Participants: Pr. Marquis Johns (Host), James Jones
Series Code: TNJ
Program Code: TNJ000028
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00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:03 Parents are cautioned that some material 00:05 may be too candid for younger children. 00:07 Welcome to the New Journey, 00:09 a program about real life people 00:11 with real life testimonies 00:13 doing real life ministries for Jesus Christ. 00:15 I'm your host, Pastor Marquis Johns. 00:18 Join us for the New Journey. 00:54 My favorite gospel is the Book of John. 00:57 And as John tells the story of Jesus, 01:00 he highlights the fact that Jesus is indeed God. 01:04 Now as he gets into a conversation 01:06 in John 8 with the Pharisees and the scribes. 01:09 There is almost in my opinion the climactic moment 01:12 where the Bible says, 01:13 "Whom the son sets free is free indeed." 01:19 Today with us is Brother James Jones, 01:22 and after a long stint in prison 01:25 you are now free and free indeed. 01:27 I certainly am. 01:30 Brother Jones, I like us to start with, 01:32 just give us a background. 01:33 Tell us where you're from, just tell us who you are? 01:36 Well, I was born and raised in Baltimore City, 01:39 with family of nine. 01:40 I'm the oldest, 01:42 we came from a, not a poor family, 01:45 but we were happy 01:46 and I didn't know my dad though, that's all. 01:49 That was one of the drawbacks in my life 01:51 that growing up without knowing him, 01:54 and as time went on, 01:56 I begin to drift away from what I knew to be right. 01:59 Okay. 02:01 I want to just real quick I want to jump in here. 02:03 So you're the eldest of nine kids? 02:06 Are you the only child of the union 02:09 between your father and your mother? 02:10 No. 02:12 No, so... 02:13 There's two of us. Two of us. 02:14 I have a sister who is now passed away 02:16 and then I have a brother and rest of them from other... 02:19 And secondarily, 02:21 when you say I never knew my dad, 02:23 you never got to meet him, you never got a conversation, 02:25 nothing? 02:26 So he and your mother are together long enough 02:28 to produce three offspring 02:30 and then poof, he vanishes. 02:32 And so this, you were able to recognize in hindsight 02:35 that this is a turning point in your life, 02:37 where you don't grow up with not even having, 02:41 you know, a phone call here and there... 02:43 This is almost as though he doesn't even exist. 02:47 Exactly right. Okay. 02:48 And I realize that my mom, 02:51 she did all she could do for us. 02:53 She worked as far as she could provide for us. 02:57 And as I got older 02:59 I began to look around me and see things. 03:03 And I made some really bad choices as a teenager. 03:09 I begin to steal, do things, skip school, 03:15 hang out with demonic fellows and all these things. 03:18 But that's not so bad, Brother Jones. 03:19 Well, I mean, you know, skipping school and stealing, 03:23 that's not so bad, 03:24 but I hear you alluding 03:26 to that this is the beginning... 03:28 Beginning. 03:29 Of a journey on the wrong side. Exactly, right. 03:31 Just like when you talk about the drugs. 03:33 Gateway drugs. 03:35 The gateway drugs that you start with. 03:37 Well, this was what happened to me. 03:39 And then at the age of 15 03:42 I made a really bad choice, 03:46 which winded me up in prison. 03:48 So at 15, now typically at that age 03:51 we can chalk it up to, 03:53 "Oh, I fell in with the wrong crowd." 03:56 You already have expressed some concerns 03:59 about your father not being there. 04:01 What was it that caused you at 15 to make a decision? 04:06 And we're going to get to what that decision 04:07 is that landed you in prison? 04:09 Was it the wrong friends? 04:10 Was it... What was it? 04:12 I think it was a combination. Okay. 04:14 You know, the friends, 04:17 you get around certain people 04:19 and they influence your decision-making, 04:22 you know, and then there was some hostility 04:25 in me, you know. 04:27 The fact that I didn't have a dad 04:29 but then growing up in the 60s and we're talking about '65, 04:33 way back in the early 60s. 04:35 So things weren't quite as the same as they are now. 04:38 But wait, I just want to stop you right there. 04:40 Let's be honest. 04:41 A lot of people have anger issues, 04:43 a lot of people have grown up without their fathers. 04:45 What is it that caused you to make this 04:48 what you feel was a life altering bad decision? 04:53 Well, like I said, I think of when I look back on, 04:55 it was a combination of things. 