MIKE CAREINS MAY 2005
Mike was 48 years old, a simple man who struggled to read and write. We met him in the local jail in 2002 where he came faithfully each week to worship. The first thing we received in the mail from Mike shortly after we met him was a magazine photo of a clay pot being made by potter. He used it to thank Ron for coming to the jail each week to teach him about being shaped into God’s image like a potter shapes clay. Mike had not completed high school and his letters were very simple, but he was slowly working to get his graduate equivalent diploma. Even through the simple letters, his grasp of God’s redemption and his joy of God’s work in his life were always evident.
When the escaped prisoner from the jail broke into our home in the spring of 2003, Mike was devastated. He feared we would not return to the jail, and when we did, he apologized for what this young man did to me, to our home and the damage this incident did to our trust for those we worked with in the jail. For some reason, Mike’s apology meant much to me in the first days of trauma after the break-in. Mike’s sincerity and concern helped me deal with that incident in my life.
Several months later, Mike wrote a letter to our meeting. These are his words from this letter, written in block letters with grammar and spelling errors:
To Winchester Friends Church Members
Hi. My name is Mike Careins. I want to thank you and bless you for letting your pastor Ron Ferguson and his wife Pam to come to the Randolph County Jail. To talk to me and other men in Jail. Pam talking to the women in Jail. I look forward on Wednesday to 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM talking to Ron. Seeing Pam and telling her hi in the hallway in the Jail. Ron talk to us about Renovare (to renew). Ron tell us about potter and the clay. (Jeremiah 18:2-6) to put life in the hand of God. Let him renew our life. I let God do that on January 24, 2002. I ask God to renew my life. Let Jesus Christ in to my heart. That I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sin on the cross and raised from the dead. So I could be saved and have everlasting life. I made promise to God and myself to not ever walk away from him ever again. I see God in way that I have never seen before. I put God first in every thing I do. I pray for all kinds of things too. I pray for all kinds of people I know and do not know. I pray for you the church and Ron and Pam. I have talk to other men in Jail about God, Jesus, church and the bible. I invite him to go to church and talk to Ron. I would like to invite you to the jail and go with Ron to church in jail or Pam too. There are a lot of good men in Jail. They make wrong choices in life. They need your prayer to make good choices in their future life. I tell them not to go back to their old friends and do the old thing they did before. I tell them to get involved in a good church and make new friends that will help them. I tell them to say NO to the devil and YES to God. That is what I do. So I invite you to get to know someone in Jail and pray and help that person make the right choices in their new life. I would like to come to your church on Sunday but I cannot do that tell I get out of jail. Tell them the empty seat in first or second row up front in your church is saved for me. Some day I’m going to be in that seat. I’m going to standup and praise God for what he has done for me. I would like to go to your church every Sunday when I get out of jail. I will be living two hours or more away. I have a church where I will be living to go to. I will come visit your church and stay in touch with Ron and Pam. I want to visit a lot of churches, hospitals, nursing homes, shut in and jails to talk and pray for them. I want to tell you that God is in the Randolph County Jail. The Sheriff Jay Harris is a Christian a lot of his jail staff are Christians too. The Gideon come on Monday to the Jail and pray for us. They talk about the bible, God and Jesus. Some of the inmates in jail are Christians too. So God is in this jail. I’m looking forward to come to your church someday and meeting all of you.
May God be with you. God bless you. Thank you. Mike Careins.
Over a year ago Mike was taken into the prison system and sent to Plainfield Correctional Facility. His first letter was filled with excitement about being able to go to church everyday and about starting bible studies and prayer meetings. I was really moved when he wrote that “every night we have a prayer circle. Sometimes there are 6-8 men in the bible study and prayer circle. We do this in the day room of our dorm. When all of the other men are doing their own thing. We block out all the noise and everything they are doing and we let God take control of our prayer circle.” Mike appreciated getting our church newsletters and he esp. liked the story of the pipe organ last summer. He wrote “one day I will come see and hear your church pipe organ.” Mike’s last letter to us was just before Easter. He told us that he would be out of prison a year from this week. He said he was still telling new and old inmates about Jesus and the Bible. My last letter to Mike was returned just after Easter with “deceased” written on the envelope. Mike was helping the prison chaplain prepare for Easter services when he fell over and died in the chapel.
