{"id":27881,"date":"2017-01-31T00:10:01","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T06:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=27881"},"modified":"2022-09-12T13:36:17","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T18:36:17","slug":"33rd-street-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/33rd-street-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"33rd Street Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"refugees\"We went on a ministry trip to the 33rd Street prison in Orlando Florida.<\/h3>\n

Some others who had gone to minister in this prison before informed us that nothing <\/em>could be brought into the prison with us.\u00a0 Even our car keys and drivers licenses had to be left with the guards in the check in facility.\u00a0 They said they had tried to bring Gospel tracts in before, and were firmly told absolutely nothing could be brought in, and especially nothing could be left with the inmates.\u00a0 Since the ministry God has given to me uses magic props as tools it appeared that this would\u00a0present challenges or even complete road blocks.\u00a0 However, God doesn\u2019t ask us to do the impossible.\u00a0 He asks us to be obedient and through faith leave the rest to Him.\u00a0 That being said, we prayed, brought the magic, and also brought some More Than a Carpenter<\/em><\/strong><\/a> books.<\/p>\n

In the parking lot outside, we gathered with the others who had come to minister at this prison before and the prison Chaplin. We prayed that God would be with us and would be glorified that day.<\/h4>\n


\nWhen we arrived at the check in facility, they took our car keys and our driver\u2019s licenses as expected.\u00a0 I pointed to a small case I was carrying and a cardboard box and explained that if allowed, I had some magic props to do a show for those inmates interested and had some Biblical books in the box.\u00a0 After what seemed like a very long period of the time—with guards looking at each other in silence—they had me bring the case and box over to an x-ray machine.\u00a0 The case and the box were sent through a scanner much like airport security.\u00a0 After they went through the scanner two other guards carefully went through every item in the case and box.\u00a0 You should have seen the look of absolute astonishment on the faces of the others who had ministered at this prison before when the guards said OK and gestured for us to proceed.\u00a0 God is good.\u00a0 We will call this that day\u2019s miracle number one<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We then went through several layers of sealed isolation chambers, where huge, heavy, barred doors would slide shut with a loud, massive thud and solidly latch behind us. Only then would the next immense door unlatch in front of us and slide open allowing us to pass.<\/h4>\n

In each of these chambers there were windows with guards behind bullet proof glass, observing our every move.\u00a0 I must admit it was a frightening feeling and I was in constant prayer that God would use this in a way that would be pleasing to him.\u00a0 When we finally were inside we were brought into a common, but currently unoccupied room.\u00a0 We were told that they would bring in any inmates that wanted to attend in a few minutes.\u00a0 I should mention here, that this was the men\u2019s juvenile area of the prison we were scheduled to visit.\u00a0 In a few moments, 21 young men in prison overalls entered the room accompanied by 4 guards and the prison Chaplin.\u00a0 Some of them seemed like just boys, but all of them seem hardened well beyond their years.\u00a0 The expressions on their faces appeared untrusting and cynical. I am sure some came as a diversion just for something to pass the time and others were curious.<\/p>\n

The guards gave the signal for me to go ahead, so with one last prayer I began the program.<\/h4>\n

At first there was a strong sense of the attitude that could probably best be described as, \u201cOK, why should I listen to anything you have to say?\u201d\u00a0 After engaging several of the young men as volunteers, the atmosphere lightened up.\u00a0 Soon they were laughing and able to almost forget where they were and have some fun.\u00a0 God is so good.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call this miracle number two.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Next I moved into the illusions that illustrated the truth of Jesus Christ being the messiah and the legitimacy of the resurrection.<\/h4>\n

Even the guards could sense something amazing was happening here.\u00a0 A hush covered the room as all attention was focused on the gift given through Jesus’ sacrifice.\u00a0 That day the Holy Spirit moved 10 of those 21 young men to pray to receive Christ as their savior.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0 Miracle number three<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As our time was ending and I had already seen multiple miracles happen that day, I decided to ask for one more.<\/h4>\n

From the front of the room, I respectfully asked the guards if it would be permissible for us to give each young man a copy of the More Than A Carpenter<\/em><\/strong><\/a> book that presented more details about the material I had just presented in the program.\u00a0 The guards hesitantly looked at each other.\u00a0 Once again God moved, as one guard looked at a copy of the book I handed him and said He thought it would be all right.\u00a0 Once again the others who had ministered here before, and realized magnitude of what was happening had looks of sheer astonishment on their faces, as we saw God bring about miracle number four<\/strong>.\u00a0 God is so good!<\/p>\n

As each young man came up to receive their book, one guy picked up two books and asked if he could bring one back for his friend that had not come to the program today.\u00a0 Two of the guards, quickly, firmly and loudly replied, NO!<\/h4>\n

They said that there would not have been enough for the entire juvenile division, so only those who attend the program could have one.\u00a0 I respectfully asked the guard how many there were in the juvenile division of the prison.\u00a0 I felt goose bumps begin to rise up on my arms as I heard the guard say “eighty.” \u00a0You see, God for some reason had told me to put two boxes of books in the car that day, and it brought the total number of books to exactly 80.\u00a0 I was allowed to get the other box from the car and every young man in the juvenile division of that prison received a More Than A Carpenter<\/em><\/strong> <\/a>book that day.\u00a0 This was the fifth miracle that we witnessed that day!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every one of these wonders was absolutely impossible in the eyes of man and yet I am convinced more than ever that God wants us to be obedient and completely dependent on Him, and He will demonstrate his power in signs and wonders that bring us and others closer to Him.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We went on a ministry trip to the 33rd Street prison in Orlando Florida. Some others who had gone to minister in this prison before informed us that nothing could be brought into the prison with us.\u00a0 Even our car keys and drivers licenses had to be left with the guards in the check in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23327,"featured_media":27880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"We went on a ministry trip to the 33rd Street prison in Orlando Florida. Some others who had gone to minister in this prison before informed us that...","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[295,256,425,101,269,426,279],"translator":[],"blog-author":[78],"class_list":["post-27881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelism","tag-evangelism","tag-ministry","tag-miracles","tag-more-than-a-carpenter","tag-prayer","tag-prison-ministry","tag-stories","blog-author-josh-mcdowell-ministry-team"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2016\/07\/refugees-000085436977_Medium.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27881"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=27881"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=27881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}