04:58 Because you hang with the wrong people, 05:01 which influences you, 05:02 then you let that anger 05:06 cause you to make bad decisions. 05:07 And then ultimately, when I look back on it, 05:10 it was just not knowing God. 05:14 And so now that brings us to what was a bad decision? 05:19 Well, I wind up going to prison for rape 05:24 and armed robbery at 15... 05:28 At 15 years of age. At 15 years of age. 05:29 So and you said something early about our relationship with... 05:35 You said something earlier about our relationship 05:37 with the other side if you will. 05:43 And in the 60s racial profiling 05:47 was at its zenith. 05:50 The black male was demonized and so at 15, 05:56 you find yourself in a situation 05:59 that we only have read about in books. 06:02 A 15 year old young man charged with rape and armed robbery. 06:07 Tell us about what you were thinking? 06:08 I mean this, I mean, I don't even want... 06:11 What was going on in your head 06:12 when you're taken into custody for these charges? 06:14 Well, I was scared, let me too formal. 06:18 I don't know what the outcome was gonna be 06:22 until my mom, 06:27 she was able to get us a cheap lawyer 06:30 and he came to sit down with me and he explained things to me. 06:34 And he said, "James, you're in big trouble." 06:36 And I was saying, "What you mean? 06:37 I'm in big trouble." 06:39 I mean, you know, and he said, 06:40 "Well, they are gonna waive your juvenile to that." 06:45 They want to try you as an adult. 06:47 Mercy. 06:48 Which means now you've got to go 06:50 in adult court... 06:51 Mercy. For this crime. 06:54 He left it there, he didn't say, 06:56 "Well, you know, 06:57 you could be sentenced for life, 06:59 you could be sent to death, you could..." 07:01 He didn't go into all of that. 07:04 But when I did go to trial that's what happened. 07:09 Obviously, death sentence. 07:11 Mercy, mercy. 07:12 Now at 15... 07:14 Now wait, wait, wait, wait, 07:17 15 years of age accused 07:21 and now it seems convicted of two felony charges, 07:27 you're sentenced to death? 07:28 A death. 07:30 You know, and I've been to jail, 07:31 you know, so when they're reading, 07:33 you know, stand up, you know, da-da da-da da-da, 07:35 and you're hoping against hope that somehow this is a dream. 07:41 I mean, even just the situation of getting sentence like, 07:45 "Okay, I'm going to wake up at some point 07:46 and this is just not gonna be real." 07:49 I can only imagine that that experience for you 07:51 was intensified when the judge says, "Death." 07:57 How, I mean, walk the viewers through that? 08:03 I was thrown into a dream state 08:07 because after I left 08:08 after the sentence was pronounced 08:10 and they walked me to a, 08:12 they put you in a holding cell and I sit there 08:15 and I was thinking, "Is this real? 08:17 Is this really happening?" 08:19 This is what I was thinking in my mind 08:20 because I never dreamed anything like this way. 08:25 And it was until they came so I thought going to take you 08:29 to the Maryland penitentiary. 08:31 The things begin to, 08:33 I said, wait, wait, wait, wait hold up, 08:36 what's going on here? 08:38 It wasn't until the night 08:39 that I was in the Maryland penitentiary in that cell 08:41 by myself that everything really crashed, 08:45 you know, and I didn't know what to do, 08:49 I really didn't. 08:51 It wasn't until the next morning 08:53 that some of the other gentlemen 08:55 that were on death row came to my door, 08:59 they said, "James, this is not over, 09:00 you still have to change. 09:02 You can do things. 09:04 You can learn things, 09:06 some of us have been up here for years." 09:10 But at the time, you know, rest of went in by... 09:13 I'm going to be honest with you, 09:15 I don't even, I'm at a loss for words. 09:20 What... 09:22 And I don't think 09:23 any of our viewers can even imagine, 09:25 I mean, movies do a bad job of depicting 09:29 what actually happens when you're behind bars, 09:32 having been there myself. 09:33 But I just, I'm trying to wrap my mind around 09:38 and give the viewers an opportunity 09:40 to wrap their minds around a 15 year old boy. 09:44 I mean, let's just be honest. 09:45 Let's be honest 09:47 even though the courts have deemed you 09:48 worthy to be tried as a man. 09:49 You're a boy and now you're on death row. 09:54 What is it like on death row? 09:58 I mean, I... 10:01 It's, well, you know, 10:03 you hear the word people talk about self-preservation. 