Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY220012A
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00:05 I want to spend my life Mending broken people. 00:15 I want to spend my life removing pain. 00:26 Lord let my words Heal a heart that hurts 00:36 I want to spend my life Mending broken people. 00:58 ♪ ♪ 01:07 Hello and welcome to another 3ABN Today program. I'm Jason 01:10 Bradley and I'm so glad that you have tuned in for this powerful 01:15 program that we have in store for you. And I believe that God 01:19 wants you to be watching this. There's a message for you today. 01:23 I'm here with Captain Tim Turner commander of Boon County Jail 01:29 It's great to have you here. 01:31 Thank you so much for having me. 01:32 Yes sir, yes sir. We're going to dive into your testimony a 01:35 little bit later. It's a powerful one and you really 01:38 opened the doors for us to come in and put on a program and all 01:42 of that. We're going to find out about all of that in just a 01:44 little bit. Sitting right next to you, we have Lemuel Vega, my 01:48 brother Lemuel. It's great to have you. Christmas Behind Bars. 01:53 Thank you. It's a blessing to be here. 01:54 And my wonderful cousin Jewlee Meadows. It's great to have you 01:58 here Jewlee. 01:59 It's great to be here. I'm excited for our topic today. 02:03 I'm very excited to be here. 02:04 Wonderful. And you are a member of our production crew here at 02:07 at 3ABN. Yes. Very. Normally I have my 02:09 sidekick with me, but my cousin Tiara couldn't make 02:11 it today. So I'm here for the both of us. 02:13 There we go. There we go. And sitting next to you we have 02:18 Ian Vandervalk, another valuable member of our 3ABN production 02:21 crew and our floor director. 02:23 Yeah, thank you, Jason. I appreciate it. Thank you for 02:26 having me here. 02:27 Yes, it's great to have you here Ian. I want to share this 02:30 scripture. It comes from Romans chapter 5 verses 6-8. 02:36 For when we were still without strength in due time Christ died 02:39 for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die 02:44 yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 02:48 But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we 02:52 were still sinners Christ died for us. 02:55 That's powerful. Yeah. You know and I think that Ian you've 03:02 talked before about what an identity crisis or something 03:05 like that. 03:06 Yeah, you know I think a lot of times in our lives you know we 03:09 all face it. We all come to that road where we're not sure who we 03:12 are and we're faced with an identity crisis like you said 03:15 You know and there's three things that have a huge impact 03:17 on that and it's how we see ourselves, how others see us and 03:21 how God sees us. You know out of those three, two of them can 03:24 have a profound impact both positively and negatively you 03:28 know and that's how we see ourselves and how others see us 03:30 but God, He sees us the same way every single day. It doesn't 03:34 matter our faults, it doesn't matter how we look at our 03:37 internal failures but God always sees us in the perfect love each 03:42 and every day. And we can always hold onto that hope and find our 03:47 identity in that love. 03:48 Amen, amen, that's beautiful. You know we have a song that 03:52 we're going to go to. It's entitled He Saw the Best in Me 03:55 and it really speaks to that. Let's check that song out right 03:58 now. 04:00 ♪He saw the best in me when everyone else around could only 04:15 ♪see the worst in me. Oh Lord my Lord. He saw the best in me 04:29 ♪yes he did hallelujah. Yes he did. When everyone else around 04:36 ♪could only see the worst in me. Oh Lord Almighty thus He saw the 04:51 ♪best in me, Hallelujah, when everyone else around could only 05:00 ♪see the worst in me. Oh help me sing what He sees, He saw the 05:12 ♪best in me, when everyone else around when everyone else around 05:19 ♪Oh my, my, my, my, my God Oh Jesus saw the best in us, Oh yah 05:30 ♪He saw the best in me when everyone else around, 05:39 ♪Oh my Lord, you guys see the worst in me. Mmm, mmm, mmm 05:46 ♪mmm, mmm. See He's mine, I am His. It doesn't matter what I 06:01 ♪did. He only sees me for who I am and all my desires. He's mine 06:14 ♪and I am His. It doesn't matter what I did He only see me for 06:25 ♪who I am. Oh, everything. He's mine. I'm His. 06:36 ♪It doesn't matter what I 06:39 ♪did. He only sees who I am. Oh He's mine, I'm His, It doesn't 06:57 ♪matter what I did. He only sees me for who I am. Oh, oh, oh. 07:06 ♪My Lord, My Lord It doesn't matter what I did. He only sees 07:26 ♪He's mine, I'm His I doesn't matter what I did. He only 07:36 ♪seeeees. He saw the best in me when everyone else, 07:49 ♪everyone else around could only see the worst of me. See my 07:56 elementary teacher told me that I wasn't going to be nothing. 07:58 She told me that there ain't no hope for me. But Jesus saw 08:03 Hallelujah. When I didn't see Jesus saw. Hallelujah ♪Everyone 08:09 ♪else around me only seen the worst in me. I thank you, Lord. 08:16 ♪Hallelujah, I thank you, Lord. I praise you, Lord. You're worthy 08:20 to be praised. He saw the best. Thank you, Jesus, Hallelujah. 08:29 When He sees in the midst of the storm, in the midst of your pain 08:35 ♪in the midst of your sin, in the midst of your sin what did 08:41 ♪He see, the best, what did He see, The best, What did He see, 08:42 ♪the best, What did he see, the best, What did He see, the best, 08:47 ♪What did He see, the best, What did He see, the best, the best 08:54 ♪Oh oh oh, My Lord saw the best in me when everyone else around 09:03 ♪everyone else around could only see the worst! 09:12 Wow, what a powerful song, a powerful message. And Lemuel 09:15 there's a back story to that song, a powerful story at that. 09:20 Will you share that with us? 09:21 Absolutely. My friend John Harriston, in a maximum security 09:25 prison he just sang that song, He Saw the Best in Me. You know 09:30 that's what our theme was when we started Ian. 09:32 You said He died for 09:34 us while we were yet sinners. You know. So in our worst state 09:39 that's our foundation. We can only build and go up from there. 