Score: 7 to 49

From: KnodelJr@aol.com
Sent: Monday, September 13, 1999 8:05 AM
To: orn@airmail.net
Subject: Response to your note

Thanks for the encouragement and prayer! I've almost stopped praying for John's release! The Lord is doing so much through him. Either Saturday night or Sunday morning "Homicide" prayed to receive Christ. That's #7! The score is now 7 to 49! He spent Sunday reading his Bible and a devotional John gave him. John told me he knew something had happened because the usually profane Homicide was quiet Sunday. No invectives. Normal words!

Half-way through our morning worship service Sunday, a shaved-head man entered church and took a seat. After the benediction I found out he had just gotten out of jail at 5:30 that morning, and had walked an hour and a half to get to church. He testified that the twenty-five man cell at the jail "had totally changed" since John's incarceration. And he was not one of the six men who John counted as converted! His name is Matt, and he had counselled with John a number of times, but had not attended the regular Bible studies. He verified everything John has been saying!

Put out a prayer request, if you will, that John not be moved -- either to the other half of the jail where the "time" is harder, or to the Moneta Work Farm. Rumors have circulated to that effect. We'll see. At the end of Acts 13, after great revival, Paul and other leaders were driven out of the area of awakening by community leaders. So they shook the dust off their feet, went to Iconium, and the last verse says there was great joy in their midst! So if John is moved, can we respond with less joy? I think not. But from a human perspective, it would appear that so much good is taking place in John's present location, that the Lord would beckon us to pray for his staying put.

Take care,

In the Lamb,

Dick Knodel