10:07 You're gonna, when you put in a situation, 10:10 you're gonna look out for you. Right. 10:12 Well, once these individuals who were there said to me, 10:16 "There's options for you. There's things you can do." 10:19 They brought me books, they brought me legal books... 10:22 I wanna also paint a picture, 10:24 are you able to interact 10:25 when there is the general population? 10:28 What is it like? So explain that to us? 10:30 My only interaction were with those gentlemen 10:32 that were on the same tier with me. 10:33 They didn't let us all out at the same time. 10:35 Okay. 10:37 So once someone would come out they would come 10:39 and give me books, and I began to read, 10:43 how to write writs, how to do different things. 10:47 So I just decided, 10:48 "Well, I'm not going to go out easy. 10:51 This gonna be battle." 10:52 So I just learn all I could learn to prolong this. 10:58 And I begin to get my transcript 11:00 from the trial, 11:02 different things of that nature, 11:03 going over to my transcripts seeing 11:05 what was done, wasn't done. 11:08 And I begin to fight my space in the court 11:13 and after seven years, seven years and 13 days, 11:17 my sentence was reduced to life. 11:18 Okay. Okay. 11:21 Now this is wonderful, 11:23 but I just want to again paint the picture. 11:25 A kid grows up in Baltimore, make some bad decisions, 11:28 stealing, petty thefts, skipping class, 11:31 hanging out with the wrong people, boom, 11:34 15 convicted of rape and armed robbery. 11:39 Court system goes 11:40 through the whole trial and boom, 11:43 mallet falls, death penalty. 11:47 It hits you the night you're on death row 11:50 that you've just been deemed worthy of death. 11:54 You begin to study at 15 11:58 and this is incredible 12:01 because at 15 you're now looking over your own case 12:05 as though you're an attorney. 12:07 Yeah. 12:08 And fighting for seven years to where you get 12:12 a death sentence reduced to life. 12:17 And actually well, all of the men 12:21 who were on death row at that time, 12:24 there were seven of us up on death row at the time 12:27 who were there for rape. 12:29 The other five was for murder. 12:32 Courts deemed that those individuals 12:35 who were there for rape, 12:36 we didn't take a life, 12:38 we didn't and so they deemed 12:41 that this was cruel 12:43 and unusual punishment for them, 12:45 they want to take my life. 12:47 So that's how we got off. 12:50 I want to ask a quick question, 12:51 I mean, I don't know if the viewers 12:53 are thinking like I am. 12:55 You just counted out 12 people on death row 12:59 when you were between the ages of 15 and 22, 13:01 I'm assuming if I do the math correctly, 13:03 how many of those were actually put to death 13:05 that you know? 13:07 When I was there only one. Only one? 13:08 Only one. Okay. 13:10 So here's what I want to do now. 13:11 I want you to... 13:12 You get the sentence reduced to life, 13:14 walk us through life... 13:17 Now how long did you end up serving? 13:19 Twenty two, 21 years 13 months, I mean 13 days. 13:25 Walk us through the next, I mean, almost 'cause... 13:31 James, I'm literally at a loss for words 13:34 and I don't think what but the viewers may not. 13:36 I didn't pre-interview you, I didn't talk to you before. 13:38 I'm getting this right now as you're saying it. 13:42 For 21 years what do you do in jail? 13:47 You try to survive. And that's what I did. 13:51 I just conformed to my environment. 13:54 The prison system is one of, if I had to paraphrase like, 14:00 me taking you from here. 14:02 Taking you to Africa 14:05 and just dropping you right in the heart 14:07 of the jungle and say, "Now, make it." 14:10 That's what prison life And the difference is I'm 37, 14:13 you were 15. 14:14 So you have to do, the only thing that sheltered me 14:18 in the sense was for those seven years 14:21 I didn't interact with the population. 14:23 We stayed separate, we were always separate. 14:26 After those seven years now 14:27 I was right in the population now. 14:30 So I've got to fend for myself. I got to do for myself. 14:34 Where's your family at? 14:35 All my family is still involved. 14:37 Now I'm talking about while you were in jail. 14:40 Well, at that time my mom was taking care to kid 14:43 and doing the best she could do, 14:44 she never visited me. 14:46 She would send me money if she had it, 14:48 you know, write letters and stuff of that nature 14:50 but there was no visits from her. 14:53 And most of the kids then my siblings were younger, 14:56 they couldn't come and visit me so. 14:58 So you were literally on your own. 15:00 It's not like you are in jail, you get some visits, 15:04 people put money on your books 15:06 and you get, you know, different types of visits. 