June Update
A Story From The Other Side of the Fence
Joe Bruton knows how to welcome prisoners back into society. He has walked that road himself – twice. But his two experiences could not have looked more different. The first led to total failure, and the second to a whole new life.
Joe grew up in Houston, Texas. He did well in high school, but there was always alcohol around his home, and he accepted it as normal. He began drinking early and added drugs to the routine while still a teenager.
That pattern continued when Joe enrolled in college. By his sophomore year he was a heavy drinker, cocaine user, and heroin addict. To support his habit, he grew and sold marijuana.
He tried to escape the Houston drug scene by transferring to the University of Arkansas. In 1987, Joe received his bachelor’s degree and was accepted into graduate school. He met and married his wife a year later. But during his second year of study, the FBI caught up with Joe for drug trafficking. He would spend the next 33 months in a federal prison while his wife struggled with the family finances – and with the birth of their first son.
Fleeting Success
After prison, Joe paroled to a halfway house in Tulsa, Okla. He transferred his graduate school credits to Oklahoma State University and earned a master’s degree in environmental engineering. After landing a good-paying job, he was able to move his wife and son to Oklahoma.
After several years of success – and two more children – Joe started an environmental consulting firm. Everything went well until an insurance company refused to pay for a major project. Trying to keep his thinly financed company afloat, Joe returned to drug trafficking to pay the bills. Next he went back to using drugs and alcohol to deal with his stress. He lost his home and business and was stuck with huge debt. The family car was repossessed. An eviction notice was hung on the door.
Drunk and needing a drug fix, Joe robbed a bank by bluffing that he had a gun. His take was just $2,000. On his way out the door, he glanced directly into a security camera, and his fate was sealed.
Finding Jesus in the Rubber Room
Joe was quickly arrested and placed in a rubber room detox center at the county jail. “I was going through gut-wrenching withdrawal and facing 30 years in prison. I asked Jesus not into my life, but to take it – to kill me. I was pathetic. … Little did I know that Jesus Christ had a different plan for me.”
“Jesus touched my life on the floor of that detox tank, and I was born again,” Joe recalls. “I knew that God was real.”
Joe started listening to the prison ministers, and he began to read the Bible. He also started to pray for a way to grow in Christ while in prison. God answered with an intensive Prison Fellowship reentry program.
“[The program] gave me a place to grow in my knowledge of the Lord,” Joe recalls. “The whole environment was geared towards spiritual growth and character development. I found out who I was – a man of God. I was forgiven. I learned how to take the steps to restore my life and my relationships.”
Moving into Ministry
Released from prison in October 2008, Joe began the reentry process. Through the church family he met while in the reentry program, Joe found employment at a chicken processing plant. He served at church by leading Bible studies and became an active volunteer for the reentry program and a local jail ministry.
Two years after his release, he was hired full-time by Goodwill Industries of Arkansas. At Goodwill, Joe now is building a reentry program for ex-prisoners modeled after his own experiences in the Prison Fellowship program. There, he has helped to double the capacity of Goodwill’s reentry program. According to Joe, the nearly 60 men and women who have graduated from the program have enjoyed a 93-percent success rate over the last two years.
Joe is still a jail minister, and he is involved in numerous programs that assist prisoners and their families. For example, he leads Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program at his church. But he doesn’t do any of it on his own strength. He spends hours every week in prayer, and he’s on his tenth time reading through the Bible. “You get to know someone by spending time with them,” says Joe. “I continue to seek my Lord on a daily basis. I roll out of bed, hit my knees, and pray and start giving thanks.”
- Ruth Chodniewicz, Confessions of a Regular Joe, Inside Journal, Volume 22, No.1, December 2012
Thoughts to Ponder
The Goal of Ministry
According to the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I agree. My highest desire and aim should be to pursue God until I am consumed by Him. The difficulty is in the practicality of these statements.
