Robert A. Russel, V35292
SQSP 3-N-17 Low
San Quentin, CA 94974

December 23, 2020

From Up the Creek...
It starts with NO CONDITIONS!!
Before I begin with the monsterous five page Blog I have been working on I am delighted to announce His latest move that just blows me away. In my previous post I wrote of building a bridge, through education, to carry me to the land of planty. I told how expensive it was and how I had no idea how it would be funded, but as He was doing the leading, He would have to provide. I was told last night that we- the incarcerated - are once again eligible for Pell Grants. That means that 80 to 90% of the funding is already in place. Is that mind blowing or what? I am telling you loud and clear, God is Good!!!

So...

In my last post I discussed "The Beginning" of building the bridge I need to carry me across the chasm between "have" and "have not" land. I am committed and that component of my life proceeds on autopilot. Amen.
I am 54 years old, I have been incarcerated close to 18 years. The world has changed. I watch it happen on TV, I hardly recognize it "out there". But I do recognize need I see so brutally displayed on the evening news. I have learned to focuse and to pray for those needs as they are presented as well as for guidance in how to merge the meeting of my needs with the greater needs of others.
Way back in third grade I had this wonderful, magical teacher who cared deeply for her students. (She is the one who inspired me to serve in education) She read to us each day.She read "Where the Red Fern Grows". Turns out it grows in the Ozarks. :) That became my "Never, Never Land" and it has become my dream, my need, to move to the Ozarks. To build a HOME.

Allow me explain why this NEED arose within me.
I have never felt welcome anywhere since the age of nine;
it was at that age that I was ripped out of the best home any little boy could have. That is probably not TRUTH, never being welcome, but as it is my perception, it is in point of fact MY TRUTH. I NEED, deeply and profoundly need, a pla