15:09 Yeah. 15:10 None of that was happening for you. 15:12 You were literally 22 years of age 15:15 fending for yourself looking at, 15:18 this is my life, this is it. 15:19 I mean, and I know that in jail 15:22 what you have to do almost immediately 15:24 as quickly as you possibly 15:25 can is get out of that dream state and face that. 15:28 This is my reality, 15:29 that's the only way you survive. 15:31 That's right. 15:32 The only way you survive is... 15:33 Okay, I'm not going... 15:35 No, no, no, this is it, 15:36 I got to live in this moment right now, 15:37 and so at 22 years of age looking at life in prison, 15:42 I mean... 15:45 It's hard to put into words 15:47 but other than say 15:50 you either conform or you get ate up. 15:57 That's the only choices you got in prison. 15:59 So what I had to do 16:00 at a very early age to decide, 16:03 "Hey, am I going to make this thing 16:06 or am I going to let them let go." 16:10 The only advantage 16:11 I did have was that being a young man, 16:13 I was always good at sports, 16:16 basketball, baseball, and this kind of thing. 16:19 So once I got of off the death row 16:21 and got into the population, 16:24 one of the gentlemen came up to me and said, 16:26 then he called me slim then. 16:30 They were forming a baseball team 16:32 and I joined the team. 16:33 Once they saw 16:34 that I could play baseball pretty good, 16:36 I was pretty good at basketball and these things, 16:39 well, I got a lot of friends from that. 16:42 Right, right, right. 16:44 And having a lot of friends and a lot of people knowing me, 16:47 it helped me make my way through. 16:49 Right. 16:50 But then still I was faced 16:51 with some tough decisions I had to make. 16:53 Of course, of course, 16:54 now when you're in jail and specifically a lifer, 16:58 you know, when you're looking at life, 17:00 there is the opportunity to interact 17:02 with the different religious system. 17:04 The Muslims are there, 17:05 specifically for the African-American, 17:06 the Muslim is king almost. 17:09 And then I'm sure there are Christian groups, 17:10 the Catholics, the Pentecostals that come through. 17:14 Did you interface when... 17:15 If at all, did you begin to interact 17:18 with the different religious bodies 17:21 that were there? 17:22 Well, the Muslims primarily 17:24 'cause they were the dominant religious group 17:27 in there at the time. 17:29 And it had because 17:30 it was connected with being black. 17:32 Yeah, it was militant, black nationalism, yeah. 17:36 I kind of got involved with them, 17:38 but once they started proclaiming 17:41 their message, it didn't fit with me. 17:44 It just didn't fit with me, so I said, "No, 17:46 this thing ain't for me. 17:48 This is not what I want to get into." 17:51 So I just kind of stayed away from them 17:53 and just stayed to myself. 17:55 I didn't join any particular groups, 17:57 anything of that nature, and I just been in my own way. 18:02 One thing I did all fast was, 18:05 I was determined 18:07 that I won't gonna let anybody take advantage of me. 18:13 And it's played well for me 18:14 because in there not having a lot of income, 18:18 not making any money, you have to do things, 18:22 you have to come up with ways to make money. 18:24 So what I did it, I started making wine. 18:30 Thought of making my homemade wine 18:32 because in prison this was a big money. 18:34 Lucrative business, yeah very lucrative. 18:37 Unfortunately, for those of us who aren't making it, 18:40 you know, you don't get your fruit juice anymore. 18:46 You only get milk. There you go, yes. 18:48 Because the fruit juice 18:49 becomes very, very expensive if you will. 18:52 Expensive, that's right. 18:53 But what I want to do is, I want to jettison, 18:56 I want to kind of move to when, 18:59 if and if you had the interaction with Christ, 19:02 I want to get there. 19:04 I think it was early on even though I didn't know. 19:07 Right. 19:08 I wasn't pursuing him, 19:09 I wasn't, 19:11 the only knowledge I had of him was from my grandparents, 19:13 you know, but as a young being in prison into sports 19:18 and this nature, 19:19 I was smoking there 19:21 and I would read a lot of the times. 19:23 And then whenever we are talking about 19:24 how cigarettes was connected to cancer 19:27 and all of this stuff, 19:29 so one day I was sitting in my cell and I said, 19:31 "Man, no, I don't want to get cancer." 