09:42 You know, John Harriston, he told me the story personally 09:45 He said he shot a Christian in the head and so this brother, 09:50 John Harriston who sang that song, He Saw the Best in Me, 09:53 he shot a Christian, Captain Turner, he shot a Christian in 09:57 the head. And you know the Christian didn't die. And in the 10:01 courtroom the Christian said I forgive you. Wow. So he's 10:04 sitting there thinking, you know at the court hearing. He's 10:07 thinking man if this Christian, if this guy can forgive me, 10:10 So he got sentenced. I think he got 40 years in prison. And he 10:14 went on to prison. But this started to resonate in his mind 10:17 You know, he quit the gangs, he quit using drugs. And so he 10:21 started reaching out to people of the Christian faith. And so 10:24 now he's in the praise team and he's moved on from a maximum 10:27 security prison to lower. And so he's trying to get modification 10:30 to go home. But that started his journey with Christ because a 10:33 Christian said I forgive you. And that's what this whole 10:35 ministry, Christmas Behind Bars, and 3ABN is about is to let them 10:39 know that you know if we confess our sins, he's true and faithful 10:42 to not only forgive us but to cleanse us from all 10:46 unrighteousness. So that's our starting point. And you know 10:49 while we were...What did you say Ian? 10:51 Yet sinners. 10:53 Well yeah. He died for us in our worst situation so we have 10:56 nowhere to go but up. So praise the Lord. Thank you. 10:58 Amen, amen. Captain Turner Now I'm seeing the general 11:03 commander before me, I'm seeing Captain Turner, but I know 11:06 there's a back story. I know that you have a powerful 11:09 testimony. How did you come into law enforcement and prior to 11:15 coming into law enforcement what was your life like? 11:19 Ah, so I think as you mentioned earlier the way people perceive 11:27 us. It weighs heavily on us. My birth name is not Timothy 11:35 Turner. It was Warren Timothy Gann. I was adopted at the age 11:38 of two. So I think from that people start putting labels on 11:43 us and we carry those labels. And so it carried me into 11:47 adolescent years. It carried me into marriage. Four years into 11:52 my marriage I divorced my wife and left her. We had two sons at 11:56 the time. Struggled with drugs and alcohol. A year later I 12:02 remarried the same woman to later continue to have five more 12:07 sons. So we have seven sons total. I've been married for 35 12:10 years. Wow? Right. 12:13 That's all boys. 12:15 All boys. Praise the Lord. Yes. I worked a little bit in D.O.C. 12:21 (Dept. of Corrections) It just wasn't for me. Okay. Right, 12:27 wrong or indifferent. I went on. I started my own construction 12:32 company. Made all the money. Drove all the diesel dually 12:37 trucks had all the toys, had all that. But still something 12:41 was just not right or full in my heart, I guess I should say. 12:45 Looking at an ad one Saturday morning, I showed my wife and 12:51 she goes, just go apply. You're never going to get it out of 12:55 your system. Didn't really know why God was calling here but I 12:59 knew that I was supposed to go. So I went. Unbeknownst to me, a 13:04 year and a half into it, I'm a transport officer. I'd worked 13:08 the floor. Was happy doing what I had, what I was doing. I mean 13:13 you think about it, I have somebody that is in the back 13:16 of my squad car transporting them to and from counties, 13:19 courts, prisons. It was a captive audience, right? Where 13:24 were they going to go? I could preach the gospel to them. They 13:27 really couldn't go anywhere. 13:30 Couldn't escape. 13:31 Right, they couldn't escape. About a year and a half into it 13:36 I got a phone call from my major and said, asked me where I was 13:41 at. I said where I was. And he said, I need you to step out. 13:44 We have a meeting. I've got to get you to a meeting. I thought 13:47 okay, so. Get in the car and he says we're going to the 13:51 sheriff's office. I'm thinking that's probably not good. My 13:54 major's picking me up and I'm going to the sheriff's office. 13:56 Not a good scene. Walked into his office and he asked me, he 14:02 said, What would you think if I wanted you to take over my jail 14:06 and run my jail? And I told him that I didn't think that I was 14:10 ready for that. I thought he was crazy. He said, Well I think 14:15 that you're the right person but I'm going to interview a couple 14:18 more and I'll get back to you. And I'm like well this really 14:20 wasn't an interview. You just asked me a question and I gave 14:23 my answer and you're not listening, Sir. 14:25 You didn't feel qualified. 14:28 Not at all. Still don't. 14:30 Well praise God that He qualifies the called. 14:35 Amen. He doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the 14:39 called. That's exactly right. 14:40 Mm-huh. So you stepped into that position, right? Now what were 14:45 some of the challenges that you faced early on? 14:49 Oh, a lot really. Because just trying to think about how to do 14:59 my job efficiently and the best that I could be but not 15:07 surrender or not stand up for what I believe in or who I was. 15:11 So you know government and religion sometimes don't cross 15:17 And again thanks be to God because I think He works all of 15:22 that out so my sheriff, He gave us free reign. Christmas Behind 15:31 Bars, Mr. Lemuel himself was coming in and that's the first 15:36 year that... Well he'd done it prior when I was on the floor. 15:39 But when he came in I knew that every year I could count on him. 15:44 He was going to be there. And so they brought it in. Now and 15:49 again I thought that if he can do this inside here then why am 15:54 I wavering? Is not God big enough to take care of all the 16:00 things that I'm, so-called, worried about? 