Greetings
Week 32 of the lockdown ๐.
COVID-19 cases as of 10/24/20; Dixon: confirmed staff 45, recovered staff 23, confirmed inmates 49, recovered inmates 29 | Sheridan: confirmed staff 18, recovered staff 15; confirmed inmates 22, recovered inmates 22. The numbers for Dixon are increasing. Please pray the increase would come to a halt.
SOCPM returns to Sheridan? It is possible via WebEx. Chaplain McClimans mentioned in an e-mail this week that they have conducted some AA meetings via WebEx, and I replied if SOCPM can do classes via WebEx. His initial reply was, 'it's possible.' He detailed some of the challenges, class size, and potential students being from the same housing area, etc. He suggested pursuing Malachi Dads. I'd love to do both Discipleship and Malachi Dads, but as I told him, I'd be thankful for whatever door God opens.
I sent him a list of all the students who were enrolled in Malachi Dads when the lockdown started and have not been paroled. Both classes exceed the probable max class size, but I gave some suggestions on how to reduce the initial class size. Nothing close to being final. He will first have to run it past the wardens. There are some hurdles on my end, but I'll detail those in a future SOCPM newsletter if SOCPM gets the green light. But please pray SOCPM does get the green light and will overcome any hurdles along the way.
This week's Weekly Notes was an article by David Powlison, An Open Letter to Those Frustrated by Their Progress in Sanctification. Powlison writes something that probably we all have said or something similar โIs this all there is? Why do I keep struggling with the same old things? I keep losing my temper, or feeling anxious, or being clumsy in relationships . . . โ [1]. He points the reader to the Beatitudes, as a teaching of contentment as an insight into how we might be overlooking areas of growth, sanctification, and transformation.
I added a new webpage Distribution Table listing SOCPM's ministry partners whose material we typically are lain out every week when SOCPM is going into the prisons, for the students to take as needed.
I ask for continued prayers for my son Cameron, who is out of detox, but struggling. I talked to him a couple of times this week, Thursday being that last day. He lost his wallet and has no identification, and he needs his social security card for work. He lost his birth certificate long ago and never took steps to replace it. Now he needs the birth certificate to get his social security card. Yes, it's a soap opera, but I love him nonetheless. He claims to have a friend who is helping him, but if you can please, pray he stays employed or gets employed, doesn't lose his apartment, gets all that he needs in the way of identification, but most of all, his sobriety and salvation.
I end on a sad and tragic note. SOCPM received notice that we lost two Alumni this week. Dwayne and Taurus.
Dwayne was a SOCPM student for less than a year, and it was a few years ago. My memory of him is just by his face. I don't know the circumstances of Dwayne's death. According to his obituary, he was a father of two.
Taurus was a SOCPM student just short of a year, and it was more recent. Regardless Taurus will be a hard one to forget. He was a big guy, respectful and carried, and presented himself in a manner that he will be hard to forget. Taurus' life ended tragically in a drive-by shooting in Chicago's Southside.
Please pray God will comfort both families in their loss.
To Him be the glory in ALL things and to Him alone!
Scott Kalas
Soldiers of Christ Prison Ministries๏ปฟ
[1] Powlison, David. โAn Open Letter to Those Frustrated by Their Progress in Sanctification.โ Crossway, Crossway, 31 May 2017, www.crossway.org/articles/an-open-letter-to-those-frustrated-by-their-progress-in-sanctification.