LOVE Bible Church Madison, Tennessee

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Jail Ministry Meeting
Sunday, September 7, 2008

I shared some statistics with them. We have had 834 in total attendance our worship services at the jail this year. 251 different men attended, some once, and some more than once. Up until September 2007, Trisha and I led the worship services by ourselves. Then Mark joined us. That was a tremendous load off. In February of 2008, Tom & Lee joined the effort. Lee and Trisha play musical instruments. Lee translates the sermon etc for the Hispanic men when some come. Mark, Tom, and I lead the testimony time, have devotions, answer questions, or give sermons. Once recently, Trisha and I were alone again, when the others were not able to make it. Whew, it was difficult. Trisha stepped up the challenge and carried a bigger part of the load that night. Trisha and I have been able to take off a few times for vacation since the others joined us. Once Mark had to take it by himself when we were sick. We found out later he was sick, too, but did it anyway. We are really grateful for all this help.

We have responded to almost three times as many quizzes in the first 8 months of 2008 as we did in the last 8 months of 2007. (561 in 2007 and 1,461 in 2008) This increase is mostly due to the inmates liking the new 100 Basic Christianity course better than what we had before. Courses 100 and 200 are, or will be, written on about an 8th grade level. Courses 101-110 are, or will be, written on about a 12th grade level. Courses 201, 301, 302 and 401 are on a college level. We have about 60 students taking 100 Basic Christianity right now. We have almost ten who have completed the course. About 2/3 of them are going into course 200. Most of the rest are going into course 101. As more students begin to advance into other courses, we are going to need more help with them. Up to now most people have been helping with course 100. For details on the courses visit www.tntcarden.com/LBC/BibleStudy.htm

Several people talked about how they have started using previous letters as a basis for later lessons in response to the same lesson. That is a very good idea. I started out doing the same thing. Then one day I almost forgot to change the name in the greeting and prayer request. After that almost happened to me, I made templates for the lessons based on previous lessons but with "XXXX" in all the places I had their name. Then I just do a replace all on "XXXX" with their name. There is still some danger I suppose of calling John, XXXX by mistake, but at least I will not accidentally call John, Sam.

I have been hogging all of the 301 and 302 lessons for myself because they are my favorites. However, I am beginning to have enough students in those courses where I would be willing to share if anyone has an interest.

I have not kept accurate records on the Spanish lessons but Lee stays pretty busy. I think we have about a dozen active Hispanic students. This also keeps our translator busy as they advance from one lesson to the next in the courses. Maria is wonderful about getting a lesson translated quickly when a student catches up to us.

I have also not kept records on the 201 Ephesians course but rumor has it that Fred has answered about 60 lessons since he started helping in May.

Everyone has been answering at least one a week and most more than that. We are very grateful for the help, regardless of the quantity.

We shared several testimonies of very encouraging letters we have gotten. There is a husband and wife that are studying our lessons together, him in prison, her struggling to raise their children alone. They discuss the lessons on the telephone. Similarly, a man and his daughter are taking the lessons together, him in prison, she from home. A man who is in prison forever, has been taking the lessons longest. We have seen tremendous growth in him. We detect growth best in their prayer requests. They go from God get me out of here, to God guide me in my Christian walk, to God help me minister to the men around me in here, to God please bless the victim of my crime and forgive me. Please pray for the students, inmates, and ministers.

Some details on the statistics: 49 Christian books were sent in the last nine months of 2007. An inmate was given a book if they attended services a certain number of times or completed a certain number of lessons. We changed that policy this year when we realized people who were not taking lessons were not interested in books either. We send a book, which they select from a list, when they complete a course. 62 Christian books were sent in the 2008 so far. We also send them a certificate.

Bibles and first lessons were sent to about 250 people in 2007 with about 75 completing the first lesson and returning it to us. Bibles and first lessons were sent to about 350 people in 2008 with 285 completing the first lesson and returning it to us. That increases our "response rate" from 30% to 81%. As I mentioned above, this is due to the 100 Basic Christianity course being more popular.

There were 40 active students on 1/1/2008, which meant that we had received at least one completed lesson from 40 students in December 2007. As of now we have 84 Active students. That means that the 214 lessons we received in the last month were from 84 different students. That means each student is completing about 2.5 lessons per month. It is a blessing to have that many people interested in Bible study.

In our meeting it was generally agreed that it takes about 30 minutes to answer a quiz. (Of course, some take more time, when the student and/or the lesson or complicated or obtuse and others take less time if we have a good answer template developed for that lesson.) That means that we have spent over a 1,000 hours in the last 18 months just answering letters, not counting worship services, writing lessons, translating lessons, and various other logistical tasks. Thank you all very much for the prayer cover you are giving this ministry.

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