19:34 You know, but how can I get off the cigarette and I said this, 19:39 I said, "Lord, if you can get these cigarettes out of my way, 19:42 I'd appreciate that." 19:44 Mercy. 19:45 That's all I said, 30 days now, 30 days later, 19:50 I no longer smoke. 19:52 Mercy, mercy. 19:54 Now I didn't connect all this with the Lord at the time 19:56 'cause I didn't really know him 19:57 that well, you know what I mean. 19:59 Right, right, right, right. 20:00 And being in the business of making liquor, 20:03 cigarettes is money, that's what they use for money. 20:05 So a gallon of liquor that's 30 packs of cigarettes. 20:10 Mercy. 20:11 So I had a whole locker full of cigarettes 20:16 and I've never touched a cigarette since that day. 20:18 Mercy, mercy. So you see God working. 20:21 You see God working. 20:22 Well, I did... 20:24 Well, in the hindsight, we see God working. 20:25 Yeah, yeah. 20:27 So I wanna fast forward 21 years later. 20:33 Or better yet, I just feel like, 20:35 I don't want us to move beyond those 21 years 20:38 without giving you an opportunity to know 20:41 we see God working. 20:42 Was there an interaction or a relationship 20:45 that you developed in jail 20:47 that led to the man that we see in front of us, 20:50 the man who has given his life to God? 20:52 Oh, yeah, yeah, because like I said 20:53 with the cigarettes 20:57 being a lifer in the penitentiary, 21:00 I did some stuff that got me in a bad way 21:04 but then I was able to land a pretty good job, 21:07 considering where I was. 21:09 I used to work in the, 21:10 what they called then the power plant, 21:12 which needed the place 21:14 so I got minimum security staff. 21:17 I could move around in the prison pretty free. 21:20 Kind of trusty. 21:21 That's why I was very lucrative in selling my liquor 21:24 because they didn't really check me 21:26 a whole lot of time. 21:28 And I, after about nine years there, 21:33 I decided I couldn't deal with it. 21:36 I got to find a way to get out of here, 21:38 so I planned and escaped. 21:42 And, well, it didn't work 21:45 but I wind up spending 21:50 nine months in solitary confine. 21:55 After the nine months 21:56 I was released and my counselor said, 22:00 "James, why are you getting involved 22:02 in all of this stuff. 22:03 You got more going for you, didn't it? 22:07 Just stay where you are and do things right, 22:12 I might be able to get you out of here." 22:14 Mercy. 22:15 And I looked at him, I said, "How you gonna get me. 22:19 You're not a judge, you're not the governor, 22:22 so how you gonna get me out of here?" 22:25 But he said, "I got some working for you." 22:28 So that kept me straight for awhile. 22:31 Right. 22:32 I don't know how many here 22:34 might be familiar with Hagerstown, MCTC, 22:37 well, that prison was just beginning to open up 22:41 and they were looking for people to send in. 22:44 I don't know how he did it 22:46 but he took my name on the list to go 22:49 and this is a lifer for me, lifer. 22:52 At that time I had about 10 years in 22:55 and they called me one day and said, 22:57 "James, we're gonna transfer you. 23:01 We're transferring you to Hagerstown." 23:05 And I went back to my cell and I said, "Wait a minute, 23:08 why are they transferring me to Hagerstown." 23:11 You know what I mean, 23:13 again not knowing that the Lord was working 23:16 behind the scene, I didn't know. 23:19 Now, James, I mean, your story is rich, 23:22 your story is very rich, 23:23 but I understand that God is moving 23:28 when we could be... 23:29 I just want to get to... 23:31 When do you meet him in preparation 23:34 for the eventual release, 23:35 you know, and having spent 21 years, 23:37 because at some point what I want to do is, 23:39 I want to give an opportunity to address the viewers who, 23:42 someone who may be in a similar situation 23:44 and we're fastly approaching that time 23:46 where we have to kind of wrap up. 23:48 So I want to really get to where you met Christ 23:50 and what you're doing now 23:51 because those are two very important things, 23:53 so if you can give us that in a nutshell? 23:55 I met him at prerelease. Okay. 23:56 Probably prerelease 23:58 through our prison ministry team, 24:02 they were coming in and minister to us in prison. 24:05 What church were they coming from? 24:07 New Life Seventh-day Adventist. New Life Seventh-day Adventist. 24:08 Well, we weren't New Life 24:10 then, we were, what was the name of it? 24:13 Anyway, it was the Adventist church. 