Two weeks ago we got 4 letters in the mail from inmates at Plainfield. They found our address in Mike’s bible and wanted to send letters of testimony about Mike’s life to someone who could get letters to Mike’s family. I understand how they felt, because I felt the same way. When I learned of Mike’s death, my first response was to find his family or his children to tell them about my relationship with Mike. Mike had such a profound affect on me and was such an encouragement in my walk with Christ; I wanted to share that with someone. I wanted people to know that Mike was actively involved in redemption at the moment of his death. I wanted them to know that Mike would not be forgotten and that much good came out of the shambles of his life.
In one of the letters from these inmates, we were told about a man coming to Mike during mealtime and complaining that Mike did not speak to him when he walked by earlier that day. Mike replied: “I was probably in a hurry to tell somebody about Jesus”. Another inmate wrote: “Mike helped me tremendously and was always there for me. (He was there for everybody). Not matter what. To lend a hand, to laugh with or to study with, you could count on Mike. I was becoming close to Mike and I longed to be like him. He was always happy, never troubled, and trustworthy.”
I personally will miss having Mike join us for worship. Mike was in prison for horrible crime. His crime damaged people and relationships. Mike was not able to actively work for the restitution of his crime to the victims or the community. He was not able to repair the relationships he damaged. Yet in spite of his sin, Mike did know and experience God’s forgiveness and God’s love. He didn’t wait until he was out of prison to make things right or to change his life. He made God visible where he was on a moment by moment basis. God was in jail and in prison because God lived through Mike’s life. Mike made a difference in our world and he encouraged others to allow God to make them new creatures. Mike found the reason for which he was created. I pray I can do the same. And I will not let Mike’s life and testimony be forgotten.
In 1862, 29 year old Elkanah Beard, who later became the first pastor of our meeting, wrote in his diary that he had decided to quit the mercantile business because it did not admit to give as much time for reading, meditation and secret prayer as would be best, and because his conscience bothered him for neglecting that for which he was created. One purpose for our creation is to praise and worship our creator. Each week our community gathers for worship, to do that for which we are created. It is a gift to be in worship with the community of Winchester Friends. I know Mike longed to worship with this community of believers. Let us not neglect that for which we are created and let us leave worship each week changed people because of our worship and because of being in the presence of God’s spirit. There is much work to be done to make God’s kingdom visible in Winchester.
Mike was 48 years old, a simple man who struggled to read and write. We met him in the local jail in 2002 where he came faithfully each week to worship. The first thing we received in the mail from Mike shortly after we met him was a magazine photo of a clay pot being made by potter. He used it to thank Ron for coming to the jail each week to teach him about being shaped into God’s image like a potter shapes clay. Mike had not completed high school and his letters were very simple, but he was slowly working to get his graduate equivalent diploma. Even through the simple letters, his grasp of God’s redemption and his joy of God’s work in his life were always evident.
When the escaped prisoner from the jail broke into our home in the spring of 2003, Mike was devastated. He feared we would not return to the jail, and when we did, he apologized for what this young man did to me, to our home and the damage this incident did to our trust for those we worked with in the jail. For some reason, Mike’s apology meant much to me in the first days of trauma after the break-in. Mike’s sincerity and concern helped me deal with that incident in my life.
Several months later, Mike wrote a letter to our meeting. These are his words from this letter, written in block letters with grammar and spelling errors:
To Winchester Friends Church Members
Hi. My name is Mike Careins. I want to thank you and bless you for letting your pastor Ron Ferguson and his wife Pam to come to the Randolph County Jail. To talk to me and other men in Jail. Pam talking to the women in Jail. I look forward on Wednesday to 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM talking to Ron. Seeing Pam and telling her hi in the hallway in the Jail. Ron talk to us about Renovare (to renew). Ron tell us about potter and the clay. (Jeremiah 18:2-6) to put life in the hand of God. Let him renew our life. I let God do that on January 24, 2002. I ask God to renew my life. Let Jesus Christ in to my heart. That I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sin on the cross and raised from the dead. So I could be saved and have everlasting life. I made promise to God and myself to not ever walk away from him ever again. I see God in way that I have never seen before. I put God first in every thing I do. I pray for all kinds of things too. I pray for all kinds of people I know and do not know. I pray for you the church and Ron and Pam. I have talk to other men in Jail about God, Jesus, church and the bible. I invite him to go to church and talk to Ron. I would like to invite you to the jail and go with Ron to church in jail or Pam too. There are a lot of good men in Jail. They make wrong choices in life. They need your prayer to make good choices in their future life. I tell them not to go back to their old friends and do the old thing they did before. I tell them to get involved in a good church and make new friends that will help them. I tell them to say NO to the devil and YES to God. That is what I do. So I invite you to get to know someone in Jail and pray and help that person make the right choices in their new life. I would like to come to your church on Sunday but I cannot do that tell I get out of jail. Tell them the empty seat in first or second row up front in your church is saved for me. Some day I’m going to be in that seat. I’m going to standup and praise God for what he has done for me. I would like to go to your church every Sunday when I get out of jail. I will be living two hours or more away. I have a church where I will be living to go to. I will come visit your church and stay in touch with Ron and Pam. I want to visit a lot of churches, hospitals, nursing homes, shut in and jails to talk and pray for them. I want to tell you that God is in the Randolph County Jail. The Sheriff Jay Harris is a Christian a lot of his jail staff are Christians too. The Gideon come on Monday to the Jail and pray for us. They talk about the bible, God and Jesus. Some of the inmates in jail are Christians too. So God is in this jail. I’m looking forward to come to your church someday and meeting all of you.
