Waldron Mission Fund

 

Under the oversight of the elders of the Crossville church of Christ, PO Box 211, Crossville, TN 38557

Bulletin Brief

Vol. 8                                                                                                             June 2005                                                                                                  No. 6

ANGOLA, LOUISIANA, PRISON

Editor's note: One of the great tragedies of our times is the great number of young people, especially young males, in the nation's prisons. Many of those in these prisons look like college-age youths. Yet, in a number of facilities across the U.S. our brethren are making headway in reaching these terribly misguided souls. Read below of one such prison and the effort to reach the lost behind its walls.

"The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola is located in West Feliciana Parish, approximately fifty-nine
miles northwest of Baton Rouge. It consists of 18,000 acres of the finest farm land in the south having formerly been plantation lands. It is ideally situated for the prison as it is located in a rural area, surrounded on three sides by the mighty Mississippi River, and bordered on the fourth side by the rugged
Tunica Hills.

"This prison currently houses 5,108 inmates. The actual housing areas consist of the Main Prison Complex, which accommodates approximately 2,500 inmates and five other out-facilities (known as Camps C, D, F, J, and the Reception Center), which collectively house approximately 2,600 in­mates. The Main Prison Complex and each out-camp are 'mini-prisons' in themselves, as each has its own warden, security staff, classification staff, primary medical staff, and mental health staff. Each area also contains its own canteen, kitchen and laundry facility, and clothing room."

Angola Prison_>http://www.angolamuseum.org/story.htm.

THE LAMB/THE LION

The following questions are taken from a commentary of the Book of Revelation by Jim E. Waldron. You may request a copy or multiple copies (free of charge) for your use or for a classroom situation.

 

Question #295 of 576

What   was  the   condition   of the   woman clothed with the sun ?

She was with child and cried out because she was in pain to give birth (12:2).   This signified the struggle of saints in Old Testament times against Satan; which struggle demonstrated to God that they were worthy of His confidence in order that He might bring Christ into the world through them.

 

Question #299 of 576

Tell three things said about the child born of the woman in chapter 12, and tell who he was.

(1) He was to rule the nations with a rod of iron.

(2) He was caught up to God.

(3) He was caught up to God's throne (12:5).

(4) The child was symbolic of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Thus, in word pictures we see the birth, ascension and investiture of the Lord Christ (cf. Acts 2:30-36; Ephesians 1:18-23). This text (12:1-5) is parallel to 5:1-8 where the coronation of Christ was symbolized by His taking the scroll from God's right hand (cf. Psalm 110:1-2; Matthew 26:64; Acts 2:33-34). Thus the date of May 28, 30 (the first Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection) can be placed on 12:5b as it was on 5:7 .

 

Order from:  Randall Standefer, PO Box 123, Dunlap TN 37327

 

 

 

Tsunami: On May 2nd I returned from India. Our work on the East coast of Tamil Nadu where the Tsunami hit December 26, 2004, contin­ues. As this goes to press (05-06-05) about 25,000 people have been helped physically, 1031 have obeyed the gospel and eight new congregations started. A fuller report will appear in Bulletin Briefs for July.

A SUCCESS STORY IN A DIFFICULT PLACE

Jim E. Waldron

The information on the front page sets the stage for me to tell you a little about one of the most success­ful campaigns for Christ in the nation. Around the coun­try there are a number of brethren (a handful in compari­son to those needed in the work), who, without fanfare or earthly glory, are going into prisons and reaching some of the world's most desperate sinners. The work I am referring to is that which is called "prison ministry." In many places God-fearing servants of Jesus are enter­ing prisons, converting souls and establishing local churches of Christ. This they are often doing under adverse circumstances, including resistance by denominational clergy, who serve as chaplains. Many other Chris­tians, male and female, are teaching hundreds of prisoners around the country via Bible correspondence courses.