16:02 Yes. May I say something here? 16:04 Absolutely. 16:06 When Captain Turner is talking about how can he do this inside 16:09 here, why is he wavering?...We have an opportunity to go in 16:12 there and share our heart and share the gospel with these 16:14 people and just tell them and just try to encourage them in 16:18 that. So he said that that encouraged him, why can't I do 16:22 this and so that's phenomenal. And when he said something about 16:25 he worked D.O.C. I'll just clarify for the viewers. D.O.C. 16:29 is Department of Corrections so D.O.C. is prison. D.O.C. is 16:32 maximum security, life, life plus 80 whatever. So he started 16:38 there and he said that isn't for me. But yet he wanted to serve 16:40 and now the Lord put him in this capacity as jail commander. 16:44 We're glad that He did because I mean the doors really opened 16:47 up, you opened the doors, God opened the doors through you 16:51 and allowed us to come into your facility. This was at a 16:55 time where you were praying for a revival. Correct? 16:59 Amen. Yes. Absolutely I was. 17:01 Give us a little bit of that story. 17:03 So for a couple of years it had been laid on my heart that... 17:09 and not just clients but officers as well and deputies 17:18 and dispatch and everybody that works in this line, or first 17:23 responders. We see a lot of things and we do a lot of things 17:28 that you can't erase your memory You can't forget what you've 17:31 seen. And so I knew as well as what I'm sitting here is that 17:37 we need a revival in our county. The only way that my life was 17:45 changed, that my marriage was healed, that I became the 17:49 husband and the father and the brother and the son and 17:53 everything that I needed to be was from the Lord Jesus Christ 17:55 So groups are great, counseling is wonderful but ultimately at 18:03 the end of the day when all else fails, I mean, the Lord 18:08 will never fail us. He won't forsake us. So that's what we 18:13 need inside the jail. I still believe that to this day. I'm 18:17 still praying for a revival and lo and behold, I get a call 18:22 and there are van loads of people that show up in my sally 18:27 port and I'm like Lord is this the start of it? 18:29 Yes which is really cool, we got to pull into the sally port 18:33 We got to bring these wonderful gift packages that Lemuel can 18:37 speak to in just a moment. Got to bring those in full of 18:41 wonderful materials, spiritual materials and all of 18:45 that stuff too. But that was a powerful time for all of us. 18:49 Yes, huge for our county. Huge for our population, huge for our 18:56 officers. I mean, it was just an overwhelming day. You know when 19:03 I think that you go through something spiritual as what we 19:07 did that day. I went home, I was tired. I was wore out. I don't 19:11 know about the rest of you but I was pretty tired. 19:14 Yeah, you were there before we got there and you stayed after 19:19 we left. Like thank you for spending that amount of time 19:22 with us and I really loved what you did. You had each one of 19:27 your officers supervise a pod. So they kind of traveled or they 19:33 switched, they handed off so that each one of them could see 19:36 the programs and get the gospel and that really stood out to me. 19:41 That was absolutely amazing. 19:43 I didn't realize it at the time but right God slipped it in. 19:47 Right absolutely. Lemuel what's in those packages that we took 19:52 in there? 19:53 Captain Turner, why don't you tell us. You've been doing it 19:55 for quite a few years with us and it's just kind of... 19:58 Oh, they've got all kinds of snacks, they've got reading 20:01 material, they have gospel pamphlets in there, they've got 20:07 crossword puzzles, they've got...I mean, you name it, you 20:11 guys have got everything in there. 20:12 After we come and we bring the packages, then we sing songs and 20:15 we share tears with the offenders, clients at the 20:20 facilities. You know we leave and we go home and we don't get 20:23 to see the impact later that day or the next day. What do you see 20:27 after we've been gone for a few days or weeks. Do you see 20:33 something different in there or... 20:35 Absolutely, um you know the best way I can describe it is the 20:40 rock that throws into that pond right soon dissipates and it's 20:43 gone but it's those ripples that go across that water for a long, 20:46 long time. That's the dividends that I believe that you people 20:51 are placing in 20:52 these communities, in these prisons and county jails and 20:57 we probably won't get to see everything that God has 21:04 entrusted for us to plant a seed here or there but we get to see 21:08 some of it and I see just like the video showed people reading 21:11 the word, right? How's that not life change for me? 21:15 You asked me what was in the packages. The packages contain 21:19 all kinds of snacks, devotional materials, literature but I know 21:24 at the jail, we were able to bring study Bibles. Every inmate 21:27 got a brand new study Bible. And when I called Captain Turner 21:30 I said you know we have this program with 3ABN. We'd like to 21:33 maybe come in at your jail and...That's when he said he'd 21:36 been praying for revival. And you know when media shows up 21:40 news media to a jail it's usually not good. Something 21:44 happened in the jail so the reporters are outside. But here 21:46 it is, 3ABN showed up and we were able to go inside, thanks 21:50 to you, your sheriff, all your deputies and we were able to 21:53 show the world about how change is actually taking place in 21:57 these dark places. So that's awesome. So we were able to 22:00 bring shampoo, soap, deodorant, just hey we care. You know we 22:04 care. And a lot of those people don't get mail, right? 22:07 That's correct. 