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 Go
into the World — Including the Prisons
March 2005 by Rick Ives Last month we took a team of ten people into the Franklin Pre-Release center in Columbus, Ohio. This facility is home to 600 women who are incarcerated within the state of Ohio's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While at Franklin we conducted a 3-day Discipling Another to Love Jesus conference for 20 inmates, sisters in the Lord who are behind walls paying their debt to society, but also still serving the Lord as they anxiously await release. We were hosted by Warden Tyson-Parker who reminded the inmates on more than one occasion what a privilege it is to be chosen to disciple others to love Jesus. She is so right! In fact, all of us who are believers have been chosen - it's called the Great Commission - to go and make disciples! Our time with the ladies was a wonderful experience as we worked with them to train them to become qualified disciplers. These 20 ladies are now starting the process of 1-1 discipling of new believers they meet in the facility. Chaplain Opata at Franklin told us that the ladies give their hearts to the Lord regularly in chapel services and there are always young believers there who would greatly benefit from a 1-1 discipleship relationship. This was our first foray into a women's prison and we (Pastor Grant and I) took 8 Fellowship ladies with us (led by Terrie Kennington) and they all did a great job. Being more relational than men, the women quickly bonded and began molding the Discipling Another to Love Jesus ministry into what will be a highly effective and relational tool for the Lord in Franklin.
Please pray for these new disciplers, for Warden Tyson-Parker, Chaplain Opata, and for the DA2LJ team as we take the Great Commission wherever the Lord leads us!
For more information about Discipling One Another to Love Jesus click here.
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It
is also very exciting to note that since Franklin is a pre-release
center, many of the ladies we trained will be released within
a couple of years. These ladies will return to society on the
outside as qualified disciplers, and we have told them we will
gladly give them discipleship materials at no charge when they
are released. This is how the Great Commission is accomplished,
one person at a time! 
