From Prison Walls to Freedom in Christ: Carl and Shirley Yates

Carl and Shirley Yates share their powerful stories of faith and redemption in this episode of Just Talking About Jesus. 

Both with roots in Christian homes, they found themselves straying before being drawn back to their faith. 

Their journey led them to a unique ministry focused on incarcerated individuals where they share unconditional love and the message of salvation. 

Through Bill Glass's Weekend of Champions events, they discovered the importance of empathy and real connection with prisoners. 

Now, they continue their mission by writing letters to over 130 women, offering hope and encouragement through faith.

To participate by:

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Writing Letters

Writing Christmas Cards

contact:

Smithyatess@protonmail.com

Bill Glass

https://www.behindthewalls.com/

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Transcript

Jan: Welcome everybody, to this episode of Just Talking About Jesus. I have Carl and Shirley Yates with me today,

and do they have an interesting ministry that you are not going to want to miss?

So welcome, Shirley.

Shirley: Thank you. Thank you for having us. Earl. Yes.

Jan: Starting with you. Could you share about your testimony? What is you. You've been a Christian all your life or you had some kind of moment, or what happened?

Shirley: Well, I grew up in a Christian home.

Can't say was not without its dysfunction. But one of the things that my family did do is they went to church every time the church doors were open.

And it was that grounding that in later years when I was in college age and I chose to not listen to the. Literally not listen to what the Lord was trying to tell me.

And I walked away from him.

That it was there, though, that I knew I could run back.

I. At one point in my life, I was able to run back to the Lord and say, forgive me and redeem me.

And that's what. And see the. How he restored me and how he healed me from shame and how he just.

And seeing his hand in my life, even then he had his hand on my life. He. He saw me then.

He loved me then, and he cared for me then.

And he wooed me back to Him.

And when I made that choice that I'd rather have Jesus than anything.

And I remember the Sunday I got up to sing that very song in my home church. I had come back after running away from the Lord and doing my own thing,

and I got up and made that statement.

And in that song is that I'd rather have Jesus than anything,

riches or fame or anything else. It's Jesus that really matters. And that's been our.

Our.

The mantra and the. And the core of what we do. Even with those that are incarcerated,

doesn't matter what they've done or where they've been,

God still loves them. God still sees them. And God has a plan and a purpose for his life, even if that plan and purpose is behind bars for the remainder of their life.

Jan: Yeah.

But don't you think that if you had not fallen away from him for a while, that it's not quite as.

It's almost a better relationship when you come back.

Shirley: I don't know. You know, I don't advise to do that.

Jan: Right.

Shirley: But if that is the case. Yeah. Yeah. That's not the end.

Jan: Yeah. Yeah. And I think you realize that more. And I think your eyes for empathy are different,

you know, for other people and their understanding. When you have a relationship that,

yeah, sure,

yeah. You know, and even still you just keep learning and loving and coming closer and closer. Right?

Shirley: Yeah. I think those things that happen in your life when the, in the family situation I was in and,

and all that transpired there gave me a greater empathy for a lot of different kinds of people.

And you see them going through those same issues and you say that, but God is still bigger than all of that. He's still bigger than all of those things and he has, he has the answer and the, not only the antidote, but he has the answer and the remedy for those things.

Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you can say that from your own experiences, you know.

Shirley: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jan: What about you, Carl?

Carl: Well, very similar in a lot of ways. I remember my dad as a teenager, teenager telling me that he thought I was heading for prison if I kept going the direction I was going.

And the Lord got a hold of me when I'm in, I was between my junior and senior year and he basically asked me, you know, what is your life getting you now?

And I had to get nowhere.

And so I said, if I come back, I can't come back.

I didn't want to come back. It was just accused her, you know, just going through the motions of Christianity. I wanted to live the life. And since then it's been quite a,

quite a ride,

you know, that's all I can say.

I got involved in the Jesus people movement really in college up in Seattle.

I don't know if you remember who Father Bennett was, but that was going on in Seattle. I went to that church a couple times, but it was just all the stuff we were doing.

Friends of mine were ex hippies and all that stuff. And then my father passed away and I moved to Coos Bay and this friend and I, he was out of Foursquare Church.

