| Volume 1, Issue 12 | April 2008 |
This month, we'd like to introduce you to Johnny McCollum. Johnny was the
first person that Deaf Prison Ministries Network hired to work for us
back in April 2006. Johnny is our Property Director and is responsible for
the maintenance and upkeep of our 27-acre aftercare facility, Healing Hands
Ranch. Prior to joining our staff, the Lord began to work in Johnny's life
many years before to prepare him for this unique opportunity at HHR.
Johnny is hard-of-hearing and worked most of his life in the construction industry. While as a young man, he came to know the Lord but often struggled in his relationship with God. Through a series of unfortunate events, Johnny ended up in prison, but the Lord had not forgotten him. Rather, the Lord had bigger plans for Johnny. You see, while he was in prison, he renewed his dedication to the Lord and eventually met several Deaf prisoners in his unit. Not knowing sign language at the time, he took it upon himself to learn the language and ultimately became the sign language interpreter for all of the church services in prison. Through this role, Johnny was able to mentor several Deaf prisoners to also know the Lord as well.
After Johnny left prison, he vowed to many of his friends in prison "I will be back to visit you", which shows that prisoners have a special place in his heart. A few months later, Johnny joined our staff and has been with us ever since. Today, Johnny spends his days working double-duty as a Property Director and as an interim Resident Director. He works closely with our four residents in their daily lives, with a heavy dose of biblical teaching and encouragement. Johnny knows he is exactly where the Lord wants him and he is pleased to be in service to the Lord both at Healing Hands Ranch and with the many prisoners whom he still keeps in touch with to this day. Deaf Prison Ministries Network is proud to have Johnny on our staff!
If you missed the opportunity to "meet" our other two staff members, you can read about them in the following past issues of our eNewsletters:
Many of you have asked us "what do the residents do all day at Healing Hands
Ranch?" With this issue, we'd like to give you an idea as to what a day
is like for our residents...
Every morning, our residents get up at 6:30 AM, clean up their dorm and get ready to start the day with breakfast at 7:00 AM. Since one of our residents, Breck, worked in the prison kitchen for several years, he volunteered to become the unofficial HHR chef and often prepares all the meals for the residents. After breakfast, the men clean up and get ready for bible study at 8:00 AM. Johnny then comes in and leads bible study and group discussions, which often last well over an hour. After bible study, Johnny lines up the men for work on the grounds of HHR. Work usually consists of cleaning up the buildings once a week followed by ground maintenance on sunny days and building maintenance on rainy or cold days.
The residents break for lunch at noon then depending on the schedule, they usually continue their work from that morning into the afternoon. Other times, they will participate in classroom time learning various subjects based on our volunteer availability and materials that they offer. Then at 4:00 PM, the men stop for the day and clean up while Breck cooks supper. Dinner is served at 5:00 PM and the evenings are spent as free time.
During the resident's free time, they are often found doing their own laundry, doing puzzles, playing games, reading books, studying their class or bible materials, watching family friendly movies, going fishing at our pond and in the warmer months, they go swimming in our pool.
Additionally, the residents attend a local church on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings and Wednesday evenings. Every Friday, a volunteer comes and takes our residents into town for their weekly shopping trip to allow them to take care of personal needs. Other times, special trips are arranged as needed to allow our residents to participate in events throughout the community. We also have some people who come and spend the weekend with our residents to offer mentoring and intensive bible study.
In the near future, we plan to start up a business venture, which will give our residents internships to gain new job skills. These business ventures in turn will help Healing Hands Ranch earn some much-needed funds to sustain our operations in the months and years to come. Now you can see, our residents do indeed have a full schedule and there is never a dull moment!
Our Executive Director, Scott DeLoach, has recently prepared material suitable for an 8-hour workshop to help churches that are interested in exploring the possibility of starting up a local Deaf Prison Ministry in their local community. This workshop is titled "Ministering to the Deaf Affected by Crime" and the topics covered include:
As always, we are thankful to you for your support -- you are very much appreciated! May the Lord bless you richly!
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