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If you told me a year ago that I would be involved with death row inmates I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I would look at you even stranger if you told me I would call one of them by brother. Well that was then and this is now.
I have long felt the need to help others but wasn’t sure how, but through prayer, God pointed me towards death penalty abolition. I’ll be the first one to admit it is not easy. People are quick to judge and quote “an eye for an eye” scripture to me but when I was praying about my decision to become a pen pal- The Lord reminded me that Jesus himself stepped in front of a woman about to be executed for her lifestyle and informed those so eager to see her die that only someone completely free of sin could judge her (cast the first stone). This was not Jesus’s way of calling us sinners- it was to remind us that only a perfect entity could decide who lives or dies- and that one perfect entity is The Lord God.

With all this in mind of opened my mind and my heart and reached out to 5 prisoners in all.

I have been told by every one of them that the worst part of being on death row is not the fear of dying but the pain of many of their family members abandoning them.

Being a pen pal has been such a wonderful experience. It is hard, I cannot pretend every letter is full of love and joy. One of my pen pals was alone for so long that he was considering giving up his final appeals. His letter telling me this (even though we had only written for about 2 weeks) shook me to my core. In fact I had to leave the house and go get some fresh air because it was almost too much to bear. How can I answer him? What can I say to him so he does not to give up?

That wasn’t the answer though. The answer was to give him truly unconditional love- which he’s never had and tell him that no matter what I would be by his side. Even if that meant standing in a witness room, experiencing the worst event of my life, just so he would not be alone. I can’t let him die having everyone think he is a monster. I realized that if I can’t save his life, I can at least make him feel like a human being.

Much to my relief that was exactly what he needed to hear. He says he will keep fighting!

That’s why I jumped at the chance to write this article- so that others can see how being a death row pen pal can change the lives of everyone involved.

Something as simple as telling them how much you look forward to getting their letters, can make that inmate want to keep fighting. I have learned that a kind word, a little money on their books, a card just to say hi, all these things make their day bearable and can help heal emotional wounds from years ago. That brings me so much joy. The fact that they don’t take anything or anyone for granted.

It isn’t just their lives that have been changed though. Battling infertility for 3 years I struggle to find a way to care for someone who needs me. Having my pen pals has given me someone who really needs me. It has also introduced me to so many wonderful people. I am friends with many of my pen pal’s free world friends and together we are forming the family many of them have never had.

One pen pal stands out though. Elijah is an inmate on death row in Texas. He was the first person I wrote to and he and I have developed a brother- sister bond that could not be stronger if we came from the same mother! He is so encouraging and positive which is SO remarkable being his situation. He is always so grateful for everything I can manage to do for him and has really inspired me to appreciate the freedoms that I have.

Even the most mundane task- like going to work- I appreciate more. Just the ability to go to the grocery store whenever I want, order Chinese food whenever I want- these are all things I used to do everyday without really being grateful for any of it. I always prayed and thanked The Lord for all he has given me but now I thank Him for all the small details of my life.

All too often we say that we are Americans so freedom is our right. The truth is that rights can very easily be violated and every day when I wake up and step foot outside into the sun, I am reminded that Elijah can’t do that. Just the other day I looked up at the moon and stars and thought “Elijah hasn’t seen this in 11 years!”

I have learned to not be caught up in the materialism that runs rampant in society but to take time to smell the roses because in a flash it can be taken from you.

I have learned that family is defined not by blood but by those who stand by you.

I have learned that the only limitations I have are the ones I put on myself.

I suppose some would call my death row pen pals a charity, but I don’t see it that way. Charity is giving to those who can give you nothing in return- my pen pals have given me a gift that is priceless. They have taught me the true value of life.

 

From  “Angels in Envelopes”

Editor, Lottie Bordelon’s

https://www.facebook.com/lottie.bordelon

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angels-in-Envelopes-CSADP-Pen-Pal-Ministry/1478986488979634

 

Lisa Ann Coleman Held Captive

 

Lisa Ann Coleman 38, has been on Texas death row in Gatesville since June 2006.  She was convicted in the starvation death of a 9-year-old boy a decade ago. In April of 2014, her execution date was set for September 17, 2014. Lisa Ann Coleman has written me several letters from her death row cell in Gatesville, . She expressed to me that her brother was murdered, her own son is imprisoned and her mother is suffering from many infirmities. Time is drawing near to Lisa’s execution date but she still remains hopeful, despite this verdict, she believes that her life is “in His hands,” and has began to pray and call on Jesus Christ. Lisa’s life is a “novel”, according to her she was a product of incest, neglected by her mother, bounced through the foster care system and raped multiple times by an uncle. In an on-line  interview, her mother said that Lisa chose the wrong friends.  The truth was that Lisa didn’t have a chance, she was sexually abused and tormented as a child; she too was victimized by child abuse had under gone periods of time with out eating while she was young. As a child, Lisa was nicknamed “Pig” and this resulted in her being harassed, bullied and tormented by her schools mates– who used to make snorting sounds to tease her.   By the age of 13, Lisa Ann Coleman was using marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine; held captive, and broken without a moral compass. Lisa never completed high school and dropped out in the tenth grade.

It is even reported that Lisa Ann Coleman was bi-polar. Bi polar is a mental illness, it is a borderline personality disorder. With all this in view, the state has decided to execute Lisa Ann Coleman. My question is : “What sense does it make since to kill someone who comes from this kind of bondage? Who says that a life for a life is justice? What ever happened to the Satanic devises that  shaped and molded her life and values? How is it that the cursed are expected  not to curse? As far as I can  see , there is a cycle of abuse here, Are not the signs of a curse  obvious to you?

