Just a few weeks ago, Frances Belote, a devout 82-year-old Christian, asked a recently released prisoner a simple question: \u201cDo you know Jesus?\u201d<\/p>\n
The ex-prisoner, William Spencer, hesitated before responding, \u201cA long time ago I knew Him, but he\u2019s not there anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frances didn\u2019t miss a beat. She said, \u201cIf you gave Jesus your heart, He hasn\u2019t gone away. You have.\u201d She placed her hand on Spencer\u2019s shoulder and prayed for him to turn his life around.<\/p>\n
Many Prison Fellowship volunteers have similar dialogues with prisoners or those just released from prison. But Frances wasn\u2019t a volunteer, and this wasn\u2019t your typical situation.<\/p>\n
You see, Frances and her husband, Bob, had just finished lunch on July 13th when Spencer barged into their Virginia home \u2014 minutes from Prison Fellowship\u2019s headquarters \u2014 and he was brandishing a gun. Spencer\u2019s journey had begun earlier that day with a botched robbery. Another break-in, another hostage situation, and a stolen jeep later, Spencer had blundered into the Belote\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
He forced Frances and Bob into a bathroom, tied them up, and ransacked the house.<\/p>\n
Frances, unaware that Spencer could hear her, dialed 911 on her cell phone. But Spencer did hear her, and when he broke down the bathroom door, Frances and Bob thought it was the end.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Mary Lu Belote, Prison Fellowship\u2019s controller, alerted the staff of PF to pray. Her grandson, 11, usually stays with his great-grandparents, Frances and Bob. By God\u2019s goodness and grace, he wasn\u2019t there that day. As PF staff prayed, God protected Bob and Frances and gave them supernatural peace.<\/p>\n
Frances developed a rapport with Spencer. She offered him tea, fixed him cereal, and talked with him. As she did, he calmed down.<\/p>\n
By the time hostage negotiators spoke with Spencer on the phone, Frances overheard him say, \u201cThis lady is kind of nice. She fed me and prayed for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Spencer continued to search for a way out, Frances and Bob reasoned with him and convinced him he needed to surrender.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Spencer said, \u201cOne of you can go,\u201d and Frances did. An hour later, and almost eight hours since Spencer\u2019s arrival, he emptied his gun and turned himself in. Bob\u2019s final words to him: \u201cTake care of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frances and Bob demonstrated in every way the grace and peace that believers can have when they come face to face with the unthinkable.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2009 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just a few weeks ago, Frances Belote, a devout 82-year-old Christian, asked a recently released prisoner a simple question: \u201cDo you know Jesus?\u201d The ex-prisoner, William Spencer, hesitated before responding, \u201cA long time ago I knew Him, but he\u2019s not there anymore.\u201d Frances didn\u2019t miss a beat. She said, \u201cIf you gave Jesus your heart, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,550,760,446,297,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}