First time I was ever in a four square church that I remember.

And we hooked up, started doing youth work, street work in Coos Bay and we had a young revival going on and, and stuff. And then I went in the military for a while and when I come back from overseas I was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado and that's where I met Shirley Church and yeah,

the Foursquare Church there in Colorado Springs. So.

Jan: And life just got better from there.

Shirley: I don't know.

I'm just kidding.

So I went to like Bible college prior to meeting Carl.

So,

and so that was,

you know, when I went away to la, that's when I decided to do my own thing even though I was in Bible school. And so I Mean, that's. You can be walking looking pretty good on the outside, and still when things aren't right on the inside, it.

Carl: It'll.

Shirley: It'll. It'll meet up with you eventually.

And it did with me too. And so when I came back to Colorado and I came back, I needed to get back to where I started.

And the Lord had a plan and a purpose and he had somebody for me to,

you know, for Carl and I to meet.

And that was the beginning of, you know,

you know, our life together.

Yeah.

Carl: And we've always done. We started out doing youth work at the church in Colorado Springs and you know, that was a part of our life for quite a while and stuff.

And then we were in Olympia. I was going still a soldier at Fort Lewis,

and the church there we were part of, kind of didn't grow for four years. It actually went backwards. But then it took off and the Lord really blessed and we got to be a part of a pretty exciting church that is Now I don't know, 1500 or 2000 or whatever number they are now,

but we got to see all that happen and,

and stuff. So,

you know, the Lord has blessed us with some being a part of some really amazing churches. Yeah. Amazing churches and neat things that have happened.

Shirley: Boulder, Colorado. We were in Boulder, we.

And like you said, we were in Olympia Lacey, Washington, and,

And the Lord blessed us everywhere we went and honored us and humbled us to be able to be a part of churches that just to see the Holy Spirit move in such a magnificent way and many, many people come to know Jesus and just getting to experience all kinds of people from all different social strata,

it was just amazing.

Yeah.

Carl: And we were in Camby for a while and then I ended up getting teachers credentials and I started out public school, but realized that wasn't going to work for me and I took a job in Roseburg, Oregon in a Christian school.

And surely.

And I kind of. I commuted back and forth actually back to Camby, but for a year, but the next year,

oh yeah, it's a long drive, but next year she coming down and anyway, to make a long story short, I, I ended up teaching down there for about 22, 23 years.

And she surely was children's pastor at the Foursquare Church there in town and,

and stuff. And I, I was involved in the youth and.

And you know, did. Drove school bus for him and this and that.

Shirley: We've been involved. And that was there when we were in Roseburg that a change took. There was a change in our Ministry.

And Carl began to. There was a Baptist church there that had been going to. Taking a group of people to California with the Bill Glass Weekend of Champions.

And Bill Glass started a ministry back in 1969.

He was a defensive back for the Cleveland Browns.

And it was because of his notoriety on the football field that that he was invited to come and share his testimony to a group of prisoners in prison.

And he said, I have a quote here from him. He says, I was thrown into it kicking and screaming,

but the response from the inmates was just unbelievable.

And that birthed in him a ministry called Bill Glass Weekend of Champions.

And we started going there on the first weekend of May.

For many years we did that ministry, went with them.

And that I. My experience.

I'll share quickly my experience. Carl was. He went for probably five years before I had an opportunity to go.

And I remember when I went the very first time I walked through those prison gates and they closed behind me.

I hadn't.

An experience that I was not expecting.

And I hadn't even met one inmate yet. And I was walking into Chowchilla there in California.

And when that gate closed, I looked around at all the wire and the brick and I thought, I've come home.

And I just. And I thought I could not believe it. I actually was fortunate enough to be an emcee for that. That event.

And I was an embassy for that event several years, for several years after that.

And I had fallen. I fell in love with those women behind those incarcerated, those women behind the walls.

And it. That just began what we do now for me. And then Carl has got his story as well.

Carl: Yeah,

well,

yeah, I started driving bus for this group and we actually would drive down to Fresno where there was about, oh, anywhere I'd say up to 600 people showed up. I mean it was amazing.

There'd be a whole group of bikers and people from all different walks of life. And then the people that Bill Glass actually invited to come and speak were professionals.