22:09 A percentage hardly ever get mail where they're locked up. They 22:11 don't have anybody to call and one man, Jason told me, from 22:16 Illinois he said he'd been in prison 11 years and the only 22:19 mail he's gotten in that 11 years is the homemade thinking 22:23 of you card that was in the bottom of his bag. So 11 years 22:27 of prison. So it's just a great opportunity. So I'll turn it 22:30 back over to you, Jason. 22:32 Yeah, that's huge. You know Jewlee I want to hear from you 22:34 and Ian because this was your first time going into a jail. 22:41 Yeah. What was that like for you and before you answer what that 22:44 was like what was in your mind prior to going to that facility? 22:49 Right. Well honestly we were very privileged that we did get 22:52 get to go with Lemuel into the prison. And I remember Tiara 22:57 and I when first we were asked if we would go into the jail 23:00 we were so excited and we were like, Oh another opportunity 23:04 to tell people about Jesus. That's so exciting. So then we 23:06 started practicing our skit that we were going to do there and 23:10 they're excited and then we started thinking about it some 23:12 more and we started to get a little nervous and then a little 23:14 more nervous and we were like you know I don't know if this 23:17 is such a good idea anymore. I don't know if we should go 23:20 because I remember we were practicing and Tiara just stops 23:23 and she's like Jewlee I don't think that we're qualified to 23:28 go into these jails because she says we can't relate to these 23:33 people. Because Lemuel, he has a testimony that they can relate 23:37 to and Jason has a testimony they can relate to them, but 23:40 we are just young girls who've never been in trouble with the 23:44 law before. How are people going to relate to us? They won't 23:47 listen to what we have to say. And so then I had to remember 23:52 that scripture that says, God promises that His word will not 23:56 return void. Amen. So if we just go in there with Christ's words 24:01 and go in there with everything we have just solely for souls 24:06 that it will not return void. Someone has to get something 24:09 from it. So we just had to have faith and we went in there and 24:13 we just began to pray for the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts 24:18 and to fill the room. And like you're saying, Captain Turner 24:21 that day was overwhelming. I get emotional just thinking 24:24 about that day because it was so overwhelming with...God's 24:28 presence was so thick in that whole jail and I've never 24:32 experienced anything like that before. But it just made me feel 24:37 like, I want to do this again. And we're talking to Lemuel. 24:40 Like next time you got to call us. We want to go with you next 24:42 time. And we're just so excited because that's...Tiara and I 24:46 we'd go to different churches and we go to different summer 24:49 camps and we perform skits for these places and we love that 24:53 but there's something so different about going in a place 24:57 where there just seems to be no hope. And you bring that hope of 25:02 Christ. There's something so different. I would a hundred 25:04 times over-perform for Christ in a jail than I would in a church 25:10 because honestly in church I think a lot of people get so 25:14 stale to God's presence and they just get so, well satisfied, I 25:20 guess you know when you see that excitement in someone's eyes. 25:26 They just crave that hope, they crave it. They're hungry. And 25:30 whenever you start giving them some of Christ's hope it's just 25:36 overwhelming, it's overwhelming. 25:39 Amen, amen. Seeing people in there that...you know sometimes 25:42 you go into these situations where people are in captivity, 25:46 they're in bondage and you know we've all been in bondage 25:49 through sin, correct? So you know you go into these places 25:54 and you see, as you said, the hunger. There are people that 25:58 are more hungry for the word of God inside there than on the 26:03 outside. Tears streaming down their faces because they 26:06 received a Bible. And here on the outside people have three, 26:11 four, five Bibles in their homes and none of them are getting 26:16 opened. It blows my mind. Ian what was on your mind. This was 26:22 your first time going in as well and what was on your mind prior 26:25 to going to the facility? 26:27 Well prior to going to it I really had zero expectations. 26:31 I didn't know what I was walking into. I didn't really know-how 26:34 to prepare myself for it. I just knew that I was asked, that I 26:37 would join and help everybody out to be a part of this 26:40 ministry and I was all over it. I just said you know _ 26:44 like God whatever you want me to do I'm going to go there and I'm 26:46 going to do it for you. And I was praying about it even 26:48 leading up to God you know use me somehow. You know help me to 26:52 be a light to somebody else, to show them your love as you have 26:56 shown me. But you know going there, it was completely 27:00 different. It was nothing like I expected. And honestly, I know 27:05 that there were definitely men and women there that were 27:08 blessed about the packages and the Bibles. And some of them 27:12 oddly, I mean not even oddly, it was just fantastic to see 27:15 that they didn't care about the packages. It wasn't about the 27:18 packages. When they saw that Bible it changed them. You know. 27:22 And you saw these hardened criminals who you know these 27:25 very rough exteriors. Some of them you could tell that didn't 27:28 even want to hear what we were saying didn't even want to see 27:31 the skit that the girls were putting on. And then just as 27:34 each moment went by you see those walls being broken down 27:38 one by one by one until the end they're there in tears. And they 27:42 recognized their need for Christ So for me, I really didn't have 27:46 any expectations but while I was there honestly I think I was the 27:50 one who was blessed. And the same with Jewlee here. After 27:54 that I told Brad, who was our director, and Lemuel, I said 27:59 every single time you guys do this I want to be a part of it. 28:02 You know, I want to go because it really is amazing to see, you 28:06 know, you see how God's worked in your life and you watch how 28:10 He works in others. When He's doing it in a large group 28:14 setting basically and you're just seeing people get excited 28:18 for God, who want to ask you questions. Who want to talk to 28:20 you about God. You see from one moment they had zero hope and 28:26 then just a matter of minutes later, their eyes, you know, the 28:31 smile on their face, their whole demeanor just completely 28:34 changed. You see the Holy Spirit moving. You see God working on 28:39 their hearts and it's just incredible to watch. 