Arizona Missions trip in June 2017

Greetings Winners,

Joe Avila, Josh Sturdavant and I just returned home late last night from an incredible weekend in Arizona. We ministered in four prisons, two churches and did a total of eight services in two and a half days. I feel physically and spiritually exhausted!

We started our ministry trip Friday evening at Phoenix West Prison. We had 43 men present. One man gave his life to Jesus and 12 men rededicated their lives. (it is a blessing when you hear staff make comments that COPS ministry is anointed and different than a lot of other ministries that come in).

We got up early Saturday morning, and for some reason, we all felt like we did not get enough sleep. We drove approximately 1.5 hours to Florence State Prison. We have never been to this one before. This prison was built in 1903. We met up with a wonderful, feisty Chaplain, Chaplain Bennett. (She called me today and said that the men loved our services and can’t wait to have us come back).

Our first service there was at the East facility. We had 41 men present. Most of these men were believers and some of them were lifers. This was a fun church service. One man came forward to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior and five men rededicated their lives to the Lord.

We had some downtime so we broke for lunch and we had the pleasure of having Chaplain Bennett join us. It was nice to get to know her better and build another relationship with COPS ministry.

After lunch, we went to the Central unit. We were surprised we got to go in because earlier that morning an inmate assaulted an officer. This portion of Florence Prison is where the death row housing unit is and the inmates here are higher custody inmates. (Chaplain Henderson later said he was surprised we could go to this unit).

68 men came to this service. Very hardcore inmates. One guy did not have any skin showing on his face as it was totally covered in ink. We could feel the tension in this service and I felt prompted to ask the men present, that if they were there to conduct their “prison business” to leave. Interestingly enough the inmate I just described along with the inmate sitting next to him got up and eventually left. (After they left I said thank you, Lord).

After Joe taught the message approximately 50 men stood up to rededicate their lives to Jesus and nine men received Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
We had to jump in the truck and drive to Butte Arizona for our evening service in Lewis Prison. This was a two plus hour drive. JFI, Lewis Prison had the longest hostage takeover in the history of the United States. Two Officers were held hostage for 15 days and awful things happened to both the male and female officers during the takeover. When people heard we were going to Lewis they said, “be careful, be careful.” Really, are they trying to freak us out ?

This service turned out to be a smaller service with ten men. Two of them rededicated their lives to the Lord. This too was a nice service with believers.

On our way back to Phoenix, we went to the Cancer Hospital of America where our friend Pastor/Chaplain Grammer is. As many of you know he was diagnosed with Pancreatic and stomach cancer. The doctor removed half of his Pancreas and all his spleen. After the surgery, he was told that the results came back and he is totally cancer-free. Praise God for this healing!!!

On Sunday morning, we went to Pastor Grammer’s church in Surprise AZ. It was great to meet the congregation as they have been blessing our ministry with a financial donation for a couple of years now.

I did an altar call after I preached the message and God totally blew my mind when four children between the ages of 8 and 13 came forward to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. All I could say to God was WOW! It was very emotional for me to see these children respond. God is so amazing!

We then went to Arizona State Prison Reception Center and met with our friend Chaplain Henderson. We had two services. Joe preached the best message I ever heard from the Book of Jonah. 20 men were present, nine men received Jesus as their Lord and Savior and eight men rededicated their lives.

The next service was a smaller service of three Christian brothers so we had a Bible study with them.

We hurried off from Arizona to Blythe California for our next church service at Blythe Church of God. Our friend Pastor Clifford invited us to do the service. It was wonderful ministering there. At the end of the service, an eight-year-old boy came up to the altar to ask Jesus to forgive him for being disobedient to his father and mother.

So, to break it down, we ministered to 195 inmates in four prisons. 20 men received Jesus as their Lord and Savior and 77 men rededicated their lives.
And do not forget, the four children that came forward that were saved in the church service!!!

Be blessed,
Ken