Brian and Ruth Christine Newsletter: Edition 22
August 2004 Newsletter
Hello free people! Feel free to FEEL free. It's surely good medicine. This is Brian writing from Infirmary cell 01. It is so quiet and peaceful now all I can hear is the air rushing through the vents and some faint worship singing in the church down below. The peace and solitude are to be highly coveted in prison & I am savoring it. Thank You Jesus.
So why are you in the infirmary you ask? Well, there was a fistfight and although I "dotted his I", I ended up getting more than my eye dotted. I got the bones around my eye fractured. I will have surgery to rebuild mid-August. I'll be in segregation until the beginning of October and since envelopes are restricted here, I won't be able to write much, mostly to my lovely wife Ruth. I'm doing OK. I am very exhausted most of the time, probably due to the head trauma. Under my right eye, I can't even find the bone no matter how far in I push my finger. I've had 3 trips outside the institution to see various specialists and that has been an incredible blessing.
I had not left this tiny patch of ground for over 2 years! So this has been very exciting and rewarding for me. The fight pretty much had to happen. When someone disrespects you in prison, everyone watches. If they perceive you as weak, you will become prey and it is much uglier then what wolves to to their prey. If you stand up for yourself & demand respect, that's the only way you'll get it. That's about the only way I can explain it. Enough on the silly prison stuff.
My only need is prayer for feeling to come back in my upper right lip, gums & teeth so I can chew again properly and kiss Ruth properly when we get out =).
Disclaimer- This newsletter is not published by an organization, a religion, a group, a company or an association. This newsletter is nothing more than words on paper. Readers are not members of any of the above and shall not be labeled as such.
I have some very important prayer requests to ask of you. I have a strong feeling that the next 12 months are going to be very eventful for Ruth and I. Please beseech our Father in Heaven to answer these 3 prayers for our family-
1- That our resentencing motion gets filed this month (Aug) and a hearing is scheduled before Oct. 23rd, 2004 and that the court would fix our sentences and Ruth and I get to see each other in County Jail.
2- That the Oregon Supreme Court overturns our Robbery Convictions just after our sentences are fixed.
3- That Ruth & I are released from prison in less than a year and that we're able to be released to Indiana to be with our family and kids.
Thank you for joining with us in prayer. God bless your summer. I now turn it over to Ruth-
Romans 5:3 tells us that tribulations bring perseverance, and perseverance, character, and with character, hope.
1 Peter 4:12 tells us "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial with is to try you.."
Brian is in the infirmary right now and in pain and he will spend time in segregation. He has been going through some very hard times. But God will continue to take care of Brian, just as He has through his whole life.
When I met Brian, the thing that drew us together was our shared stories of God's deliverance. I told him about how I had been attacked by what had been a pet donkey. The donkey bit me and proceeded to break my arm and drag me around the field by it. It was only when I prayed that God enabled me to get out of that field.
Similarly for Brian. He had been boogie boarding in the ocean off the North Carolina coast when he got sucked under by a wave and thought that he would drown. It was prayer that caused that wave to release him up to get air. Brian has been through many scrapes and difficult situations, countless asthma attacks and sicknesses, appendicitis and a collapsed lung, and yet God has delivered him through them all.
Our stories of deliverance were what brought us together and today they are what continues us to grow.
Brian is going through some hard times now, but if you know Brian, you will know that what he desires even more that life itself is to serve God. He desires to serve God more than health or riches, and even more than he longs to be with his family (as much as he loves us).
And God is giving Brian that opportunity right now.
Ruth