Let me start this blog with another huge thank you to Charlie Detar, Josh Beckmann, Benj N. Sugar, Carl McLaren and Regan St Piere (and anyone I might have missed). I wish I were eloquent enough to put into words how grateful we are for your dedication in keeping this opportunity for communicating through blogs open. I'm sure it's a lot of work and that you all could find more interesting things to do with your time. On behalf of other inmates and my family and friends, I do thank you. It means so much to us and I hope your rewarded in some way for all you do.
I also want to thank all of you who read and respond to our blogs. It means so much to us and it also helps to keep the site open, so please recommend it to others. It's like getting a card from you because they send a copy of all who respond. Thank you Debbie for letting me know who you are, your family has gone through so much yet remain faithful. Please give them my love. It was good to hear from you brother John, I'll tell you something you already know, your sister Jan is a wonderful lady. I'm going to have to start writing them down if I want to thank everyone, as I've said before I have a terrible memory. And of course I thank my family (but their obligated to respond.)
I finally finished writing the Torah yesterday. It took over six hundred pages but getting through the first five books was a goal I set. As I've said before, copying the bible has turned out to be a powerful study tool. Mom and my girls have said they wished that I would make notes to verses that mean something to me, so I started underlining them and making comments. Now I need to go back and do that at the beginning. Oh well, it's not like I don't have the time huh?
I've been reading a lot of C.S Lewis' books lately, now there is a wordsmith. His non-fiction and fiction is amazing. His testimony about those who influenced him, like my favorite fantasy writer J.R.R Tolkien was very interesting and insightful. His fantasy series 'The Chronicles of Narnia' was written for a younger audience but I read them recently and loved them. In both of these writers most popular books (Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Lewis' Narnia series) it's interesting to see how the bible influenced them. In Narnia a lion named Aslan is king and takes care of some children and the animals. In Middle Earth (Tolkien's) it's Gandalf the wizard who protects the hobbits on their adventure.
But in our world it's Jesus Christ who we turn to for help. O there are hundreds, maybe thousands of others, but this one has proven true with me. If your going through something and need help no one else can provide, just ask him, even if you've never tried him before, just ask, you can do it privately, when your alone. In fact, that's when I feel him most. Just talk to him like your best friends, because if you do he will be your best friend, closer than a brother, what do you have to lose? And what might you gain?