Pastor Kathy: I am an ordained pastor (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).  I was ordained in 1994 and I currently serve two small congregations located in rural, south central Pennsylvania. I was blessed to be born into a Christian family and I am a life-long Christian.   I have chosen to be a Lutheran Christian because I recognize that I am saved by God's grace (unconditional love and forgiveness) and not by my own works.  I know that I am saint and sinner at the same time and daily I trust in God's forgiveness when I stumble. I continue to grow in faith and trust in the Lord.  As I mature, I have learned that it is okay not to have all the answers:  God has them and I can accept that.  My mission in life is to share the love of God with everyone I meet.  There is no one whom God cannot or will not forgive when they turn to God and ask for forgiveness.

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Elder Chris: Hello, my name is Christopher McClaurin. I am 36 years old, a former Muslim, and as I write this, I sit in a cell in a prison where I have been confined for the last 16 years of my 17 year incarceration, the result of my arrest in 2001 and subsequent conviction for 2nd degree murder in 2002.  I tell you this now, at the very beginning, because I never want a person to find out after the fact, and feel like I withheld something from them or misled them in any way. The other reason I tell you is because I want people to know that God is still in the life-changing business.

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See, I may sit here, a man who has made more mistakes and done more wrong in my life than I care to count. I may sit here, a man who has spent a vast majority of my life being selfish, living for the pleasures of the world, without giving any thought to anything or anyone other than myself. And I may sit here, a man reaping what he has sown, paying for the wrongs I have committed, but I also sit here a man who is doing everything I possibly can to continuously grow, mature, and ensure that I will never again be the person I used to be.

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I may sit here a man coming to grips daily with the distinct possibility that I may never again experience life on the other side of the razor wire topped fences and keep me and two thousand other inmates confined to the prison's grounds, but, in the midst of all this, I sit here as a man who has found freedom in Jesus Christ. I sit here as a Christian, a man who once was lost but now is found. Like the prodigal son, I have returned from my journey into a far country and I now reside in the warm, loving, caring embrace of my heavenly Father who never forgot about me or gave up on me.

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I know that when it comes to ministry, I might not be what some people are used to, but what I am is a living, breathing, walking, talking testimony that attests the power and ability of our God, I am an example of what God can do regardless of circumstance or the so-called obstacles we may see as being in His way. I am proof that God can and will do anything and everything within His will for His people when they are not only willing to receive it but also willing to do what is necessary to be in the position to receive it.

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This is a brief introduction to who I am; I pray that you can look beyond my past and see me for who I presently am -- a man of God -- thanks to God, His son and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit who guides and strengthens me daily.  Welcome to "DRAWING NIGH."

 

A NEW CONTRIBUTER JOINS US:

On June 14 we add Matthew Byars as a blog writer on 413 Ministries.  He is a fellow member of the church in Albion SCI.  He has written a number of meditations for his fellow inmates which he shared with me [Pastor Kathy].  I asked him for permission to  publish them on 413 Ministries because I believe what he writes applies to all of us.

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