Brian and Ruth Christine Newsletter

August 2003 Newsletter : Edition 11

Howdy ya'll! How's life in Oz? Sometimes I wonder if Ruth and I are in the free world and everyone else is in a prison without walls? I marvel at how swiftly American feet have rushed to relinquish what few rights and freedoms remained. We were once a great nation. Now we are simply a mighty nation. I am ashamed of what we have become, enforcing 'morals' on weaker nations that we do not practice ourselves. And sadly, our leaders aren't even doing these things out of good nature but out of greed and desire for power and the general population seems to be willing to pretend to believe it's out of goodness.

And God is watching all this, seeing every move. Are we living for the King? Are we allowing our conscience to over-rule our rationalizing minds? Oh God for grace and mercy on Your p servants. We're so blind and naked and haughty. Please Oh Great King, deliver us from our vanities and give us courage to overcome and be strong in You alone, even in the face of rejection and persecutions. I pray for every reader and every saint in this end of the age that You give an extra portion of bravery and decisiveness to each. So be it. Amen -

Saints, take courage. God is near and he never forgets... Never Forgets. He will remember you when the mountains of glass and steel fall. Never will His loving eyes wander from you as you walk this path. God's hands are capable and so very gentle. He won't force you, though life may deal you a forceful blow. Will you remember Him who never forgets you? Will you give your life, your security, your family for Him? Is He worth it? Is He your pearl of great price? Will you give your all?

Disclaimer - This newsletter is not published by an organization, a religion, a group, a company of an association. This newsletter is nothing more than words on paper. Readers are not members of any of the above and shall not be labeled as such.

Well, Ruth and I are surviving here in prison. I've been a little up and down lately... ok, Mary up and down. Ruth is still working in the bakery at Coffee Creek and I'm still at EOCI working on computers. I'm learning a lot about working with digital video and we have a little pilot project going here with digital video for benefit of education.

Unfortunately, legislators have decided to cut education and programming for prisoners once again in favor of keeping every bed open and even building a new prison in Lakeview, OR which will only house an additional 400 inmates. It looks to be the most expensive prison Oregon has ever built per capita (of inmates housed). All you can do is shake your head in disbelief while you watch them cut medical to dying patients in hospitals, cut school days and classes yet build new prisons, all while the crime rate continues to plummet. What amazes me most is that no one seems to even care! I guess this is New Amerika, Land of Sissies and Snitches. We deserve whatever evil we have coming. We need a spanking to wake us up to reality.

Last night I watched a movie called Mission to Mars. It was OK. My interest in astronomy (the study of celestial bodies and space) feeds fuel to my exploratory thirst. The I got up at three a.m. to go to the bathroom. My dorm's bathroom has an open window (with bars of course) and out it I thought I saw mars. Returning with my glasses, it sure was, bright and high! Eve learned that Mars is on it's closest approach to earth on record. If I could see it and it's shape through all the prison flood light glare, it must be gloriously spectacular out there in the dark places! This is definitely a once in a life- time event unless you plan to live another 78,000 years :) Actually, I plan to live well beyond that, but you know what I mean!

I would also like to note that countless civilizations have worshiped Mars as god of war. There's probably a reason or a cause behind this. I look at this close approach of August 28th as a warning from God that war is coming very near. I just read in Popular Mechanics magazine how America is no longer a super-power but the world's sole Mega-Power and no other nation even comes close to our technological might and power. This reminds me of Germany right before it decided to take over the world. History repeats, so enjoy your Mega-Power (really just Mega-Pride) status while it lasts, for it won't be for long. God hates a haughty look.

This newsletter is going to be a short one. My apologies it's so late. Inside you'll find a poem written by Ruth about our youngest daughter born to a shackled mother (literally), an account of a miracle God gave Ruth and a short piece by Spurgeon, all peppered with miscellaneous quotes in between. Enjoy and God Bless :-)

Quote : "A nation of cowards can neither prosper nor survive" Unknown -

My Miracle by Ruth Christine

Last week I got to talk with my family in England for the first time since Christmas. And it was a miracle. To start with, the only reason that the prison is allowing me to call home is because the British Consulate wrote them and said that I need to talk to my family, and that is why my phone call took place. The real miracle is how the phone conversation took place.

My counselor took me to an office with a telephone in it (which was exciting in itself because our environment is very clinical and we don't get to go into 'real' offices with telephones. My counselor had not made an international collect call from within the prison, so it was a new process. The 1-800 number we had been given turned out to be a number where you could call famous people. We tried to call my parents' house another way but could not get through. We dialed and got an answering machine, but could not tell if it was my parents' answering machine..