May God be with you. God bless you. Thank you. Mike Careins.
Over a year ago Mike was taken into the prison system and sent to Plainfield Correctional Facility. His first letter was filled with excitement about being able to go to church everyday and about starting bible studies and prayer meetings. I was really moved when he wrote that “every night we have a prayer circle. Sometimes there are 6-8 men in the bible study and prayer circle. We do this in the day room of our dorm. When all of the other men are doing their own thing. We block out all the noise and everything they are doing and we let God take control of our prayer circle.” Mike appreciated getting our church newsletters and he esp. liked the story of the pipe organ last summer. He wrote “one day I will come see and hear your church pipe organ.” Mike’s last letter to us was just before Easter. He told us that he would be out of prison a year from this week. He said he was still telling new and old inmates about Jesus and the Bible. My last letter to Mike was returned just after Easter with “deceased” written on the envelope. Mike was helping the prison chaplain prepare for Easter services when he fell over and died in the chapel.
Two weeks ago we got 4 letters in the mail from inmates at Plainfield. They found our address in Mike’s bible and wanted to send letters of testimony about Mike’s life to someone who could get letters to Mike’s family. I understand how they felt, because I felt the same way. When I learned of Mike’s death, my first response was to find his family or his children to tell them about my relationship with Mike. Mike had such a profound affect on me and was such an encouragement in my walk with Christ; I wanted to share that with someone. I wanted people to know that Mike was actively involved in redemption at the moment of his death. I wanted them to know that Mike would not be forgotten and that much good came out of the shambles of his life.
In one of the letters from these inmates, we were told about a man coming to Mike during mealtime and complaining that Mike did not speak to him when he walked by earlier that day. Mike replied: “I was probably in a hurry to tell somebody about Jesus”. Another inmate wrote: “Mike helped me tremendously and was always there for me. (He was there for everybody). Not matter what. To lend a hand, to laugh with or to study with, you could count on Mike. I was becoming close to Mike and I longed to be like him. He was always happy, never troubled, and trustworthy.”
I personally will miss having Mike join us for worship. Mike was in prison for horrible crime. His crime damaged people and relationships. Mike was not able to actively work for the restitution of his crime to the victims or the community. He was not able to repair the relationships he damaged. Yet in spite of his sin, Mike did know and experience God’s forgiveness and God’s love. He didn’t wait until he was out of prison to make things right or to change his life. He made God visible where he was on a moment by moment basis. God was in jail and in prison because God lived through Mike’s life. Mike made a difference in our world and he encouraged others to allow God to make them new creatures. Mike found the reason for which he was created. I pray I can do the same. And I will not let Mike’s life and testimony be forgotten.
In 1862, 29 year old Elkanah Beard, who later became the first pastor of our meeting, wrote in his diary that he had decided to quit the mercantile business because it did not admit to give as much time for reading, meditation and secret prayer as would be best, and because his conscience bothered him for neglecting that for which he was created. One purpose for our creation is to praise and worship our creator. Each week our community gathers for worship, to do that for which we are created. It is a gift to be in worship with the community of Winchester Friends. I know Mike longed to worship with this community of believers. Let us not neglect that for which we are created and let us leave worship each week changed people because of our worship and because of being in the presence of God’s spirit. There is much work to be done to make God’s kingdom visible in Winchester.
posted by Pam at 2:24 PM
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