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Prison Work Update
by Pete Spackman SOC Director
Greetings to all my brothers and sisters in Christ!
At the Easter School of Christ Convention in Beaumont I had the privilege of preaching the Word of God on the Thursday morning. The message I brought was on the compassion of Jesus and the Church from Luke 10:33. That message stills burns in my heart today. I believe with everything in me that we have the answer to a sad, sick and dying world. Luke 7:11-16 gives the story of the widow who was weeping at the funeral of her only son. The scripture tells us (v.13) that when he saw her he had compassion on her. He said, "Weep not" as he commanded death to leave the boy, and he that was dead sat up and began to speak.
Jesus' purpose on this earth was to bring life. The School of Christ has been proclaiming the Gospel in the prisons of Argentina since March. Right now we have the SOC in three prisons in the city of La Plata. Saturday July 9th, I visited Prison No. 8. It is a women's prison. Maxi, my translator, and some brothers we work with from a church called Christ The Only Hope were there for three hours ministering Christ. There were women there with ages ranging from twenty to sixty-five. My heart was full of compassion as I looked on each sad face. They were dead in sin. Every ounce of life that was in me leapt from within. Most all of them were not only lost in sin but totally bound by drugs. Many of them committed their lives to the Lord. Then, for about an hour, I prayed for each one of them.
Oh, I thank God that I'm a Christian, washed in the blood of the Lamb, a messenger of Christ with good news. One woman broke my heart as she asked for prayer. She was about fifty years and a drug addict. She has eight children, all of them drug addicts. Please pray for them. She cried as I touched God for her right then. Next Monday she will be in the School of Christ! After her came a twenty-two year old girl. She had scruffy, bleached blonde hair and looked so sad and scared. Thin as a match, she whispered, "I need Jesus." She was totally sold out on drugs, maybe even possessed, but next Monday she too will be in the School of Christ. We will run the school five days a week. Thirty of these women will be in the class. He never came for the righteous, but to bring sinners to repentance. This prison is among the darkest I have ever been in but I'm believing God for a mighty revival.
On Monday July 11, we went to Prison No. 18. Half of the men were drug addicts. Maxi and I spoke for a little over an hour. Many came forward for salvation. In August we will start the SOC here with sixty men. Praise the Lord!
On Tuesday July 12, Maxi and I ministered in Unit 34. This is for the criminally insane. We had a rich time! About seventy men were in attendance. The Holy Spirit really visited us. God spoke in a gentle way though. If you can imagine the man of the Gaderenes who lived in the tombs, this was seventy times that. I know in my heart that the Lord touched many lives.
Next month I will be back there again by the grace of God. Surely the Lord has opened doors here that no man can close, and has given me some of the loveliest people on earth to labor with out of Pastor Zucarelli's church, Christ The Only Hope Assembly of God.
Your Servants in Christ,
Pete Spackman
Director Prison ministry
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