Why me? Why this? Who hasn’t asked this at times? Two men serving time in San Quentin asked me to talk about how and why I send sermons to California prisoners.
I can answer in two ways. One, my experience of how it happened, and the other is through God’s view, as I read it in the Bible.
My experience comes from the fact that I have a brother who teaches a Bible class in a jail in California. He connected with some men who went on to prison. For them, he made copies of sermons preached by the minister at his church. Over time, he was mailing these to 60 or 70 men, and family members of some.
For years, I’ve preached about ten times a year, at Mel Trotter Mission, in Grand Rapids, Mich. However, once I retired, I had time to type my sermons. My brother read one, and thought they’d make a good mailer, so I began sending them to him.
A few years ago, something changed and he stopped mailing sermons. When I learned of this, I asked for his mailing list, and I started mailing my messages, myself. Then, I contacted some prison chaplains, and a few of them agreed to accept, copy, and make my messages available to men in their facilities. Over time, we have reached more and more men (and now women too) in prison, and members of their families. For several years, I have also mailed Spanish translations of the messages.
Now, God’s view on this:
Psalm 139, verse 16: All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Ephesians 2: 10: We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Why me? Why this? Because God planned it and then worked things in my life to make, it happen.
If you would like to receive these mailings, write me at: J.F. Girard Rooks, c/o Hanley Christian Reformed Church, O – 372 Jackson St., Grandville, MI 49418.