28:41 Transforming power of Christ. You know we got to record the 28:45 first season of Unshackled Purpose and a lot of that we 28:50 were able to do in Boone County jail and that was just an 28:54 incredible experience. We actually have a roll that I 28:58 would like for us to check out so you can get an idea of what 29:01 we experienced in there. Let's take a look at that. 29:03 I lost contact with God. To take you guys the time out to come 29:14 there and to spread that word I thought was 29:17 was huge because a lot of people just see us as criminals 29:20 you know and that's it. But we're way more that; we're moms 29:22 we're people's children. We're still, people and I think 29:26 it made us feel 29:29 like that, everybody in the block. We couldn't stop talking 29:31 about it. We still talk about it today and that was a couple 29:35 weeks ago. I'd lost my contact with God, but I'm getting it 29:40 back. I'm definitely getting it back one day at a time. 29:42 I have some people I know personally, that have been 29:47 arrested and incarcerated and if I'm being honest, I've not 29:53 the most compassionate towards them in my heart. I tended to 29:56 have a harsh attitude towards them and I think it was me going 30:02 to prison and seeing these inmates and just listening to 30:06 them that these people are a lot like me. I'm just like these 30:13 people. And so seeing that and it really just hit me hard 30:18 especially when I saw young girls there that were close to 30:22 my age. And just hearing how easy it is to end up in a place 30:26 like they're in. It's so easy. What if God treated me the way 30:32 that I'm thinking about these people. Well Jewlee you messed 30:38 up. You had your chance but you put yourself in this situation. 30:42 What if God treated us that way? But He doesn't and He's a 30:47 compassionate God who is very forgiving. So if we mess up He's 30:51 always there to forgive us. And when we're struggling He'll pick 30:55 up and He'll carry us. I feel like that's showing us what we 30:59 need to be doing as Christians. Especially when someone is 31:04 struggling or may have messed up We should be there for them and 31:08 we should encourage them and help lift them up when they're 31:12 going through a rough time. 31:13 I've been in and out of jail. I can't even tell you how many 31:19 times but a lot. When Christmas Behind Bars came in I actually 31:24 was still in bed and I just kept hearing him talk about how God 31:32 had changed his life. And I mean I've never seen it. 31:37 I've never heard your 31:38 story. And it really gives us hope and I had still had to 31:44 come to my door. And I didn't want to interrupt so I just 31:47 stood at my door and listened and it was such an inspiring 31:52 story. This time in my incarceration I have never been 31:56 more serious than in any of my other incarcerations. I have 32:01 really just dove into the Bible. I've been you know praying for 32:05 the Holy Spirit and it all started with Christmas Behind 32:09 Bars really. So your story was really amazing. And then the 32:14 gifts were awesome too. So thank you. 32:18 How does your faith play a role in what you do? 32:21 Aw, I think it's huge. Where would I be without the Lord 32:27 Jesus Christ. I can only imagine right. As the song says so. 32:33 They're no different. If He can change a person like myself, He 32:36 can change any of those people. They have to know that somebody 32:44 believes in them. So I'm no different. It's a great way that 32:49 we can change their lives even if it's one of them. I can't 32:53 tell you how many times this guy has come in. Calls last minute, 32:57 We've got bags. I'm like yeah bring them. And you can just see 33:02 how receptive these people are. Because I think the love...Yeah 33:06 they're goody bags, I get it. But the love that you're not 33:10 going to surpass that. And in the first block that we went to 33:14 the ladies that were in there, the tears, those are raw, those 33:19 are real. And some of those people and some of those 33:21 people when some of these individuals in this facility are 33:24 so hardened and so hard, for you to get the tears out of them 33:27 that's not us. That is the Holy Spirit. Again I think that your 33:33 heart has to be compelled to give back to see somebody change 33:39 and really what kind of price tag can you put on that so 33:43 Lemuel asked my cousin Jewlee and I to come and perform a skit 33:47 for the inmates. At first, it was to speak with the women but 33:51 after we had finished all the women's blocks he had asked us 33:55 to go and speak to the men. So Primarily what we did there was 33:58 go and perform skits in every cell block and talking and 34:02 interacting with the inmates. I had never been in a setting like 34:04 that before and I was scared. I guess I was expecting 34:09 people to kind of not listen to what we had to say because we 34:13 were young. I felt unqualified I guess for it. I was scared that 34:17 you know people wouldn't care what we had to say or they 34:21 listen. I mean, I was expecting probably the worst of the worst. 