In Luke 9:23-25, Jesus explains that I must crucify myself rather than be dedicated to myself. It is through interaction with people and relationships that I realize my weakness and my poverty (and theirs). It is through these that I am given an opportunity to exercise and grow. It is through these that I learn to crucify the flesh and submit to the work of the Holy Spirit in me. The more submissive I become, the more His fruit will grow in me. In John 15, Jesus tells me that I must abide in Him in order to bear fruit.
God does not need me. I need Him. However, He invites me to join His work. Being active in His work and His Kingdom is the catalyst or the avenue by which He changes me. The highest goal of ministry is to know Him deeper than ever before. The by-product of knowing Him deeper is that He will be glorified and His kingdom will expand. ~ Dan
Ministry Inside
May 2013:
Graduation From Discipleship Classes: Spanish - 20
2637 inmate visits to the chapel logging over 3956 hrs. for 153 individual events
Death notifications - 11 / Crisis Notifications - 14
Family Happenings
May was a busy month for our family! A big highlight was wrapping up another year of school. Daniel finished 8th grade and Tamara, 6th. The next weekend, our family was able to attend the Homeschool Convention in Orlando, FL. We gained some insight into keeping records for a high schooler next year and were encouraged in our roles as home school parents! On the way home, we spent 2 days exploring the history of St. Augustine, a beautiful city along Florida’s east coast. The highlights were visiting Fort Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas. We also viewed the St. Augustine Lighthouse from a distance! :) It was a refreshing trip!
May was also full of (some planned, some unexpected) dentist visits for the whole family as well as a few visits to the repair shop for the van. Those were not highlights, however, I am thankful for the people who are able to fix problems such as those and that God provided for the expenses!! :) We also had our dryer give out and had to replace it. On these days when rain showers pop up most afternoons, a dryer is a good thing!
On May 18th, I (Twila) had the opportunity to run my first 5K. It’s something I’ve been working toward for the last year and a half, and it finally came true. My time was 42:00, better than I expected! It felt good to have accomplished that goal!
On May 27 we celebrated Dan’s last year in the 30’s! :) I don’t understand how us young people are getting so close to 40??
The children and I, along with my sister Chris and her two youngest children, took a quick trip to PA the beginning of June for my Mom’s Witmer family reunion. I got to see some cousins that I hadn’t seen for 10 years or more! It was a good trip. We also enjoyed spending a few days with our parents and siblings! Dad and Mom have a lot of wildlife around there place and a few hours before we arrived, they had a very tiny fawn resting in the flower bed right beside their garage. We hoped to see it, but it must have found its mother by the time we got there! :)
Have a blessed summer....find someone to serve! :) Romans 12:10
~Twila
Needs
Our projected 2013 support ~ $6000 ($500 a month)
Received so far in 2013~ $1050
Received so far in 2013~ $1050
Current Needs:
- A newer, more efficient upright freezer.
- Dan and myself have more dentist visits that should be taken care of ASAP.
- School curriculum for next year ($300)
A big thank you to some special friends who so generously gave us the curriculum we need for Danny’s history and Bible next year!!
GEMS supports us by providing us with a house to live in. We do not receive monetary support from them. Dan does receive some income from the state that is sufficient to pay our recurring monthly bills, gas and food. We count on support to help cover anything above that, including dental, eye care, medical bills, car repairs, appliance replacement, clothes shopping, and other things that come up unexpectedly! Thank you for prayerfully considering how you can help!
Love from~
The Henry’s~ Dan, Twila, Danny (14) and Tamara (12)
20764 NE Parrish Lake Rd.
Blounstown, FL 32424
850-674-1664
dansgirl77@gmail.com ~Twila
dfhenry74@gmail.com ~Dan
Find us on facebook Yoking Up With Jesus
Find us on facebook Yoking Up With Jesus
Donations can be sent to:
GEMS
℅ Henry Family Fund
PO Box 180505
Tallahassee, FL 32318
OR, by Paypal to dansgirl77@gmail.com
(Be SURE to earmark checks for the Henry Family, since all the chaplains funds get sent to the same address.)