I mean celebrities and a lot of different ways. But there were football players and basketball players,

secret service people I remember meeting.

Cruise boat captain,

race car driver.

There was all these, you know.

Oh yeah, big time country, ex con.

It was called Murph the Surf back in the 60s. He was like one of America's most wanted it for a while, diamond thief and all that.

Shirley: Why did he have a testimony?

Carl: Oh yeah.

But all these different people would come and then they would split up. We would be assigned different groups and we'd split up and go into these different Yards.

And they would put on a show.

I remember one of the wall English would show up and he had his practice tightrope and stuff. But they'd put on a show and then they would give their testimony and then they would turn it over to us to share with the prisoners.

And, you know, you're just right there on the block with them.

You can't put on a face or a show because if you do, they can read right through it. They know you're phony right from the beginning if you're phony.

And I realized,

you know,

very soon into this, I wasn't any different than they are.

I had same faults, same sins of my heart,

you know, that I've dealt with and, you know, a lot of the same struggles. And so very interesting. Bill Glass, boy, he, he had a wonderful way of, of speaking when he spoke.

And he talked about men who are estranged.

Either they didn't have a father or they're estranged from their father in some ways. And that's so many of those men in prisons. That's the, that's the story there.

And he talked about, you know, what,

you know, we need to do, you know,

and, and stuff. And, and so anyway, I learned a lot and met a lot of interesting people both behind the bars and those that came in to share.

Shirley: I think one of the really wonderful parts that really helped Carl and I too in this ministry is that part of the mission statement for Bill Glass was to equip the church in igniting their,

well, understanding and also give them experience and teaching on how to share their faith with other people, especially total strangers.

And that was one of the key things that happened. You had the night before you went into prison, they had a night where they,

they trained you up.

And I was a leader from.

Carl: For a long.

Shirley: And all the time we went, I happened to be in a position of leadership,

but I learned so much and that they went in. You went in prepared and you had a trap that you shared with them and,

and to see how the Holy Spirit would put. You'd be standing there with 30 women around you and yes, just you and 30 women and from. And with all kinds of things in their past and see the Lord just move and just, they just,

just is amazing. It was just so amazing. And from that the ministry that we do now,

unfortunately we're not able to go back in to the facility. We just physically can't do that as we could years ago.

And so. But the Lord opened up an opportunity through Bill Glass for us to be able to write the prisoners. So when they fill out their format at their paperwork there at the event,

they put down whether or not they wanted to get letters.

And so from that information I began writing women in prison and I started that and we started maybe with maybe 30 women or you know, a few women. Now I have, right Now I have 130 women.

I write and it's. I write just one letter and send it out to them and I send them teachings and that, but I send them everyday story everything. I just share with them what we do every day.

And I ask, it's like what kind.

Jan: Of things did you write?

Shirley: Yeah, so I go ahead, do you want to share something? Then I'm going to share some letters.

Carl: True,

it varies. You know,

we also send them Christian literature. I love to send the guys the book Bruceco, which is, you can get it on YWAM or Amazon or Christian Book Distributors.

And it's a story about a young man who goes, who's a missionary on his own to South America with the Montelone Indians. It's a very fascinating story. But I sent him others as well,

encouraging stories,

stories that you know that they, they really be inspired by as well as Bibles and Christian literature when we need to and stuff.

And some of the guys, I mean I, I have, you know, a few guys that were really encouraging for me. I mean they really spoke the word and spoke it powerfully.

Shirley: Oh yeah. And definitely.

Carl: And other guys that earn struggle and then you get answers and, and then, you know, so, you know, you get.

Shirley: A variety and yeah,

we,

I usually ask them if they want. We don't send them money, but we send them Bibles if they choose. If they ask for a Bible for the ladies ask, send them a Bible or I send them a journal and, and a journal and that's because they want to, you know,

encourage them in their Bible reading.

But I want to read just a few letters. These are this excerpts, real quick excerpts from letters that I received just really recently. Back in August,

I had someone write this to me. It says thank you for your most welcome correspondence.

I am uplifted each time I open up your mail or in your cards.

Your kindness keeps us human,

whole and whole inside,

hopeful, looking forward towards tomorrow and humble and feeling also feeling loved and worthy of all your prayers.

