Defy

"You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do."- Psalm 139:3

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake." - Robert Louis Stemerson

I love that the Bible has scripture for things that would seem irrelevant to things we need to know about life, like travel. The Lord makes sure to take care of every aspect of our life and it's just mind boggling how much He truly loves & cares for us.

((Our video from Denver this morning))

As I'm sitting here in St. Louis, Missouri waiting for our flight to get in (our flight was delayed 4 hours), I had to take a moment to talk about something that I was able to hear about while Jeff and I were in Utah! 

When Jeff and I were in Utah we decided to try out one of the Christian churches in town. We went to the K2 Church about 10 minutes from our hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. While we were there, they had a guest speaker named Catherine Hoke (Rohr) who has a fantastic testimony & story about how the Lord has worked in her life, and still is. She recently started a non-profit organization that works with prison inmates who want to change their lives. There is a lot more to it, and at the end of this blog I will include their website, but I just had to share about Defy because of the amazing work that they are doing!

Catherine's testimony and a couple of the ex-inmates testimonies brought me to tears. Catherine brought her team, her husband, and two of the men her non-profit is currently working with. When those two men shared their stories I could not hold the tears in, they were so touching. They were both men that had made mistakes, paid for it, took the second chance the Lord gave them, and are now utilizing their skills to better their lives, and their family's lives. 

Hearing their stories, and understanding what Catherine has started with Defy made me realize how overlooked prison ministry is. WE NEED MORE OF IT! We all make mistakes. Look at some of the most famous people in the Bible. Paul, for example, murdered Christians before God called him into a life of ministry. Sure it may seem as though some mistakes are worse than others, and I have trouble with that myself; but the Bible says no sin is greater than the next. The mistakes we make are not excusable, but through Jesus we are saved by GRACE. Not by works. Not by trying to be perfect. Not by pretending. But by grace. Jesus restores lives everyday and Defy is another small non-profit that is taking that step to bring restoration to this world. 

Prison ministry is not for everyone, and some of you might be thinking that I'm crazy for believing in a cause like this, and I understand. But for those of you that are touched by my blog, and Defy's website, please consider donating, or helping out, or connecting Defy with companies or people who might be willing to support them! I don't have many connections, but I do have this blog. I asked if I could mention them in it, and they said, "Of Course! We will take anything you can give us." So here I am telling you about Defy, not because they asked me to, but because I believe this is a GREAT ministry. 

Defy's website: Defy Ventures 

Until next time,

<3 Em