Brian and Ruth Christine Newsletter: Editions 17 & 18
February-March 2004 Newsletter
Greetings and salutations fellow people. Hope nobody missed us in
Feb. I was too depress to face writing anyone but Ruth. I'm fine
now. I was thrown into solitary over nothing much at all. Wouldn't
have been so bad, but I'd just been moved into an ideal 2 man cell with a good
friend and fellow believer and it seemed very much like heaven. But it
only lasted a few weeks :( I lost six months of clear conduct too, but
such is life in the nut house. Coincidentally, this never stopped being Eastern
Oregon's "crazy house", now they just wear brown shirts & badges
instead of straight jackets :)
OK, that's the bad news. Now for the plentiful AWESOME news! Ruth's
doing excellent at her new job answering calls to DMV. "DMV, this is
Ruth, how may I help you?" "You're a disgruntled pizza delivery
man and your constantly harassed by the police in your small town? DMV
suggests you either A) Deliver your pizza's on foot, or B) Leave the country
immediately before you're labeled a terrorist carrying pizza bombs and land a
cozy patch of concrete at Guantanamo Bay" Haha, no, I think she's
more helpful than that, actually she graduated the training at the top of her
class! Go Ruth!
The news is just get better as you read on but 1st this message for the name
callers and finger pointers-
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
Quote: "Intelligence is no measure of a man's grasp of what is
true." -Daniel Strickland
Next good news. I was finally able to place a call through
(collect) to England and got to talk to my in-laws and even our two oldest
daughters briefly!!! This was the 1st interaction I've had with them since
2001 so I am very excited! Praise God. the calls are $75 for 15
minutes, so I'll not be calling all the time. I sent $50 to cover the last
call. I plan to call once a month and talk only 5 to 10 minutes to
minimize cost. The institution refuses to give me a job, but I must testify
that God does provide because I made a commitment to tithe $25 a month no matter
what back in September & that's a lot in prison. Many ordinary jobs
pay $25 a month!
Anyways, I've been able to do that and pay for that phone
call! God is so good. When the money gets really low, God always
comes through by having someone put a little on my books, and for that I am so
thankful. Thank You God.
The news gets better.. Ruth has been approved for a visit from he Dad and Mum
Aaaaanddd...OUR 3 Daughters living in ENGLAND!!! Hallelujah!
It took some work and cooperation, but she finally got the signature she needed
and it's all go. It should take place soon.
The girls are very excited about coming over to visit. I asked them on
the phone.
More news. Ruth's parents are planning to come way out here to
Pendleton to visit with me for a day With the girls!!=)
I'm waiting to hear back from my prison superintendent as the visit requires
her final approval. God willing it will happen & I will get to see my
precious daughters who I love so dearly face to face.
Yet more news... well, not really news, lore like non-news. Still no
word back yet on our appeal, but that's fine by me. It has taken an
unusually long time for the court to respond, but that could potentially be a
good sign! We'll see. I'm praying for a total miracle here.
At the moment, God is putting some concrete plans for the future in my
heart. He hasn't done that up to now, so I wonder if we won't be moving on
to our next phase in this madness soon.
I have learned so much in prison & still every day I learn more. I
truthfully would not trade having come to prison for gold or riches because what
I have gained here is wisdom, love and understanding. And who can put a
price tag on any of those? Thank you Jesus for allowing this prison
time. Amen!
Quote: "People who want to tell you all about their religion never
want you to tell them about yours."-Duane Smith
One time when I was in solitary
confinement, a young man claiming to be a Nazi screamed across the tier at
me "If that Jew told you to jump off a cliff without a parachute would you
do it?" I was unable to answer the man for all the shouting on the
tier, hatred for my Jesus. But were I able to, I would have answered
YES. If Abraham had followed his "better human judgment" when
asked to sacrifice Isaac, where would our salvation be? God does not have
to prove Himself to us, all of creation already does, but we certainly do have
to prove ourselves to God, and Jesus does this for us. And the Holy Spirit
guides us along the path we are to walk. Yes I will "blindly"
follow my leader. I know I am a sheep and I am content in His flock (Psalm
23) Praise be to Yaweh!