I am thankful and God bless you both.

Wow. I am thankful that you have made me feel like I have not been forgotten.

Hello there, youngster.

I was very happy to receive your letter.

A beautiful greeting card. That card made me feel so special.

Thank you so much, Mrs. Shirley, for always thinking of us that are incarcerated. Your letters, cards, and fellowship is a true testament of God's love inside the letter. Your cards requested that we write to you.

And so I wanted to let you know I want to continue to get your letters.

Your cards and letters always seem to reach to me at the perfect time.

And then the last one here is they bring me a sense of family and a godly wisdom.

Hearing of how you and brother Carl make a way to do the work of our Lord Jesus has put on your hearts gives me strength. Strength.

Thank you both for your love and care and persistent faith that you share.

You continually share what. What matters,

Jesus in big letters and underlined an estimation mark.

I truly adore you both.

Carl: So around Christmas time,

well before Christmas,

the people that write us, we send them a list so they can put up in our bulletin board. And they get permission, of course, to do that.

And they.

All the guys in their.

In their cell block who want a Christmas card and put their name on there, okay. And their number. And so we sent them, and we've had some interesting responses. You know,

sometimes it was like months and months later,

somebody is looking at one of those cards and decides to write it, you know, and it's so.

Shirley: It's so cool because first of all, we have to tell you that the Christmas cards that we sent are.

We send these prisoners are not just your normal Christmas card. These are cards that are created by David and Helen Hadel.

Now, they're authors. He's an artist, and she's an author,

children's author, and she's been an author for many, many years, has many books that were published for children.

But about, probably 15, 20 years ago,

they had God just birthed in them an idea to send and create a Christmas card full of gospel for those that are incarcerated.

And it doesn't. It's. They're beautiful cards,

and they have ample space on the inside for us to write.

And what's so interesting is many of the people that we ask, well, what we do here in the community is we ask, does anybody want to fill out a Christmas card or a prisoner?

And some people are a little. Oh, they don't know if they want to do that, but we give them instructions on how. How to do that.

We give them a name of a person and a number.

They send a personal card with their name on it, a personal message to that person.

And what's really neat is a lot of those people aren't even Christians that fill out the cards.

But they have to read the cards too.

And they're just full of the gospel. Oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

I have one dear lady who fights it every year. She goes, do we have to use these cards?

I can, I'll buy you cards if you want me to buy me cards. And I go,

no, you're gonna have to use our cards.

And she willingly does it. And she does beautiful job writing.

And I had,

I had someone tell me a lady in our community who is well known and has a high position in our community,

not to mention any names, but she said to me the other day, she was talking to a group of people and she saw me there and she says, you know, this lady right here,

she does this thing with Christmas cards for prisoners. She says, I look forward every year to filling out those,

those 15 cards for those prisoners.

And I don't know where she is with the Lord, but I do know that. I appreciate that. So we send,

we have sent over a thousand cards every, every Christmas.

And so we have, we pay for the, with the postage. We are, you know, the Lord blesses us and we have a group, we have people that give to our people that help.

Carl: Yeah.

Shirley: And the people in the community,

we've had Christmas signing parties where, when people come and Christmas card signing parties and they come and fill the cards out and out of that,

those cards, then we get cards back from the prisoners that say, will you write me? And so that's where all this, I mean, there's a just, it keeps flowing and going.

And then for me,

I,

for a while, Carl and I were doing the youth authority up here. We were going up there to warrant into the youth authority until they moved that to Portland.

But just recently, probably in the last few months,

I have been able to go into the women's jail.

And so I do a Bible. I do a Bible study with another lady here in, in this community.

And we do that every Tuesday night we go on to the women's jail. And it is, it is just,

it is so wonderful. I, I again, like I said,

I get excited to go in every, every week. I get so excited to go, go in and just, I don't know who's going to be there.

Jan: You know, I mean, when you see the, when you're doing that and, and really you get as much out of it because you just, you know, you're in the right spot.

You know, you're doing what God wants you to do and he just totally blesses you with everything and you see.