Concerning the prison at Angola, LA there are about a dozen brothers, including Eddie Payne of Port Alien, LA and Richard Felix, who work there. These brethren must be (and are) very careful to observe the strict regulations of the institution, yet they have, thanks to God and the courtesy of the warden  and  other  officials,   been  extremely   successful   in   establishing congregations of God's people  on  the prison grounds.   There are churches of Christ meeting in five of the six units named above with a total membership of about seven hundred.  The handful of brothers involved in this work hold Lord’s day worship services in at least five locations beginning at 8:00 a.m. and ending t 5:00 p.m.  Besides this they spend many hours on various days holding Bible classes and conducting several”seminars” (gospel meetings) at different times during the year.  One of the greatest needs of this work is good lit­erature to put into the hands of the prisoners, both those who are Christians and those who are still in their sins. In this manner those of us at Crossville have over the last six months aided in the Angola work, for we have sent with­out cost over 1,600 of our books. Brother Payne says he can give away as many books as we can send him. He not only gives such books as Is There A Universal Code of Ethics? to the inmates, but to the guards also.

In fact, Payne said one day recently he was giving books to some prisoners and a guard spoke up and said, "I can read too." Not only has this brother gotten us in­volved in the work in Louisiana, but after a recent mission trip to Saint Vincent in the Caribbean he had us send 600 books for the work of the church on that island.

Concerning other literature work, we have in the last three months bought 10,000 Tamil Bibles ($20,000) for the work of Christ in Tamil Nadu, South India, printed 10,000 Tamil song books ($11,162), printed 600,000 tracts in Tamil ($9,556) and bought another 5,000 English (NKJ) Bibles ($11,765) for the work in India among Eng­lish speakers. Besides this we continue to make our books and tracts available here in the US without charge. It is my desire not to sell books, but to make them available to as many as possible to use for personal spiritual growth or for their work of reaching the lost. This work of literature distribution I cannot do alone, I need your help.

Our books are tools for evangelism and exhorta­tion in the pure and unperverted gospel of Jesus. All this literature work we are able to do because of churches, brothers and sisters around the country who contribute to our work to save souls. If you are willing to be involved in this wide spread gospel literature work, please help us by your gifts and offerings to the Waldron Mission Fund, P.O. Box 123, Dunlap, TN 37327. A gift of a Bible, a good book or a tract will go on teaching after you and I are dead. There are some good stocks in the market to invest in at this time, but they all pale in comparison to the eternal dividends paid by investing in heaven (Matt. 6:19-21).

BOOK DISTRIBUTION

Below are listed books and tracts that we have on hand for free distribution.

1) Is There A Universal Code of Ethics? Written by 14 authors worldwide and edited by Waldron.

2) Divorce Debate (Olan Hicks vs Jim Waldron).

3) Classical Pre-Millennialism Debate (Pickering vs Waldron). This book is on the question of the One Thousand Year Reign.

4) Bible Wines, by William Patton. This, next to the Bible, is perhaps the best tool available for stopping the mouths (See Titus 1:10-11) of church members who want to claim that the Bible justifies the drinking of alcoholic wine.

5) Jeffery Johnson vs Jim Waldron Debate on the question as to how the Holy Spirit dwells and works in Chris­tians. It was held February 19-20 and 22-23, 2001. This de­bate is not in print, but you may order a CD.

6) Letters, Exchange on the Holy Spirit, between Mac Deaver and Waldron. Order ten or twelve or more.

7) Packet on Mental Divorce. This material illustrates there is no more evidence in the scriptures for mental divorce than there is for mental baptism.

8) The Book of Mormon, A Book of Error and Fraud by Jon Gary Williams. This little 39 page book has been highly commended by an Ex-Mormon Group in California. You may order a dozen or a hundred.

9) Introduction To Faith Bible Correspondence Course. This comes as a master copy of ten lessons and you make copies of the lessons as they are needed for distribution.

10) Tracts: (1) Marriage and Divorce, deals with eight human doctrines on MDR. (2) The Gift of the Holy Spirit, which shows that the Spirit lives and acts in Christians as Christ does. Order one, a dozen or a hundred.

Feel free to order any of the above for yourself or for others. There is no charge. If in your mission outreach would like to contribute a lump sum or help month by month our gospel literature work, please do so.

Order From: RANDALL STANDEFER P.O. Box 123, Dunlap, TN 37327

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