24:15 I have been there 24:17 and I was attending any Christian services 24:19 that came in. 24:21 They let me come in and I went over. 24:24 And the gentleman 24:25 that was leading the team at the time, 24:28 he would come in and do his thing 24:30 and at the end of it, he would always say, 24:32 "Now look, just don't always believe 24:34 what I'm saying. 24:36 Go back to your book and open your Bible and see it. 24:39 Check me out, test me." 24:40 That's what he would always say. 24:42 And every time they came in, 24:44 I would listen to what he was saying, 24:45 and I would go back to my book, man, he's right, 24:49 what he's saying is right on point. 24:51 Then I go back again, he give me some more, man, 24:55 I think he's right here. 24:56 So that's how I first came to know 25:00 because he's talked about the power of Christ. 25:03 How you can change the life and do different things. 25:05 And I was just eating it all up but... 25:08 And then so... 25:12 So when did life become just 21 years real quick? 25:17 When did it become... 25:19 Yeah, I mean, you're looking at life 25:20 but you only served 21 years. 25:22 Yeah. When did life become 21 years? 25:24 Well, I thought, it became 21 years 25:26 because the Lord saw fit to get me out. 25:28 Come on now. It was Him. 25:30 Mm-hmm. 25:34 There's no way I can give anybody any credit 25:38 for me being out but the Lord, 25:41 because I still know men that are still in prison today. 25:44 Who were in there with me and they got 30-40 years there. 25:47 Right, mercy. 25:48 The Lord saw fit to open the doors for me to go. 25:50 And so once you were out, what have you been doing now? 25:54 What you've been doing for the last... 25:56 Well, I'm involved in prison ministry, 25:57 prison ministry is my ministry. 26:00 I joined a Seventh-day Adventist church 26:02 once I got out and then I met my wife. 26:06 Well, I met her while I was incarcerated, 26:08 we met each other but we didn't know we will be, 26:10 you know, we'll be like that. 26:12 She was coming in with the prison ministry team, 26:15 but once I was released I went joined a church. 26:19 I just poured my whole heart and soul into the church. 26:23 The Lord said, I want you to into prison ministry. 26:26 Not in prison, in prison ministry? 26:27 In prison ministry. 26:28 Now the reason I say 26:30 that is because when I left Poplar Hill, 26:32 the plan was already 26:34 put in place for me to return back there. 26:37 Mercy. 26:38 Which the prison system have a way of doing things. 26:43 When you release from a prison, 26:44 they don't want you to come back. 26:45 Absolutely. 26:47 But the Lord had worked it out that once I got out, 26:50 I could return back there. 26:52 And how long have you been going back? 26:53 Since 1986. Since 1986. 26:56 How many years is that? What's that? 26:58 It's about 26 years. Mercy. 27:01 So here's the story. 27:03 Mean streets of Baltimore, 27:05 bad decision at 15, hit with life, 27:08 hit with the death penalty, 27:10 go to jail from 17, from 15 to 22, 27:14 revisit your case, get it reduced to life. 27:17 While you're in there you try Islam, 27:18 you try bunch of things. 27:20 A freak accident leads you to get transferred to another 27:24 where now New Life Seventh-day Adventist church 27:26 is coming in and they're doing prison ministries. 27:29 God begins to engineer and work on you. 27:31 You give yourself to Christ, next thing you know, 27:34 you're getting out of jail, 27:36 when you should have died in there 27:37 or should still be in there, 27:39 and now God has had you going back 27:42 for the last 26 years to do prison ministries. 27:46 That is an awesome story, one that is so awesome, 27:49 so remarkable as to be almost unbelievable. 27:53 And, James, here's the thing that story shows us 27:59 that God knows the thoughts He thinks of us. 28:03 Thoughts of peace and not of evil 28:05 and to bring us to an expected a good end, 28:09 and this is not the end 28:11 because you've been doing prison ministries. 28:13 The Lord has blessed you with a wife. 28:14 The Lord has blessed you with the ministry 28:16 and blessed you with a new lease on life. 28:21 but He has introduced you 28:24 and now through you introduced us 28:26 to your New Journey. 28:28 I want to thank you for being with us, James. 28:29 Your story is remarkable, and if you were blessed, 28:33 just let's continue to pray for the ministry 28:35 that God has blessed Brother Jones with. 28:37 Amen. Amen. 28:38 God bless you. |
Revised 2017-10-16