34:25 That's just how my mind goes. I walked in there scared and 34:28 expecting the worst and being afraid. And it just seemed that 34:32 God gave me strength and knowledge to be able to do what 34:36 I did even though I was up there shaking half of the time. Just 34:40 to see Him soften the hearts of people. You know, I went 34:44 in there expecting nobody to listen to what we had to say 34:46 and then just seeing God move through the room and seeing 34:50 people's demeanors just change from being hardened criminals 34:53 to these opening, like receiving people. That impacted me so much 34:59 just seeing what the power of the Holy Spirit could do in the 35:03 room and I was very blessed to be a part of that. 35:05 Many nights crying here, you know. It don't make you less of 35:10 a man, but you realize what you lost when you are in these cold 35:15 walls. I've lost a lot. I've had houses had cars, trucks, 35:21 motorcycles and I've traded it all in for alcohol and drugs. 35:27 It's a hard lesson to learn. I'm really grateful for the chance 35:33 to have a second turn at life at my age. I'm ready to get off of 35:40 drugs and alcohol. Well Christmas Behind Bars is 35:44 definitely a blessing to the literature you guys give us to 35:46 magazines to read. Those are really nice. It's a blessing 35:52 people put in the work to give that to us. To know hey there's 35:57 life and hope out there for us you know. Somebody's thinking 36:01 about us. The cards that you know people sign and you read. 36:05 You know a lot of people don't get that. 36:09 Wow, I'm so happy that we were able to go in there and we went 36:14 and we wanted to be a blessing but we received just such a 36:18 blessing from being there. I just want to thank you again 36:21 Captain Turner for really opening up your jail, your 36:26 facility to allow us to come in and spread the Gospel. I want 36:29 to give this to you for your facility. What this is is a 36:35 My SDA TV Interless system. We call it the D2D prison hard 36:39 drive. It contains 3901 Christian lifestyle television 36:45 programs. And you can hook that up to your in-house closed 36:48 circuit television channel and it can be broadcast throughout 36:51 your facility at no cost to your facility and it doesn't even 36:56 require internet. So that's yours to keep. 36:58 That's awesome. Thank you so much. 37:00 You're very welcome. Thank you for all that you're doing. Also 37:04 we'll give you this so that you can have an idea of some of the 37:08 things that are on there. But what you're really going to get 37:12 too in addition to all that is this plaque here and what this 37:18 plaque says This is with our greatest appreciation. We hereby 37:22 present you, Captain Tim Turner, with the outstanding community 37:26 service award for your dedication to spreading the 37:30 gospel behind bars. This is from 3ABN and I just want to hand 37:34 that to you too. I mean I'm just really amazed. 37:38 You're welcome...at what you have done and how you're 37:42 spreading the gospel. I mean this is huge. You're not even 37:46 the chaplain. You're the jail commander and you've allowed 37:54 you know your faith to shine and your light for Christ to shine 37:59 bright in there and that is to be recognized. 38:02 We're all called to be ministers somewhere right? Amen. Amen. 38:07 So the only thing that I can do is help them figure out what 38:12 labels have been placed on them, help them get them off. 38:18 Amen. Thank you for what you're doing. Lemuel, how appreciative 38:23 are you? 38:25 I'm real appreciative. I didn't bring a plaque but I'm going to 38:26 go get one. (Laughter) I'll be right back. Thank you, Sir. 38:29 Thank you, thank you thank you. I need to give everybody plaques 38:32 But in all reality, Jewlee said that she felt God the Holy 38:38 Spirit was there. And a lady wrote a letter and she said we 38:41 didn't get a chance to give her a bag. She opened her bag and 38:44 she said she saw Jesus. So the Lord is showing up doing great 38:48 things and we want to give Him all the honor and glory for this 38:52 program, for the packages, for the sponsors, for the trucks, 38:55 for 3ABN, for your baggage skit, for our testimony just the last 39:00 season we filmed. So Jason just thank you for being faithful 39:03 thank you being this capacity, 3ABN thank you for seeing value 39:07 in these prisoners lives. We want to say thanks to the 39:09 sponsors for 3ABN who made these boxes possible Christmas Behind 39:14 Bars. God gets the honor and glory. And our whole theme when 39:17 we go to these places, our whole theme is would you be willing 39:21 to try one more time. Because see all of our lives we've tried 39:25 They ended up at a place they don't want to be. Their best 39:28 efforts have gotten them into this dungeon in this hopeless 39:31 situation. As Jewlee said, They begin to see hope. That's 39:34 because they know that we come in because we love them. There's 39:37 no other reason. We're giving them something, no strings 39:39 attached because we care. A bar of soap, we know you don't got 39:43 one, we know you need one. A toothbrush. And they know the 39:46 value of that. So praise the Lord. He gets the honor and 39:49 glory. 39:50 Amen, yes He does. So Lemuel I know that you've been on 39:53 countless times but give us a little bit of the background 39:56 information on your testimony. Share a little bit of your 39:58 testimony and how Christmas Behind Bars got started. 40:01 Oh wow, that's going to take another whole program. Can we do 40:04 this on Live Thursday Night. You know 18 years old I was sitting 40:08 in the county jail in Indiana facing 10 to 20 years in prison. 