Delivered From Meetings...Sent to Prison

By Joyce Bray

When Joyce Bray accepted Jesus Christ into her life, she promised to follow wherever God would lead her. Little did she know, the time she spent ministering within the church was preparing her to live out her true destiny--to take the gospel outside the four walls of the church and into state prisons.

 

In this detailed narrative, Joyce recounts her adventures in prison ministry. She and her team witnessed countless miracles as precious men and women were given a second chance to fulfill God’s will for their lives through a simple but powerful message: “Jesus in you is your only hope.”

 

Delivered from Meetings...Sent to Prison is the incredible true story of how God used one woman’s obedience to impact the lives of thousands of inmates. Joyce Bray’s testimony will encourage you to walk according to God’s plan for your life, and be willing to follow wherever He leads.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Creation House
• Release date: Aug 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781616389215

Book preview

CREATION HOUSE

JOYCE BRAY

DELIVERED FROM MEETINGS . . . SENT TO PRISON by Joyce Bray

Published by Creation House

A Charisma Media Company

600 Rinehart Road

Lake Mary, Florida 32746

www.charismamedia.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Design Director: Bill Johnson

Cover design by Nancy Panaccione

Copyright © 2012 by Joyce Bray

All rights reserved

Visit the author by e-mail: joycebray @ knology.net

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data: 2011931520

International Standard Book Number: 978-1-61638-920-8

E-book International Standard Book Number: 978-1-61638-921-5

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

DEDICATION

This book is lovingly dedicated to every

inmate who embraced the first words

spoken through me in a prison, "Jesus

in you is your only hope," and became a

Christian.

CONTENTS

1 Back to the Beginning . . . Being Born Again and Knowing It!

2 A Season of Painful Transition

3 Called into Georgia State Prisons

4 Change of Leadership

5 Let’s Hear from the Original Five Women

6 Then Came the Original Five Men!

7 Angel Tree

8 Training

9 Not All Talk

Conclusion

Note to the Reader

Notes

About the Author

Contact the Author

1

BACK TO THE BEGINNING . . . BEING

BORN AGAIN AND KNOWING IT!

FOR QUITE SOME time, I had been pondering the words spoken over me in a storefront church by a prophet, ‘If you will teach and preach my Word in prison, I will perform it,’ saith the Lord.

After going through a communicants class with nineteen twelve-year-olds, my husband, Pete, and I made a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord on Maundy Thursday and took our First Communion together at Edgewood Presbyterian Church in Columbus, Georgia.

This was the result of our five-year-old daughter, Pam, asking, Where do I go to Sunday school? Her teacher at the nursery school she attended had asked her that question. My answer had to be, Pam, you know you do not go to Sunday school. Immediately, we began searching for a church. After visiting every church of all denominations in our region, we began attending the church where we were married.

I remember asking the minister years earlier, Won’t everyone be upset if we get married here, since we are not members? His reply will always remain in my heart, The members do not own this church. It belongs to Jesus Christ, and He would be very pleased if you got married here.

There was a large picture of Jesus knocking on a door in front of the sanctuary. As I stood there repeating my wedding vows, I wondered, What does it mean? Years later, I realized that He began knocking on the door of my heart at that very moment.

Instead of finding a church, we found Jesus Christ and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. It was as though I climbed up on a high diving board and said, Lord, I want all of You and for You to have all of me. Then, I simply held my nose and jumped in over my head.

I was twenty-five at the time and had never belonged to a church, or attended Sunday school or vacation Bible school. Neither had Pete. We spent the first ten years behind the church in a little wooden building with seventh and eighth graders who had recently completed the communicants class. The Lord knew that was the only way I would be able to grow in Him. They taught us how to be real, in the bad times as well as the good. The ritual of replying Blessed and heaven bound when asked, How are you doing? was forbidden.

Until this day, I still laugh when I remember my first day as their Sunday school teacher. I asked, Will someone please begin with prayer? Finally, one of the boys replied, The teacher always does that. They were not ready for my reply: Not this one. I’ve never prayed out loud in front of a group like this in my life. When I learn how, then I will.

Someday, there will probably be a book sharing our adventures year after year with precious seventh and eighth graders. One outstanding memory was when a neighborhood boy walked into