families divided by incarceration. By lifting prisoners, children, wardens, chaplains, and Prison Fellowship staff to the Throne of Grace, you unleash the power of God to bring hope and healing to hearts and lives.

As I begin my ministry at Prison Fellowship, I am humbled in knowing I join a movement that for 35 years has been the spiritual lifeline for those “out of sight and out of mind.” My first two weeks have been a thrill as I have heard story after story of men and women finding Jesus and eternal life. I have found myself praising God as I heard about children of inmates being given gifts, sent to camp, and mentored. I have been moved to tears as I have watched worship services in prisons and have seen men and women praising God – even though they are behind earthly bars, their souls are free.

None of this happens without prayer. Nothing changes without the work of the Spirit. Souls are not transformed without the Gospel. Families are not healed without Jesus’ redemptive work. Inmates do not turn from selfish and, at times, violent behavior without God’s grace. Freedom – spiritual freedom through the telling, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus – is not realized without hearing and embracing the Gospel. None of this happens without prayer.

However, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16b). Your prayer coupled with the prayers of our prayer partners all over America is being answered by our loving and powerful God and Father! Hearts, homes, and communities are experiencing healing and restoration! Thank you! Your ministry of prayer is vital – necessary – to all we do together at Prison Fellowship.

This month please pray for me and my family as we adjust to our new ministry. Cathy, my wife, and Allison and Joshua, our daughter and son, are thrilled about this opportunity for our family to serve with the PF family.

Pray for Garland Hunt and his family as they, too, adjust to his new role as President of Prison Fellowship.

I covet your prayers as I learn to lead PF and please pray for Garland as he leads our field staff and the programming team – designing and delivering ministry to inmates, their families, and local churches serving them.

Finally, place our Angel Tree program at the top of your prayer list. This year we will serve more than 400,000 prisoners’ children. Ask God to move in the hearts of inmates to “sign up their children.” Pray for an ever increasing number of local churches to become Angel Tree churches – we can’t do this without the local church. Pray for the children as their hearts are being prepared to hear and see the Gospel so that they would be receptive and become followers of Jesus.

Thank you again for praying – for standing between Heaven and Earth – and interceding on behalf of the lost and the least and the forgotten.

 

Blessings,
Jim's signature
Jim Liske
CEO
Connecting Reading and Prayer Guide
 
Pray for
Chuck Colson and Jim Liske as they travel:
 
 



 

 
 
   
 
 

March 1, 2011

Greetings,

After being away from Prison Fellowship for over eight years, Tom and I have returned for an interim period of time to serve until a new president is chosen to lead this great ministry.

I was asked to once again consider writing the prayer letter which has been done so faithfully by Mark Earley the past nine years. It is an awesome responsibility, but also a privilege to share what God is doing at Prison Fellowship because of faithful prayer warriors like you.

We have just come off a weekend of board meetings and are encouraged as the Board committed together to serve prisoners around the world through the Church and align all their efforts of heart, thought, and resources to that end.

It is exciting to witness God at work in the hearts of these dedicated board members who desire God to be at the center of all they do as they serve with humility and wisdom.

Pray especially for the Board as they search for a new president—that God will do a new thing at Prison Fellowship.

Pray for our founder, Chuck Colson, and for Tom Pratt and the leadership team as they seek to provide godly leadership to the ministry during this interim period.

Pray for the staff and volunteers who diligently serve, using their God-given gifts for His glory.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray…” Are we willing to answer that call—to humble ourselves and pray, seeking God’s guidance and blessing for this ministry?

God promises great things when we do so. He WILL hear from heaven, He WILL bring healing and forgiveness, He WILL bless far more than we can even ask or imagine.

“The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” James 5:16b. It can draw down God’s power and even cause Him to “change His mind.”

I ask you to re-commit in a new way to pray for Prison Fellowship. Join us in claiming God’s blessing to be poured out on this ministry as we serve Him each day in the tasks He has given us to do.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer.

In Christian love,

Gloria Pratt

gloria_pratt@pfm.org
November 2010

Dear Friends,

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” (Luke 9:16-17)

So many to feed and so little food – that’s how the disciples sized up the situation when an enormous and hungry crowd formed around Jesus.

But what seemed impossible to men became a blessing in the hands of Jesus! That is how we feel today as we seek to serve almost 400,000 children of prisoners this Christmas through Angel Tree!

With Angel Tree we are looking at what, to man, seems impossible, but we serve a Lord who specializes in things thought impossible. Just as Jesus took five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand people and took away extra, so too we believe He will serve all of these children…. and then some!!

Because of the needs of these children, some of the poorest of the poor in the country, we know the Lord wants to touch them and their families with the love and hope of the Gospel this Christmas.

Every year, we always have more children to serve than churches to serve them. And yet, Jesus always seems to make a way as we trust Him!

Would you join us in prayer for these children and their parents in prison?

Join us as we daily and humbly pray that we can fulfill our commitment to each of these children and their parent in prison.

Pray that He will do many wonders in their lives – bringing them to saving faith, reconciling family relationships, and helping many of these children and their caregivers to find a home in a local Angel Tree church.

Ask that each of us would be revived in our faith as we depend upon His almighty hand.

Thank Him for this incredible opportunity for the Gospel! And thank Him too for the ability we have to join together in prayer across the country and send our petitions heavenward.

As Jesus satisfied the hunger of the multitudes long ago, through our prayers and dependence on Him, may he meet the needs of these children and their parents in prison this Christmas!!

Thank you for your faithful partnership in prayer! We are so grateful for each one of you.

In His grace,

Mark L. Earley

1 Corinthians 1:9