40:11 And Captain Turner, my bond was $110,000 so that means it's a 40:16 lot. I was probably a bad boy. And I got a good attorney out of 40:20 Indianapolis, Niles Stanton. He was a fancy attorney, drove 40:23 Jaguar really and I got sentenced to a maximum security 40:26 prison. So I went to Pendleton. And you know Captain Turner I 40:29 was in the back of the cop car, leaving my little country, going 40:33 to RDC (Reception Diagnostic Center) and I OD'd in the back 40:34 of that cop car because I was scared. I'm going to prison. I 40:37 almost died. And you know shackled and handcuffed to some 40:40 guy, I didn't even know going in the back gates of a prison, 40:43 30-foot walls. You know this guy's doing life in prison. 40:47 I got eight years. And it's just...The reality is I found 40:51 out Jason is prison doesn't change our lives. It doesn't 40:55 It doesn't. Because otherwise you just go to jail once, you'll 40:57 never get in trouble again. You go to rehab once, you never get 40:59 in trouble again. You know... Whatever. It doesn't work that 41:02 way. I couldn't even get my GED in prison, I tried. Got out of 41:05 prison, I failed. Twelve years I struggled with addiction. You 41:08 know I went to treatment. Doctors tell me I need 41:11 medication. I said, Man, I don't want to be on this bandwagon no 41:14 more. And I prayed and I asked God for help with my life. 41:18 I said, Dear Jesus please help me. I want to quit but I can't. 41:20 And this whole ministry, Christmas Behind Bars was the 41:26 pastor's wife's idea at the church that we were attending 41:28 It was her idea to make packages for the folk down at the county 41:32 jail. I just remember being one of them folk. I remember the 41:34 pain and no mail, I remember. So I said, that'd be a great 41:37 idea. And God had blessed me with a grocery business and 41:41 brother I'm selling potatoes, apples, oranges, granola bars, 41:43 chips and snacks, door to door to the Amish people. Six months 41:48 clean, I'm out hustling groceries. She had the idea. 41:49 I said, Oh this would be great. Let's take them some things. 41:52 They would really appreciate it. And our whole idea is just to 41:55 encourage them to try one more time. Christ is the answer. You 41:59 can start here with your GED you can start with this program just 42:02 try, keep trying, and moving forward. It will get brighter 42:06 stronger and you will reach that destination. 42:08 Amen, Amen. That's powerful. Thank you for sharing that. 42:11 Captain Turner, what do you see as far as the recidivism rate. 42:17 Are you seeing some return offenders. 42:21 Some. Our recidivism rate was really high six years ago. And 42:28 with our programs that we have in place with, I believe in my 42:35 heart, with Christmas Behind Bars, with 3ABN coming in there 42:40 we've taken our recidivism rate of addicts that we have on the 42:46 MAP (Medically Assisted Treatment) Program from 44 42:49 percent to 16.5 percent. So it works. And ultimately at the end 42:58 of the day all the glory goes to the Lord because you're right 43:05 the programs, the classes, the counseling all of that stuff is 43:08 great, don't get me wrong. But at the end of the day, that's 43:11 where it starts is in His word. He's the beginning and the end. 43:16 I have a question. That was a really big word, recidivism rate 43:21 What does that mean? 43:22 Repeat offenders. So they get out of jail, they go commit a 43:27 crime, they end up right back in jail. Think about a revolving 43:30 door. 43:32 So he's saying what's your rate now of people that do not return 43:33 to jail? 43:34 So on the MAP program which is people that have been deemed 43:40 acceptable or fit the criteria for the medically assisted 43:46 treatment program we went from 44 percent to 16.5. 43:49 So now only 16 out of every 100 return versus 44. 43:54 That's correct. 43:55 Forty-four out of 100. Wow Praise the Lord. If Christ is 43:58 the center of that equation they're going to continue to 44:00 grow stronger on the outside too 44:02 And it's taken footholds in not only...because our sheriff was 44:06 the only sheriff in the county that wanted to start that two 44:10 years ago, in the state, in the state. Now other sheriffs are 44:15 getting on board because they've seen. There's always got to be 44:18 one that leads the charge, right That goes and plows the ground. 44:22 And now that they've seen that it can be done. 44:25 Yes, they've seen the results. You know a lot of people deal 44:31 with baggage. A lot of people have issues with baggage. Jewlee 44:36 you and Tiara did a skit about baggage and all of that. Tell us 44:40 a little bit about the meaning behind that skit and what it 44:44 entails. 44:45 Yeah we kind of just go through something that everyone relates 44:48 to is baggage. And we get there how we pick up baggage. 44:52 Sometimes we pick it up ourselves. Sometimes other 44:54 people put it on us and it just seems unfair but we carry it 44:59 around and it gets really heavy and exhausting and you just 45:02 feel overwhelmed by the amount of baggage that you have but at 45:06 the end of the skit we show you that we have a God that wants to 45:10 take your baggage from you. And He wants to give you rest so 45:14 that way you can live a life more abundantly than you can 45:17 ever think or imagine. And so giving that baggage up and 45:21 surrendering it to Christ and how we need to surrender to 45:25 Christ because He has the best for us and just trusting in Him. 45:29 And so that's what kind of we wanted to show to these inmates 45:33 there and going in it was scary because kind of thinking in my 45:38 head, I'm going into jail. Well that's where the bad guys are. 45:42 and they're all bad guys and you know I was kind of scared about 45:46 it. But after going in and seeing these aren't bad people 45:52 These are people like we are who are just struggling? And 45:57 you can see in some people's eyes they want to be good and 46:01 they want to change. They just feel so stuck in this spiraling 46:05 sin that they feel like they can't get out of it. And I love 46:11 that like Lemuel was saying the last place he went to he was 46:14 asking everyone you know, who here has tried to change. 