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The Metanoia Minute
Monthly Prayer Requests and Ministry Updates May 2018

In This Issue
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Dear Friend,

What is your view of church membership? Many prisoners long to belong to a visible body of Christ, but cannot because of their circumstances.

In April I received a wonderful e-mail from Rev. Dwight Dolby, who is the Senior Pastor of Auburn Road Presbyterian Church in Venice, FL. Pastor Dolby and I had been in touch in recent months about some questions involving prisoners. He and another pastor at his church have been involved in prison ministry at Charlotte Correctional Institute in FL.

This most recent e-mail was cause for celebration. Auburn Road PCA had interviewed a prisoner and they took him into church membership in April. This man is the first of many who will become members of this forward-thinking church! Friends, do you realize that there are at least half a dozen PCA churches which have taken prisoners into membership while they are still incarcerated? As a man who belonged to a Reformed Church for 12 of my 15 years of incarceration, news like this makes me stop and praise God! Soli Deo Gloria!
May Travel Schedule 
  • 5-6: Lincolnton, NC: Ministry Presentation & Preaching at Harvest PCA
  • 7: Greenville, SC: Kickoff of mentor ministry at Perry Correctional
  • 18: Duluth, GA: Meeting with Staff at Phillips Correctional to start mentoring
  • 18-19: Simpsonville, SC: Mentor Training at First Baptist Church
  • 29-31: Elizabethtown, PC: Banner of Truth Ministers Conference
May Update & Praise  
  • On April 26th, We trained 13 more men for mentoring at Perry in SC.
  • Currently our giving has met nearly 40% of our budget for the year. Thankfully we are on track for our budget. 
  • So far in 2018 we have trained 18 new mentors for the mentoring ministry at Walker State Prison in GA.
  • One of our 2018 goals is going to be expanding Metanoia in the area of reintegration. Metanoia has been invited to partner with State of Georgia parole officials in this area. Rev. Randy Jackson will be working closely on this for the NW Georgia area.
  • At our monthly staff prayer meeting, Rev. Tim McCracken said that he couldn't have had a better result from his back surgery. He is back to full-force and we are thanking God for His mercies in all of it!
May Prayer Requests  
  • Please pray that God will bring us some new financial investors. As our ministry grows, the need for additional partners also grows.
  • Please pray for John Theoharis' work in two prisons in GA.
  • Please pray for Rev. Randy Jackson. In addition to the mentoring ministry at Hays State Prison, he is working towards launching some reintegration partnerships with the State of Georgia Parole Region in NW Georgia. AND, he is teaching one of the classes for seminary at Walker State Prison.
  • Please pray for Shelly. In the month of March she received more than 100 new student requests from around the country. This is in response to the packets she is sending to every prison in the U.S. So far, she is only up to states beginning with the letter D!
  • Please pray for Shelly as she keeps up the daily work of maintaining the correspondence ministry. 
  • Please pray for the expansion of mentoring to Phillips State Prison in Duluth, GA. 
  • Please pray for Rev. Tim McCracken and the work he is doing in the prisons in CA.
  • Please pray for my travel schedule. I have a busy May, June and July scheduled.
  • You may have heard that there was a massive prisoner melee at Lee Correctional in South Carolina. This melee resulted in the entire SC Department of Corrections being locked down. This lockdown is in its 3rd week now. The mentoring ministry at Perry did not launch due to the incident. Please pray that the doors at Perry will open for mentoring soon.
  • Please pray for wisdom and vision for myself and for our board of directors.
Watch our Videos or Listen to Interviews
MNA-Metanoia Prison Ministries has been blessed with some videos that were produced by Genesis One Productions, with the help of Christ Covenant Church. Andy Caldwell directed, shot and edited the videos, and I think he did a fantastic job. You can watch the videos here:  Metanoia Video and  Metanoia Video 2 . Please let me know what you think. Also, please visit Ligonier.org and watch another video here:  http://www.ligonier.org/blog/metanoia-prison-ministries/

If you would like to listen to an interview by Dan Frye of A Rebel's Cause Radio, you can watch or listen here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSVVOxtDyQM

If you are interested in listening to the radio interview with Pastor Kevin Boling of Knowing the Truth, you can hear it here:   http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=31312142251
If you are interested in listening to the podcast interview with William Hill of Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary's Confessing our Hope podcast, it can be heard here:  http://www.gpts.edu/podcast/Broadcast7_(Casson).mp3

In 2017 I was interviewed by Eric Nevins, who hosts the podcast, "Halfway There". You can listen to his interview here: http://ericnevins.com/podcast/halfwaythere/037/
Upcoming Events: Mark Your Calendar!

I thought it might be good for you to be aware of various events that we are scheduling so that you can both pray for us, and attend if you find yourself in the area. Here are the events on the calendar thus far:
  • May 28: U2 Concert in Duluth, GA. (I put this in to see who reads these:)
  • May 29-31: Elizabethtown, PA: Banner of Truth Ministers Conference
  • June 13-15: Atlanta, GA: PCA General Assembly
  • 19-20: Chattanooga, TN: Metanoia's Annual Face-to-Face Board Meeting
Mark, Eliana, Raylene & Joelle
About The Casson Family   
Mark Casson   is a husband, father, businessman, author and PCA Ruling Elder who also happens to have spent over 15 years serving a life sentence in California's prison system. He is the Director of Metanoia Prison Ministries and the Director of Prison Ministry for Mission to North America. Mark is a sought-after speaker who has taken the gospel of grace to high schools, college campuses, prisons and churches. He has a passion for mercy ministry to prisoners that is infectious.

His beautiful wife, Raylene has been a school teacher for more than 20 years and has taught in Bolivia, Canada, and the U.S. in both Christian and public schools. Raylene currently works as a first grade teacher in the Hamilton County School District in Chattanooga, TN.

They have two precious daughters. Eliana is 9 years old and has played in CA, NY, FL, MT, UT, OR, ID, NV, AZ, NM, TX, OK., TN, SC, HI, WI, GA, SD, WY, AL and MN. She loves her little sister, Joelle, who is 6. Their daddy calls them his beloved rapscallions.