Meanwhile, I was trying to control my excitement about talking to my family in case it didn't work out. The way things were going, I figured that I would be told to come back another day when they had the phone call procedure sorted out. I prayed "Lord, if you want this phone call to happen, then let it happen" and left it up to Him.

The counselor and I were sitting in the office when suddenly the phone rang, and who do you think it was? My mother! Yes, my mother whom I had been trying to call! She talked to the counselor and asked him some questions that she had and then he told her 'your daughter is sitting here and she's been trying to call you!"

I was amazed, God had worked a miracle. For the cynics, let me explain. The office I was sitting in I had never been in before. In fact, it wasn't even my counselor's office! 

So why had my mother called that particular number? Why had she called the prison at that particular moment? It was 9:30 at night over there in England! I had only been in that office for about twenty minutes.

Let me add more facts. I have only met with my counselor a handful of times since I have been in prison. I am rarely in a room that can receive incoming phone calls. In fact, that was the only time that I have been in a room where someone has called in from the outside other than when a call is redirected.

It was a miracle.

And to top it all of, a girl I know but hadn't seen for a while came up to me the other day and said it was awesome to hear about my phone call! This miracle had been passed on my word of mouth throughout the prison. And yes, I had a lovely phone call with my mother and my daughters.

Quote: "There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange" Daniel Webster -

Excerpt from Morning and Evening by C. H. Spurgeon

We have many things in our possession at the present moment which can be shaken, and it ill becomes a Christian man to set much store by them, for there is nothing stable beneath these rolling skies; change is written upon all things. Yet, we have certain "things which cannot be shaken," and I invite you this evening to think of them, that if the things which can be shaken should all be taken away, you may derive real comfort from the things that cannot be shaken, which will remain.

Whatever your losses have been, or may be, you enjoy present salvation. You are standing at the foot of His cross, trusting alone in the merit of Jesus' precious blood, and no rise or fall of the markets can interfere with your salvation in him; no breaking of banks, no failures and bankruptcies can touch that. Then you are a child of God this evening.

God is your Father. No change of circumstances can ever rob you of that. Although by losses brought to poverty, and stripped bare, you can say, "He is my Father still. In my Father's house are many mansions; therefore will I not be troubled." You have another permanent blessing, namely, the love of Jesus Christ. He who is God and Man loves you with all the strength of His affectionate nature - nothing can affect that.

The fig tree may not blossom, and the flocks may cease from the field, it matters not to the man who can sing, " My beloved is mine, and I am his." Our best portion and richest heritage we cannot lose. Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earth-born, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation.

Quote : "Nothing compares to being in His grasp... to struggle to break free and kick like the hinds but knowing that His grip is too powerful to break free and the only way to break loose is if He lets you go." Brian Christine -

Abbey-Rose Christine was born September 24th 2001 in a Montana hospital, two months after my arrest, my youngest child, my heart. I have not seen her since...

MY ABBEY ROSE by Ruth Christine -
September 2001,
Abbey Rose born to a mother,
custody of the Montana Sheriffs department.
My Abbey My Rose
She came into this world destined to leave my arms,
My Abbey My Rose
Her perfectly rounded head and bright blue eyes.
My Abbey My Rose
Tiny body bundled in blanket
My Abbey My Rose
Those moments I held her and looked into her eyes
My Abbey My Rose
Only minutes old, But so alert as though she knew time was short.
My Abbey My Rose
I held her to my breast,
Desperately willing all the future years of love into her with every gulp of milk
My Abbey My Rose
Six and a half hours to nurse, to hold, to touch
My Abbey My Rose
The moment they said I had to leave you
The pain, the desperation and in the end, the prayer
My Abbey My Rose
1 cradled you in my arms,
And prayed for God to watch over you when I would not be there.
My Abbey My Rose
Not a dry eye in the room when they made me leave
My Abbey My Rose
The only celebration of new birth,
A bunch of tiny rosebuds left at the nurse's desk, by a friend.
My Abbey My Rose
if you hear my words calling to you from this page,
I LOVE YOU ABBEY-ROSE
And though my arms cannot hold you
I hold you in my heart.

Quote : "We think of children as vulnerable. In my experience, they're giants. Their bodies and souls are amazingly resilient. What we often mistake for fragility is their openness, which has opened my own mind, my own heart and my own spirit." Fred Epstein, pediatric neurosurgeon -