The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened (Matthew 13:33).
I was at a popular cell on the B West wing of the jail yesterday. It is a favorite stop for many of the KJM team. This cell has some of the strongest believers you’ll ever meet. The men in this cell have been the subject of multiple of our weekly KJM email blasts that we send out each week. I was standing at their cell yesterday telling these men, who have all been in the same room for about a year, of how much ministry they’ve done, and that GOD has done through them–all from within that enclosed, locked room! I said:
“Brothers! Do you realize how much ministry you guys have done? In other words, do you realize how much the LORD is using you fellas, you vessels, from an enclosed room inside this jail, to touch so many people in Kalamazoo County?! You guys have touched so many lives, and ministered to so many people, right here form this room! We have an email blast that reaches hundreds of people every week. You guys have reached people through that, and I know for a fact, that what people read about you fellas in our email blast has powerfully impacted many of the readers. And those lives that were impacted have, in turn, reached so many more lives, and then those lives have reached yet more–like yeast spreading through the entire lump of dough (Matt 13:33).
“And brothers, I have told so many other inmates, here in the jail, the stories about Jesus working through you men. I know that these stories have impacted the inmates. You’ve helped them get closer to Jesus, and you have therefore helped their families, their relationships, their children, their friends. You have, in turn, helped the guards of this jail, the sergeants, and GOD in you has helped me! What if it were thousands of people in Kalamazoo County that you brothers have helped–that GOD in you has helped! I’ve told your stories about you fellas for for months and months; all through last year! You guys have done ministry to thousands of people in Kalamazoo County whether you know it or not!”
The guys just kind of sat there with peaceful smiles in their faces, as if pondering what I was saying. I don’t think they’d thought of these points before. I believe they thought ministry, for them, was in the future, and was for a time when they are released from jail, mostly in the future, and I don’t think they were realizing that they were being used for intense and widespread ministry already. I further said to them:
“I wonder how many people have been saved because of you guys, from all your prayer, fasting, praise, and pure worship, right form this locked room. I wonder how many saved people had their faith increased, by the work that the LORD is doing through you guys. And I wonder just how much more joy there is in Kalamazoo–the entire County–because the spark of Light (John 1:9) from this jail-cell in the Kalamazoo County Jail!”
This is what we call epicenter ministry: the jail is the epicenter, where the LORD does powerful works in the lives of the poorest of Kalamazoo County who are inside the jail, and where those epicenter Jesus-events spread all over the County, lifting up people into joy, and giving people hope that they did not have before.
Praise GOD for the four men in the first cell on the right on the B West wing, and for all that the LORD has done with them, and through them. How they have inspired me, and the entire KJM team: how GOD’s love in them has helped bring us joy, light, and power.
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