46:17 Everybody raised their hands. And he says the only way you can 46:22 truly change is through Christ and who here is willing to try just 46:27 one more time. Every single person raised their hand. 46:30 How powerful, how powerful. 46:33 Very much so. Ian have you ever had any baggage in your 46:37 life or has your life been just baggage-free? 46:39 No, I think it's free, baggage free. I've carried a lot in my 46:42 life. On our last trip to the prison I shared a piece of that. 46:47 You know growing up my whole life I always felt inadequate. 46:53 I always felt like I wasn't good enough. And then I spent you 46:56 know 12 years in the army and did some things that I'm not 47:00 proud of. You know I know Captain Turner even spoke 47:03 earlier when you're a part of something like that you see 47:05 things that you can't take away. I mean those are things that are 47:08 burned into my brain forever. They're never going to leave. 47:12 And you know because of that I carried this pain with me for a 47:17 long time. And because of that I turned to alcohol and got into 47:22 things I shouldn't have. You know, just trying to fill that 47:25 void to drown things out and you know went into all the wrong 47:29 places so it was like each way I just kept turning away from 47:31 God, turning away from God and every time you turn away you 47:35 just pick up another piece of baggage. You know and so yeah 47:38 I definitely had a lot and it wasn't until I myself in my 47:43 desperation I was losing everything around me. You know 47:46 my family, I was on the brink of losing them and it wasn't until 47:50 I turned to God that He took all my baggage and I think of you 47:55 know Psalm 120: In my distress I cried to the Lord and He heard 47:59 me. And that's really what it was you know. He heard my call 48:02 calling out to Him, telling Him to please take this from me 48:04 and He did. It's powerful what God can do you know and not just 48:09 in my life and the inmates lives Being there is just amazing 48:13 because you see God at work and it's...Even their skit it didn't 48:18 just touch the prisoners I know when we were there it touched 48:21 Captain Turner, it touched me. I was crying. 48:23 I was crying, and I was crying. 48:24 Yeah I was crying and you were crying. I was definitely crying 48:29 Your skit doesn't just touch the prisoners. I mean it's 48:37 generational. It breaks walls for everyone who's there to 48:39 witness it. It was Holy Spirit inspired. It never got old even 48:46 when we went to the other prisons and you did them seven, 48:48 eight, nine, ten times. Each time you're listening to it 48:51 and I remember looking at you Jason. You're smiling. Hearing 48:56 the skit and the story but yeah it's just...It's incredible what 48:59 God did with you two with that skit and just taking out the 49:05 baggage in our lives. It helped me a lot as well. 49:06 Lemuel. 49:08 You know Jason in one of the closing prayers last week in the 49:11 prison one of the inmates said if God can change your life and 49:16 take what He did out of your life, he said brothers, come on 49:20 now. He can help us. 49:23 And that's powerful and that's what it's all about. We want 49:26 people to know that there is hope for them through Christ. 49:30 Like Christ can transform their lives. And He wants to unshackle 49:36 them and break those shackles. Lemuel, what are some of the 49:39 needs of Christmas Behind Bars? 49:41 Uh, we need new tires for a semi truck. We need diesel fuel. When 49:46 go all the way to Alabama and you got a thousand miles there 49:50 and back, you know you get six miles a gallon so...Lowes gift 49:53 cards for some of the black plastic bags that we always try 49:56 to get back, Lowes gift cards. Diesel fuel, tires, but above 50:02 all prayers. 50:04 Um do you have any need for what size Bibles. If people want to 50:08 donate new Bibles. 50:10 Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. They can donate new or used Bibles and 50:12 send those to us. Used Bibles are worth their weight in gold 50:16 because a used Bible is highlighted, underlined. And one 50:19 inmate said every time he opened the Bible it was like God knew 50:22 exactly what he needed because somebody had already underlined 50:25 highlighted, Used Bibles! Thank you. 50:27 Used and in good condition. Yes. Used in good condition for sure. 50:32 Yeah. What about volunteers? 50:33 Volunteers yeah. You've heard from all volunteers right here. 50:38 What a blessing it is to go, to serve, homemade Thinking of You 50:41 cards, yeah. Volunteers as well. 50:45 When you were locked up Lemuel how important was it to receive 50:48 a piece of mail? 50:50 Oh, mail is phenomenal. There's 50 guys on your range. There 50:56 might only be three or four that the officer would stop. You 50:59 watch them go down the range and they'll pass your cell, pass 51:02 your cell. If your name gets called at mail call, Turner, you 51:04 got mail. That's like wow! You look at that mail, you look at 51:08 how that stamp's put on you look how they wrote it, you look at 51:11 everything, you look at the date on it and you read, read and 51:13 reread that letter. Mail is phenomenal. 51:17 Yes, yes. And in the packages that you hand out there's an 51:21 envelope that contains different ministries in there that you 51:24 Oh yeah, yeah. Yep, we put an envelope in the bottom of every 51:27 bag. 3ABN has a book offer in there. Many ministries are in 51:31 this envelope so there's about eight or ten different books or 51:34 Bible study offers. Letter of encouragement. So everyone's 51:36 going to get mail when they get a bag and then they can fill out 51:40 those forms and we'll send them Bibles or devotional material. 51:42 That's beautiful. Well we want our viewers and listeners to 51:45 know-how can support Christmas Behind Bars. We're going to take 51:48 a short break and we'll be right back. 51:51 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2022-06-14