The bible says in Psalm 11 v 3 says ³ If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Spurgeon( a bible scholar) makes it plain. We are to reason decisively. He tells us that we are to assert all our trust in Jehovah God (which is what Lisa Ann Coleman has done) or else we will be flying like a frightened bird to the mountain whenever danger comes upon us. Here is the exact quote: “He will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.” (Spurgeon)Right now, Lisa Ann Coleman is leaning on the Lord and trusting in her new legal team to navigate the battle for her life and do extraordinary things, supernatural things before her execution date. When God is at the helm, nothing is impossible.

 

The Bible says this– and I am applying it to the death row process; “What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear proclaim on the housetops. Do not fear those that kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that can kill both the body and the soul in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.: Matthew 10 v 27-29. I believe that Lisa Ann Coleman will be victorious irrespective of the outcome. Yes, as a intercessor, I will continue to be on the wall on her behalf. My church will cry out and call on the Lord to extend mercy. Our prayer is “Lord hem me in  both behind and before and create within me cleanness and wholeness of heart that I may be Your servant to stand in the Gap for Lisa Ann Coleman and for the other women on death row.”  We believe that when we pray, God does the impossible in situations in ways that we can never imagine. As intercessors, we are to cover the persons and situations in prayer: it is God’s job to convict and heal. The word of God says that He sought for someone to stand in the gap. Ezekiel 22 v 30 says “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none;”  and thus we are standing.

We are standing on faith that God will take control of this situation and every other regarding the women on death row, not only are we are praying without ceasing ; we have embraced Isaiah 62 v 6-7  which says ” I have set watchman on your walls,  O Jerusalem who shall never hold their peace day or night. You will make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent and give Him, no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62- 6-7. God hates injustice, “To crush underfoot all the prisoners of the earth, to deny a man justice in the presence of the Most High, to subvert a man in his lawsuit, the Lord does not approve”. Lamentations 3 v 34-35. It is our belief that God is definitely going to make changes on death row in 2014

Some of us may have the mistaken notion think that our sins are bigger than God’s grace and His blood, but the bibles says “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through right­eous­ness to eter­nal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”( Romans 5:20–21) The letters I have received from Lisa indicates that she has repented and embraced Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. The Lord is the Bishop of Lisa Ann Coleman’s soul. He is the Advocate with the Father, we trusting that in the end, in the allocation of time, that God will accomplish His will.

It is Isaiah 49v 25 that says, ” But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” The good news is that if  Lisa Ann Coleman  has sincerely repented she been redeemed, even the generational curse upon her life will have been canceled by the blood of Jesus. Once you become a child of God, no longer will the sins of your forefathers cause curses to transfer into your life: (read) Jeremiah 31:29-30 Hallelujah! “Christ was made a curse, so we can be freed from the curses that sin (both our sins and those of our forefathers) has brought us. Galatians 3:13, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

 

We have been gifted to do this,

in the mighty name of Jesus

Intercessor Abu

Divine Revelation International Church of Christ

Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you. Isaiah 49:15b

Isaiah 49:15  Good News Translation (GNT)

¹⁵ So the Lord answers,“Can a woman forget her own baby
and not love the child she bore?Even if a mother should forget her child,
I will never forget you.

The women on death row are an ignored and forgotten group. You cannot find a dated collective listing for the women on death row group on-line. These are lists but they are outdated or incomplete. The list that i created was  painstakingly made through a tedious process of checking and cross checking death row inmate locator’s through out America’s death row prisons. This is very telling; I assure you that they have been forsaken, forgotten and ignored. Suzanne Basso (below) was the last female to be executed on America’s death row.  On February 5th, 2014, she became the 14th women killed on Texas death row.

Death by lethal injection was her punishment for allegedly masterminding the torture and brutal murder of a mentally impaired man. It was said that Basso lured the man from New Jersey to Texas under the pretense of wanting to marry him. Soon after signing up to receive his social security benefits, it is claimed that Basso had an army of people torture and torment the man to death.

My question is why did Suzanne Basso go to her death in a wheel chair? The truth is she was a vegetable paralyzed  from her waist down, according to news reports.  I wonder, since she did not enter prison with any paralysis, why  it is reported  that Basso became paralyzed while she was imprisoned, at the hand of a jail guard. If a prisoner comes into institutions to get a beat down by those whose job it is to administer justice- what’s the point of capital punishment? If by the time the inmate is to be executed, they are paralyzed and mentally impaired, what will be accomplished by killing them? It is totally inhumane, repulsive and inherently wicked to think that someone who came into the prison system whole, left it suffering, bruised, and broken. Know that every spirit of infirmity was  upon them when they were ordered to be killed on death row. Think about it, no compassion, no forgiveness, and no mercy; just murder for murder, and then we do it grossly through lethal injection.  Ponder, the  many innocent lives have been taken  because we feel that this is a humane practice and an effective response to attain justice.

The lives of the women on death row can be redeemed.  Jesus says…even if a mother forgets her child, I will never forget you. (Isaiah 49:15b) . His love for them is unconditional. I want the women on death row to know that nothing can desperate them from His love for them.

God’s Everlasting Love is describe in Romans 8:31-39

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”^[a]37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If the women on death row will turn to Jesus He can and will raise them up.

Teresa Lewis was executed on  Virginia death row despite thousands of appeals to save her was a good example of someone who Christ redeemed.  Here are her last words:“Man wants me to die, but I’m not worrying over this, I’m trusting Jesus,” she wrote. She urged the prisoners to turn to Jesus promising, “He will forgive you of all your sins and He will bring you into His loving arms.”