MINISTRY UPDATE 4^TH QUARTER October-December, 2000

Greetings to you in the mighty and awesome name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!  We pray that the peace of Christ fill your life, your home, and your world during this Christmas season and throughout the New Year.  God is so awesome!  Jesus is to be thanked and praised forevermore! 

We would like to fill you in on some exciting things God has been doing through this outreach … all because so MANY of you have been praying on behalf of a request we made sometime ago about the burden God was placing on our heart to see prison doors open up for us with audiotapes.

Twenty-four of you are reading this newsletter for the very first time.  Who are you?  You are prison Chaplains.  You are the ones that gave us approval to start sending testimonial audiotapes to your prison tape libraries.  May the God of all mercies shower you with a fresh anointing of His grace this upcoming year to help each of you continue to find joy in the midst of perhaps one of the most difficult ministries on the face of the earth:  Prison Ministry.

Let’s reflect for a moment.  During the summer and fall of this year, we believed God impressed upon us to begin contacting prisons once again, to get testimonial audiotapes into the prisons.  We had been greatly hindered in the past, because here in the state of Michigan, tapes were no longer being allowed in prisons … at least that was the word THIS ministry had received.  Because of this temporary victory the devil had wrought …we prioritized our focus in other areas of outreach.

In obedience, in July, we began to contact prisons outside of Michigan.  We prayerfully chose one prison in each of the 51 states to get our feet wet.  Of 51 letters that went out, seven Chaplains responded positively.  We felt that was a HUGE victory in Jesus!  We weren’t expecting but maybe one or two at the most; that’s how battle weary we were from the prior defeat.

As God provided more funds, we then sent out 52 more requests.  Five more Chaplains responded favorably from that mailing.  That gave us 12 open doors, praise God!  Again we had to wait for more funds to come in, and we made a third mailing: this time we felt to send 87 letters with return, postage paid, self-addressed ministry envelopes.  From that mailing, twelve Chaplains responded favorably.  That brought up the total to 24 prisons! NOW maybe you have a little better idea why we’ve started this newsletter out by proclaiming just how awesome God and His praying people are!  A mighty defeat has been handed to Satan.  

And yet …our enemy has not taken it sitting down.  Since we shared with you about our desire to move out in obedience to God’s leading in this matter … giving in the ministry began to drop off dramatically.  In over more than half a dozen years now of pioneering this outreach ministry, we have never seen funds dry up so quickly.  We knew that wasn’t a coincidence!  We knew it was the enemy’s way of fighting back against God’s directive on behalf of this outreach.  And … because “all things work together for good for those who love God, and are called according to His purposes …(Romans 8:28)” perhaps the Lord was stretching our faith a little bit more here at Precious Testimonies. 

Yet there was enough funds to see 24 prison doors open, and for that victory, we can only say one more time … “Thank you, heavenly Father, for opening doors that the devil wasn’t able to keep closed.”  As more funds become available in the future, we’ll continue to keep contacting new prison Chaplains across the country.  (We have just scratched the surface thus far). 

Of the 24 Chaplains who have given us permission to send audiotapes, here’s how the Lord has lead:  we have sent them each 18 tapes first time around.  As God moves the hearts of people and provides more financial seed to purchase more audiotapes and postage, we have many more tapes we can send . . . just as powerfully anointed as the first 18 we’ve sent thus far. 

Like many, it is easy to be removed from prison life and what goes on in that arena, unless one happens to have a loved one inside prison walls.  We’d like to take a moment and share with those of you who might not be aware of some incredible facts regarding prisons.  A highly affective and recognized International Bible correspondence ministry to prisoners (Crossroad Bible Institute) published these facts in their September 2000 newsletter: 

“In 1970 there were 200,000 people incarcerated in the U.S.  Today there are over 2 million – more prison inmates than any other country, including Russia.  Prisons and jails are the fastest growing type of “housing” in America.  In the U.S. we now spend more on prisons than on schools.  Indeed, there are more African-American males in prison or jail than enrolled in college.

“The gravity of the situation is even more profoundly evident when we look at the per capita incarceration rate.  In 1970, the United States was incarcerating at a rate much closer to the average of other nations, around a 100 per 100,000 people.  Figures just released show that the U.S. is now incarcerating at a rate of 727 per 100,000 people.  Even a rogue nation like Iran has a rate of ‘only’ 220.  Canada’s rate of 130 appears quite low by comparison, but it has grown much higher than other Western countries. 

“Not only is the United States incarcerating a higher percentage of its population than any other nation on earth, it is also said that the U.S. is incarcerating a higher percentage than any nation in the history of the world!  In fact, according to the Brookings Institution, if the current incarceration rate continues, one half of all Americans will be in prison or jail by the year 2052!

When men and women are incarcerated (some wrongly, sad to say) with so much time on their hands . . . it becomes an opportunity for God to soften hearts and plant seeds of truth in hurting, discouraged, hopeless, rejected souls. Perhaps some people are behind prison simply because God knows that they would not respond to Him the way He desires for them to do so outside of prison.   The crimes that prisoners have or have not committed and been sent up for to do time is not what God sees as the final outcome for so many who will have “seemingly” spent wasted hours and years during their lifetimes.  