Shirley: What God's doing and speaking in their lives. We've had, I mean we are so exciting is that we. And this next week we're going to do it again where people that happen to be in there,

but they have a background and they. When we sing songs, we sing Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art and,

and Waymaker and those songs that we sing, they know them because they've been a part of a church somewhere.

Or they've grown up in church.

And then this, then some of them are really, they, they know their scriptures and they know the Bible. So we'll say, well, do you want to lead the Bible study next week?

And, and yeah, so like this next week we've got one of the gals that's going to be leading the Bible study and it is just crazy. We walk, we walk out every week with a smile on our face just knowing that God is so good and he's on the move and these.

I just love the fact when people get their lives restored and redeemed.

Jan: So tell me some of the most impactful. I mean, I know you've got dozens and dozens, but stories of people you've really bonded with or gotten to, you know,

seeing changes.

Carl: Well, one of the guys I visited for about 10 years, this wasn't through Bill Glass actually it was through that fellow I had worked with in Coos Bay. It was his son and he ended up in Ontario, Oregon at Snake River.

And at that time Shirley's folks were living in, still living in Colorado Springs, same house she grew up in.

And whenever we would go and visit, we'd make a stop there. Sometimes I drove out there.

It was from Roseburg, it was an eight hour trip out there back. But the Lord blessed that. I mean I was so privileged to be able to do that. I felt and support my support him and my friend.

So we did that with several years and then he got transferred to Madras and he was there two or three years. It's really interesting he ended up in the same cell block as two other people we knew.

One of them,

one of them accepted the word on our couch. But he really struggled and we don't know where he's at now and stuff. The other one had been in Sunday school with Shirley and her Sunday school department in Roseburg at the church there.

But anyway, he was there for that length of time. And then on a Christmas, I can't remember what year that was, but on Christmas, really around Christmas, we were with his parents and his wife when he walked out of that prison after almost 19 years.

And it was Pretty amazing stuff. And the first place we went was to the Black Bear Diner for dinner.

Shirley: He kept thinking that's where you wanted to go first thing you wanted to do.

Carl: Yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah. And my friend Otto is gone now, but his. His wife is. Is still living and. And in Gresham, and. And he's living there,

so we run across him every now and then, but that.

Shirley: But his son is still doing really, really well. And. And he's. And him and his wife and. And they just moved on.

Carl: Yeah. Moved on from there.

Shirley: Been hard. It's been hard. Yeah.

Carl: That was one of my.

He actually learned how to paint and in prison and, you know, he did. He did a couple paintings for us and. And stuff, so.

Shirley: Beautiful.

Carl: Beautiful painting. Yeah.

Shirley: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jan: Well, as you guys know, you know, doing art in anything creative restores your mind, you know.

Shirley: Yeah, it does. It really does. Because, you know, I.

I'm a musician, and I love to do art as well. You have to paint and do other things,

and it is healing, especially the music art, you know, it's really healing. And my story, I have several of them that.

Sharing the lady's stories, but probably the one that probably is the most impactful for me,

I'm not going to use her name because I just may send this to her because she's.

I was going to try and get her. Okay. Beforehand.

I'm sure she's fine with this, but.

So I had.

I was working at the church and I left my purse in the car and didn't think much about it.

I was. Worked long hours at the church as family pastor and went out to get my car one night and realized that my purse wasn't there. And then I went back in that church and I.

I looked everywhere for my purse, but come to find out, long and short of it is my purse had been stolen out of my car from that also, my identity was stolen because I had my.

Unfortunately, I'm not very good about not having my Social Security card and everything all together and all there in that. So I know this was not a good thing. I know you're not here all the time,

but because of that.

Because of that, this girl stole my identity and she used my credit cards and she.

There's a lot to this story, and I won't get into that,

but I remember in my anger, I was so upset with this person.

I felt so violated that this person had done this to me,

and I was angry. I. And I want. I'm getting very vindictive. I was going to get this person.

That's how I felt about her.

And I actually, through a lot of investigation,

I found out I got an email because she, you know, I won't get how it is. I got that. But because, anyways, because of a purchase she made on my card, I was able to get her email.

And I went. I remember I went to it one night. I was at the church looking through stuff and trying to do my investigation about her. And it was the night that there was prayer in the church.