Quote: "A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he
does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of
being free."- John Stuart Mill
Surrender
by Ruth Christine
Currently in our Wednesday night Bible Stud we are studying "The Purpose
Driven Life" by Rick Warren, the reading for day ten talks about
surrendering our lives to God and as i read it- it seemed as though every page
contained some piece of truth that was just for me. This issue covers a
lot of areas of our lives and I have to say that at the moment it is something I
battle with.
Romans 12 vrs 1 says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this
is your spiritual act of worship". God desires our whole bodies and
therefore our whole lives to be given over to Him. On the surface I can
say that my life does belong to Him. I read the Bible most days.
Pray everyday. Go to church and I am on the Worship Team. I spend
time with Christian sisters and read Christian books. God is an integrated
part of my life. I try to make decisions based on what God wants.
And yet am I fully surrendered to Him?
From the number of passages that leaped out at me from this chapter, the
answer would have to be "no". My heart and my life are not fully
surrendered to God.
Chapter 10 gives a lot of good reasons why surrender is a beneficial thing
and why we hold back from it. Rick Warren writes: "Fear keeps us from
surrendering, but love casts out all fear. The more you realize how much
God loves you, the easier surrender becomes."
What can I say except it's the truth, and I know that from experience.
You see, when the sheriff's department came to arrest me on that certain
August day in 2001, I couldn't comprehend what was going on. I was stunned
and all I could do was to say "OK God, I don't understand why this is
happening but I accept that this is your will for my life."
In that moment of surrendering there was an incredible peace. My Whole
World had fallen apart and my future had been wiped out- and yet everything was
going to be alright. Do you know that in the midst of all this, God
enabled me to sing to one of my daughters, and later on to even joke with an
officer at the Missoula County jail? That was nothing but the grace of
God. When we are surrendered, we are at peace- no longer do we have to
fight to be right with God- to be good enough for Him to love us. No
longer does it matter what people think of us, or really even what happens to
us, because it's all being held in the might hand of God.
Our life is totally in His hands.
The words that Eliphaz spoke to Job were full of truth (although his attitude
to Job was sinful). When he said "Submit to God and be at peace with Him;
in this way prosperity will come to you" When our hearts are are
submitted to Him, He does prosper us. I have experienced this first
hand. Do you know that never in my life have I experienced so much love
and support, so many letters and visits and phone calls, or seen such generosity
as since our daughters were first taken from us and most especially since we
were arrested.
I'm going off the point a little here, but I have to say that God's plans are
amazing. You see, He knows how much we can bear. He knows our pain
threshold and He will not go beyond it. Our children have been taken, and
we (Brian and I) are far from each other's arms. But to help us get
through these times, Our Father in heaven has placed wonderful people in our
lives to help and encourage us. He has allowed our children to be with our
parents and our parents to be willing to care for them. We have Brian's
mom, Teri, who is an awesome support and help to us. And then countless
friends and acquaintances who help us make it through the days.
So why have I been struggling so hard for much of my time in Coffee Creek
Prison? About that I am not sure, maybe it was actually getting sentenced
to so much time, and allowing myself to feel frustrated about being here.
And maybe it is harder to stay focused over a long period of time, than for just
a few months? But as I am writing this, the peace of that surrendered life
sure does sound appealing.
A.W. Tozer writes: "The reason why many are still troubled, still
seeking, still making little progress forward is because they haven't yet come
to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and
interfering with God's work within us">
Well I don't know about you, but I think I might try giving my life back to
God, because my half-hearted efforts aren't getting me very far, and He is oh,
so much better at running my life than I am.
Amen
Quote: "Obstacles are those awful things you see when you take
your eyes off your goal- Henry Ford
That about wraps it up for February and March with us Christines. We
hope and pray you are all doing well. If you have any specific needs,
please write us and let us know what we can add to our prayer lists. We
pray through our prayer lists every day and GOD ANSWERS PRAYER!
Hang in there & fight the good fight!
Love,
Brian & Ruth Christine