Truly . . . and we mean this with the most sincerity that we know how to express in mere words … when Jesus said: “Many of the first shall be last, and many of the last shall be first" (Matthew 19:30) . . . we believe the Holy Spirit has imparted to this ministry that prisoners are some of the most prized possessions of God’s handiwork.  Here on earth they may seem to be some of the most despised, the least most deserving, but in the resurrection of the just … some of the greatest rewards will be given to those who were the least esteemed among men and women on earth.  Why - because life handed them an unfair blow?  No, not at all.  Because they saw their “imprisonment” not as an unfair punishment, but as an OPPORTUNITY to be removed from much of the “cares of the outside world,” and devoted themselves with all their time to drawing closer to God . . . to minister to others around them the love and truth of Jesus Christ, and utilize their free time to pray for ministries such as this one in helping reach the lost. 

Are the one or two stamps some of you prisoners have sent this ministry been a waste?  Is the hard-earned money those of you who have given to this outreach been a waste?  And I believe MOST important of all . . . have your prayers on behalf of this outreach been a waste?  I believe 24 prison Chaplains reading this right now would voice a strong: “No!” 

So thank each of you for whatever part or parts you have contributed – have sown into as unto the Lord via outreach.  We realize it is very difficult at times to know where and how much we’re to give our time and financial resources and prayers to . . . because God has so many effective ministries for us to give ourselves to.  And to be honest … every dime, every stamp from a prisoner that comes into this outreach … there are times when we are tempted to send it to another ministry who appears to be able to make ‘better use of it’ than what we might be able to. And yet, we realize that there is no shortage of ministries desiring to send tapes into prisons, and thank God for them! 

However, most of those tapes are teaching and preaching tapes.  The tapes God has called us to provide fall under the category of Revelations 12:11:  And they overcame him (Satan and his demons) by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony.  Like so many people in times past, they were not able yet to receive the meat of the Word: they were only capable of handling milk.  Testimonial tapes are usually not for God’s people who have some years walking intimately with Christ.  These have grown into more “solid meat.” 

But God has not called this outreach ministry to minister “solid meat” to the more seasoned saints.  He has called us to reach out to those who can only handle milk … in fact, to those who don’t even know where or how to FIND milk worth drinking.  Most people like this are not even spiritually born again yet.  And so we have been called of God to be a seed “planting – seed watering” ministry.  We have the high privilege of being used of God to give prisoners (as well as those OUT of prison, of course) milk that they can receive; milk that is non-threatening; milk that can be trusted not to kill them or deceive them, but to start them on the journey of eternal spiritual life. 

And yet, when we share with new testifiers, we always exhort them to pray about giving their born again testimonies and ministering as WELL.  Space does not allow to mention the many times we’ve heard accounts of where seasoned, battle-weary Christians have shared with us how something one of the testifiers said was “just what I needed to hear to break through a barrier I was up against”, or “break out of the pit of discouragement” I was in.  So to relegate testimonies to only the unsaved or newly saved would be greatly shortsighted on anyone’s part.  “Overcoming Satan’s influence over humanity by the priceless tool of our “testimonies” must never, never, NEVER be relegated to a second-class status.  Our “testimonies” have more value to God than what many in the Body of Christ have full revelation of. 

For those of you who are moved to pray for this outreach on a regular basis, we have another request to place at the feet of Jesus.  Let’s ask and trust the Lord to move prisoners’ hearts to listen to the tapes that are now going in.  That obviously is the next hindrance we face, isn’t it? 

Another short praise report . . . two more Public Access stations have opened their doors to us to play our Precious Testimonies videotapes.  Those stations are located in Paw Paw, MI and Cincinnati, OH.  We would like to thank our sponsor in Kalamazoo, MI, Craig Haveman, for his part in seeing this happen.  On a sadder note, we have lost one station in Battle Creek, MI only because we were unable to find another sponsor in that viewing area to replace the one who had to step down.  The station manager in Battle Creek has said they will finish playing out what tapes we’ve sent to them, and then that will be end of our broadcast there.  If there is anyone reading this who knows of someone they could refer to us as a new sponsor, would you please contact us as soon as possible? 

As we approach this Holiday Season, and the year comes to a close, we want to express to each of you our sincerest of thanks for all the support you have provided.  We realize that we will never be able to reciprocate in kind during this lifetime . . . but we have the assurance that whatever rewards God will grant us in eternity for fulfilling the purposes He has entrusted to us through this outreach . . . each of you who have contributed a stamp, a dollar, a prayer, your testimony, enabled videotapes to play in a city far away because you signed a sponsor form . . . you are God’s hands and fingers that make us one united TEAM in all of this. 

We pray that this newsletter issue has encouraged and ministered to you in some special way.  As you celebrate Christmas this coming New Year, may the love and peace of Jesus Christ surround you, and keep you in the battle for lost souls.  We love you all and will continue to pray for each one of you who are on our newsletter mailing list.

Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen and Amen!   (Ephesians 3:20-21)

In His Love & Service,
Norm & Kathleen Rasmussen