They prayed every Tuesday night. So I went in there and I was going to have them pray that they, you know, that they. That I find her and I get my Social Security number back, all this stuff.

And I remember one dear brother saying to me,

shirley,

I think this is supposed to happen.

I think you're supposed to get to know her.

Oh, I was so mad.

I thought,

oh, yeah, I'm going to get to know her.

I'm going to get to know her real good.

I mean, I was so mad. This was before I was going into the prison, by the way, this FYI,

and come to find out, I did get to know my dear little gal.

There's so much to this story, but I have to tell you, she.

We got. I got to know her,

got to redeem some things of value for her that she had. Had, had taken from her. I got that for her.

And unfortunately,

she went to prison at some point,

and I supported her in whatever in that. And then came home,

she got out of prison, and we had her live with us for a while.

And she stole my identity again.

And this time. This time I sent her to prison. Oh, don't tell that one part of the story.

At one point, she was not real happy with us,

but she also had a baby at this point, too.

And the baby went to be with her mother. With her mother.

And this little gal went back to prison.

She was in prison twice.

Carl: Yeah, in Oregon. She managed to get out, and then she was on probation.

Shirley: She absconded, went to California.

Carl: And she absconded, went to California. And I.

We know that it was just going to be a matter of time before she got picked up again.

And so what's really crazy about this whole thing. And like I said, we didn't go into all the details, but we were on our. Surely it was on our way because I was physically,

anyway, at that point, incapable of being in those hot yards all day like they did. I'd get sick and stuff. So anyway.

Oh, I. I went that time. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'M my memory.

Anyway,

so I, I told Shirley, I said, you know, she's going to get picked up. Well, we were on our way to Fresno and Shirley got a phone call from her mother and said that she had been picked up.

And we're not supposed to meet up with people we know in prison. They don't like that and stuff. So even if they're out,

we're.

We're kind of cautious about that. We want to follow the rules and all that. And we don't want, you know, they cut us off if they found out we were purposely doing that.

So they didn't. But as it turns out, Shirley normally went into this one yard and they didn't let her go in that yard. And she was upset about that.

Shirley: So I.

We have A yard and B yard and B yard is the one that I had all my.

At this point now, she had been in California now for almost three years.

This wasn't just something that happened briefly. She did go. I heard from her for a couple years she kept in contact with me. And then for a year, nothing before she got caught and she again went back to her lifestyle.

But I was really anxious to see my ladies that are in bee yard because we've been riding for a long time. But the, the,

the prison told me that I couldn't do that because I'd been writing these ladies and they felt I had too much familiarity with them.

And so they said because of that I had to go to a yard. A yard is the yard they have for people that are first coming into prison.

And so when you have to do that. And so obviously there wouldn't be anybody there that I know because you were just now going into prison.

So when her mother was calling me, I'm on my way in to visit with the,

the authorities, with the warden. They. We have a meeting at the beginning and I get this phone call from her mom that says,

yeah, she's going. Yeah, they got her and she went to. They're sending her to some prison there in California for women in some place called Chowchilla. And I said, really?

And I'm thinking. And I am. So. I can't. I couldn't believe it. I said, she's going to, er.

I'm going to get to see her. I hadn't seen her in like over three years.

And so I. Let me just say what happened was I didn't tell anybody anything because again, we didn't want anybody to know that I knew somebody there.

So I'm setting up in the yard. And it was before the gals came out. We have, like, 300 foreign women come out to the yard to hear their program.

So I'm setting up the speakers and the sound system and everything,

and off in the distance, I hear this voice, Charlie.

And I didn't want anybody to know that I knew that person that was calling my name.

So I. Yeah, kind of like that. Yeah. I was like, I'm going, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. And I kind of brushed her off, and I'm going. And so. And I see her, and so she has to go with everybody else into the inner cell and before they can come back out together as a group.

And so I'm waiting for the group to come out, waiting for the group to come out, and they'd never come out. They never come out. And they've called everybody to come out.

And all of a sudden, here comes all of her cell block, and they're coming out,

and they're supposed to follow the pathway over to where the meeting area is at, but instead, she cuts across by herself, cuts across the lawn to me,

and she's about 10ft away, and she falls on her knees, and she begins to wail.

