“We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Thessalonians 1:2-3
Dear Ministry Friend,
Greetings in the name of our Savior – born to die but always a King, even to this day and forever – the one in whom we trust and delight, our very life… Jesus Christ the Lord!
My goal here is a brief but informative expression of gratitude to you and inspiring invitation to continued partnership.
We pray it is currently true for you as it is for us – the close of an incredible year, where we have seen the grace of our Lord poured out in unmistakeable ways, again and again.
Some highlights, if I may…
Sobriety House
This time last year, we wrote of our intent to start a halfway/sobriety house for post-rehab/post-incarceration men. By faith we invited your support and promised stories of men set free from addiction. Praise God, it is happening! The facility we call “Rock Bottom” is now filled to capacity with men in recovery, with a waiting list. We’re preparing a video of their own words to share with you before year end.
Motorcycle Ministry
We also asked you to stand with us in faith for our dream of launching a men’s ministry – discipling men who can disciple others at Rock Bottom. Since April, we have hosted Bible studies onsite each week. My Saturday night teaching to a growing number who gather there is reaching far beyond, even worldwide to our JMM family through weekly teachings, along with our YouTube, podcast, socials and website. All are very active and produced/maintained by our small but faithful staff and a growing number of volunteers. Praise the Lord!
Legal Update
For those interested in the legal process of resolving the vindictive and false accusations made by our former church’s Elders… In late August, a Cook County judge confirmed what we knew, that the Elders and their attorneys had conspired to defame me. ☹ More detail is available on our website. Special Praise to God for the prayers and faithful support of the few who have not doubted our sincerity. Please pray for final resolution of these matters in 2023.
Preaching Updates
GENERATION CHURCH
Last year Kathy and I spent the winter months in Phoenix, as we are now, where our son Landon lives with his family. We began attending Generation Church in Mesa, Arizona, who have expressed great love toward us.
At their invitation, I’ve preached to their staff, men’s ministry, and large congregation multiple times. Lord willing, I will preach a new message called “Christmas Joy” at Generation Church on December 18. This too is cause for praise to the Lord.
ANGOLA PRISON
Recently a longtime ministry friend, Tom Mahairis, invited me to minister among the 6000 inmates at Angola Prison (Louisiana State Penitentiary) in Baton Rouge, the largest and most violent maximum-security prison in the U.S.
As I finalize this letter to you I am among their general population, training inmates in ministry skills and preaching nightly to large groups of men in each cell block.
Word has spread quickly – today we drive to meet with Angola’s former Warden, who now oversees all 7 prisons in Mississippi and has requested that we come minister there.
“Truly, the fields are ripe for harvest” (John 4:35).
At Angola, each inmate welcomed a free copy of my book, Act Like Men, and we are thrilled to see the Lord continue answering our prayer to give away 100% of the resources we labored so long to see returned to our ministry. This is cause for real rejoicing.
Personal Update
By God’s grace, we are also experiencing increased passion to serve the Lord and preach His Word.
It has been a long road, and we have often felt very alone. But God has sustained us through our renewed Change Partners. We are encouraged to see a larger portion of these ministry costs being borne by those who are fed by and desire our continuance in this calling to serve the Lord.
Small steps are so important at this point.
New messages preached from our headquarters and guest pulpits are fresh from the lessons of these recent years. We hope to add a dedicated video editing staff member in early 2023, to increase the amount of content we can produce for our listeners/viewers.
Our desire is to continue to glorify God by reaching as many as possible and proclaiming wherever we can, the life changing message of His Word.
Your Update
If the Lord directs, we would be very encouraged to receive a year end update from you.Your faith gift in support of these new ministry efforts helps us impact the lives of hurting men and see that work multiplied far and wide.
Every gift helps cover direct expenses related to these efforts and expands our capacity to move forward in these fresh opportunities.
Your faith to stand behind us confirms that God is indeed moving on our behalf, to open doors and use us in new and exciting ways.
YES! I will support this gospel work ⇒
We pray these kingdom advances are a great encouragement to you and serve to grow your faith in our Savior this season, who alone is worthy.
“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”
2 Corinthians 9:15
– Pastor James & Kathy MacDonald