Greetings
I hope all of you had a joyous Christmas. Michelle and I enjoyed watching a live stream of our church's Christmas Eve service, 'Light in the Darkness.' God put a heavy burden in my heart afterward to pray for our loved ones lost in the darkness and give us a more intentional boldness to share the light of Jesus Christ with them in 2021. We spent Christmas Day as we have since Michelle and I started dating in 2007 at her brother's home.
Thank you for all your prayers for Michelle's surgery. She came home Sunday. The first couple of days were a challenge, but she did well. She is doing better now. Immense praise to our faithful and trusting God
As always, keep my son Cameron in prayer. First and foremost, his salvation, praise for his current sobriety, and a return to work. Prayer for continued sobriety, and he doesn't face eviction.
Dixon Chaplain Thomas informed me he would be out of his office starting the end of this week and he would be too busy to send out the Weekly Note this week and ask I holdoff on sending until after the first of the year. Not knowing Sheridan Chapalin McClimans' schedule, I sent him this week's Weekly Notes Tuesday. Hoping he will have time to distribute before he is out of the office.
After hearing the message Jesus as Lord by my Pastor Joe Thorn, that in part, talked about how Christmas in our culture does not reflect the meaning of what Christians should celebrate. Some of what Pastor Joe pointed out has been a hindrance in my Christmases since becoming a Christian; I wanted to share that with my students. The part of Pastor Joe's message explaining that would have been hard to put into the proper perspective in the Weekly Note without hearing the full message. I searched for something that cast some light on some of the misconceptions of Christmas. I found a brief article on 5 Popular Misconceptions About the Christmas Stroy. I've known most of them, but the article gave me a little bit of theology on the truths.
It was another week of bittersweet farewells and paroles. This week saw three ideal students parole; Harold became a student in October 2019 at the urging of other SOCPM students. Before the lockdown, I was in the process of finding potential churches for Harold. Jason, like Harold, started coming to SOCPM classes at the urging of other SOCPM students. Jason also expressed interest in getting connected to a church. However, his parole came much earlier than his original scheduled parole date of September 2021. I had not yet begun a search of churches for Jason. Lastly, there was Jeffery, was a new student through enrollment this past January. Like Harold and Jason, I was searching for a church for Jeffery. I had contacted a church in Marion the day before the lockdown.
As I've said with previous parolees, it is a bitter taste when I'm unable to say good-bye and pray for the parolee. But with these three guys, there is an extra bitterness. I wasn't able to complete the task of getting them connected to a church.
But a prayer of rejoicing that they have been paroled and perhaps will spend Christmas with family or other loved ones. Nonetheless, keep Harold, Jason, and Jeffery in prayer that God will direct them to a church and that they never return to prison.
That about does it for this week's SOCPM Newsletter
To Him be the glory in ALL things and to Him alone!
Scott Kalas
Soldiers of Christ Prison Ministries
Week 41 of the lockdown 😞.
COVID-19 cases as of 12/25/20; Dixon: staff confirmed 235, staff recovered staff 211, staff current 24, staff tests 1,948; offender confirmed 554, offenders recovered 499, offender current 55, offenders test 4,453 | Sheridan: staff confirmed 103, staff recovered 95; staff current 8, staff tests 968; offenders confirmed 203, offenders recovered 193, offenders current 10, offender tests 1,500 | IDOC: staff confirmed 3,315, staff recovered 2,903, staff current 412, staff tests 21,745; offenders confirmed 7,053, offenders recovered 5,282, offenders current 1,771, offender tests 43,122. Continue in prayer for a safe and full recovery for all.