And she says, I am so sorry. I am so sorry.

You know,

the Lord showed mercy to her. They were able to take her back to Oregon. They gave her time served. It didn't take very long before my little. That little gal was able to be released.

And her life changed.

And she. She sat there, though, that weekend when she. We were there for two days, and that whole time, she sat on the front row the whole time, just bawling her eyes out and just crying.

You know, she's. She's a. She's a great. She's a great little gal. She really is.

Carl: I was sitting at the men's yard with Bill Glass sitting in a chair alongside of him, and I. I told him the story, and,

you know, of course he knows the rules and knows we're us,

and.

And he goes,

well, that's providence now, isn't it?

Shirley: Yeah.

Carl: And people have said this earlier, and I both. You know, they burn. And this person needs to write a book.

Shirley: What you really need is that she has told our story many times and many women in prison, when she was in prison, sitting in the cell block, and she's told me we'd sit on the edge of the bed, and I tell them our story, and we just cry.

You know, this.

Know that God is that good. And I'm telling you, that's what it's all About God is in the redemption business.

He redeems. And I love this. I love this young woman.

And when we go to Roseburg because that's where she lives with her and with her family and she's, you know, she's moved on and she's doing what she needs to do and we go to where she works and you know, it's just, it's like all home week.

We just love. You love each other. And here's this person who gave me a lot of grief. I mean I was all right.

God got her instead. And I'm so glad he did.

Oh, wow.

Jan: What a story. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So how could. What, what if somebody wanted to be involved in doing that? What. What would they need to do?

Shirley: Well, first of all, if they would love to help us with the Christmas cards, we would love.

If anybody would like to take. And I give. We give them instructions on how to do that. And,

and if they would like to do that, they could just get a hold of us at. At. I suppose this, my email address would probably be the best place to go.

And that is. And that's Smith S M I T H and then Yates Y A T E S and then another S for shirley@protonmail.com I'll put a link.

Jan: I'll put a link.

Shirley: Yeah, that would be wonderful. You just email that to us or if they are local, I have no problem with them calling as well. You know and if they would love.

We have people that write. I've given them certain names and I and the things that they requirements when it comes to writing letters as well. We have no problem with that either.

And we.

Carl: Well they can also hook up with Bill Glass for that matter. Yes, I mean, I mean they way this organization,

you know, they travel in different parts of the world into prisons and some of them are pretty, pretty bad.

Shirley: So right now as we're talking right now there's a Bill Glass group in Malawi,

Africa.

And so and their testimony, they just go on online and see Build Glass Ministries and they have events.

Yeah. B I L L G L A S S okay, Bill Glass. Okay. And Bill's gone. He's. But now. But that ministry continues to grow and continues and they have,

they have events all over the United States, Texas,

Oregon.

Carl: Yeah, I've been to Monroe in Washington state up there Moreau and well,

we took one trip to Idaho and it was an area outside of Boise,

but mostly in California around the Fresno area.

And there's A lot.

It's amazing how many prisons that are within driving distance of that spot.

Shirley: They really would like come to Oregon like into Portland area and Salem.

If we could get a group of people together that said, hey, I'd like to be a part of that. I'd like to see what it is we could do to help have that happen.

Because. And there is. We. I've talked several times to the leaders there at Bill Glass and they. And that would be something we could do because it wouldn't be as far to go and wouldn't be so hard on.

On us physically, I don't think. But I hope. And it doesn't as hot here here as it is in California.

Right.

Yeah.

Jan: And what if people wanted. What if people wanted to support, you know, to send money or. Or somehow other support?

Shirley: Well, we are support is at. At the Waters Gate is our ministry is what it's called.

And it's a. We have.

If you wanted. If they want to just contact us and, and they. If they wanted to do that, we have we funnel all of our money through the Foursquare Church in Toledo at Oregon.

They're they keep.

He's the ones that oversee us and are.

Carl: Keep our books.

Shirley: Yeah. Keep our books for us.

And so it's a nonprofit and it is, you know, it is tax deductible. And so you get, you know, you get that at the, you know, the beginning of the year.

That's all taken care of. And so everything is well well-documented.

So that's a safe. A safe place. Plus we always give it let you know too what. What's happening with newsletters and that. So.

Jan: So they can support you by writing letters. They can support by financially they can support by providing Bibles.

Shirley: Well, we we do the the money. It would have to be the money that. Because what we do is we have to order the Bibles through.

Carl: Yeah. They have to come to a publisher because.

Jan: Okay.

Shirley: Yeah.

Jan: Okay.

Shirley: Yeah. Okay. All the monies, all the monies that comes in, they all go. It all goes to the ministry.

It goes to postage. It goes to the books and. And Bibles that we send to the prisoners.

And but if anybody would love to just partner. Even if they would want one pen pal that they would like to write,

then we have men, right? Men. Women. Right. Women. So that would. That would be. It would be wonderful if this is something that somebody thinks. Well, you know, I really like to do that.

I like to just see what I could do, you know, sending. So the ladies that I know of, I Don't know about the guys, but I know the ladies take these cards I send.

I order a lot of beautiful Christian cards through a Christian books publishing company.

And as I. They take these and they decorate their sign cells with these pick with that. And they're Christmas cards.

I've had a gal call get a hold of me in, in the summer, past summer, and said, you know, I just moved here into this cell block and this, my, my celly has your Christmas card up on her wall and she said, you need to write her.

She'll, she'll write you back.

And so I, and that's. So, you know. Yeah. What the thing about these Christmas cards are about anything we do here.

They might be the only one, we might be the only one that even contacts them, that even treats them like we're not. I never ask ever why they're there.

If they choose to tell me, that's fine, but I never ask why they're there. And our relationship starts with the time that I get their first letter. And we go from there and just talk about Jesus.

I talk about my garden,

talk about, you know, and we use, we have a post office box. If you're concerned about having your address out there, you can funnel all this through us. You can just take, go ahead and use our post office box and we'll send the letters on to you.

So it's, it's so there's no, you know, real,

there's precautions that everybody makes. But most of these people that are there,

not all, but most of them there are long, are there for a long time. Time.

Jan: Yeah.

Shirley: Those and those that aren't,

quite honestly, they get out and they're just so glad to be out. They don't want any.

They, they don't get a hold of you.

Carl: Yeah, there are exceptions. I, I, you know.

Shirley: Yeah, we do have exceptions.

Carl: Yeah.

Shirley: Yeah.

There are people that. Carl gets a call.

This is how cool this is.

Carl gets a phone message every morning from a gentleman that he wrote to all for I don't know how many years, but he just, just, he sends him a scripture verse in the morning.

He's in rehab somewhere or in a, in a group. He's in a transitional place.

Carl: Yeah, he's in a transitional place. You know, a lot of people don't know this, but you know, when you get out of prison, a lot of times there's programs that you have to go to and yet you, you have to pay for and all that kind of stuff.

And it takes months sometimes before you actually get your total Freedom.

So he only has about a year to go.

Well, now it's a whole lot less.

And he has a sister back in. Back. Back Minnesota, someplace like that. And his plan is go back there. Go back there.

Shirley: But he calls him every morning, texts him every morning, Good morning, brother Yang, brother Carl, you know, and. And he's been in prison for over 40 years.

Carl: Yeah, he was there a long time. Yeah.

Shirley: Go ahead.

Jan: Words you want to leave with our listeners?

Shirley: Well, just. There's a scripture In Hebrews, chapter 13,

verse 3 says this.

Remember those in prison as if you were there yourself.

Remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.

The Lord wants us. He says that we need to be about his business,

and that's.

That's being about his business.

And I didn't think. When I went in there the first time,

I thought, well, I have nothing in common with these people.

That's not true. I tell these ladies, I said, you can be free in prison or you can be bound outside of prison.

Carl: We've actually had some of the. I know. Ladies in particular say, you know, thank God for prison.

Shirley: Oh, yes.

Carl: Because we would have never found without going there.

Shirley: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing because you said yes to God.

Jan: Yeah.

Shirley: He has something for us all to do.

Jan: Yeah.

Shirley: Yeah.

Jan: Well, thank you so much. This has really been wonderful.

Shirley: You're welcome. Thank you for inviting. And thank you for. You know, I guess I did have something to say.

Jan: I guess you both did, that's for sure.