He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward him for what he has done Proverbs 19:17
 
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Nick Vujicic at Telford State Prison

My name is Nick Vujicic and I’m 33 years old. I was born without arms or legs and given no medical reason for this condition. Faced with countless challenges and obstacles, God has given me the strength to surmount what others might call impossible.
I'm totally in love with the awesome work Life Without Limbs is doing in the lives of inmates, inmate families, prison guards and prison staff through our jail ministry.

It all started last May when I spoke to inmates at the Barry Telford Unit in Texas.
I heard that the measure of success for a prison program is based on how many inmates get up to use the restroom during the presentation. God was good that day last May...not one inmate left the room for the entire time I was speaking. Not just that, but I could literally see their eyes smiling as the truth of God started to seep in through the walls of their hearts. Only God can do that!

Here's what one inmate told me, with tears streaming down his face...
"I've been in jail for 16 years and I'm getting out in two months. Before today, I was so scared! Now that you've shared the love of God with me, I know I will find a way to survive...because of Jesus. Thank you!"

IMMACULEE'S "LEFT TO TELL" IS A HEARTBREAKING STORY
ABOUT THE RWANDAN HOLOCAUST
Thank you for Sharing Immaculee

Immaculée Ilibagiza was born and raised in a small village in Rwanda, Africa. She enjoyed a peaceful childhood with her loving parents and three brothers. Education was very important in her household, so it was no surprise that she did well in school and went on to the National University of Rwanda to study electrical and mechanical engineering. It was while she was home from school on Easter break in 1994 that Immaculée's life was transformed forever.

On April 6 of that year, the Rwandan President’s plane was shot down over the capital city of Kigali. This assassination of the Hutu president sparked months of massacres of Tutsi tribe members throughout the country. Not even small, rural communities like Immaculée’s were spared from the house-by-house slaughtering of men, women and children.

To protect his only daughter from rape and murder, Immaculée’s father told her to run to a local pastor’s house for protection. The pastor quickly sheltered Immaculée and seven other women in a hidden 3 x 4 foot bathroom. For the next 91 days, Immaculée and the other women huddled silently in this small room, while the genocide raged outside the home and throughout the country.

While in hiding, anger and resentment were destroying Immaculée’s mind, body and spirit. It was then that Immaculée turned to prayer. Prior to going to the pastor’s home, Immaculée’s father, a devout Catholic, gave her a set of rosary beads. She began to pray the rosary as a way of drowning out the anger inside her, and the evil outside the house. It was that turning point towards God and away from hate that saved Immaculée.

In addition to finding faith, peace, and hope during those three months of hiding, Immaculée also taught herself English. Immaculée was always a good student and already fluent in Kinyarwanda and French. Using only a Bible and a dictionary, she spent countless hours in that cramped bathroom learning her third language.

After 91 days, Immaculée was finally liberated from her hiding place only to face a horrific reality. Immaculée emerged from that small bathroom weighing just 65 pounds, and finding her entire family brutally murdered, with the exception of one brother who was studying abroad. She also found nearly one million of her extended family, friends, neighbors and fellow Rwandans massacred.

After the genocide, Immaculée came face-to-face with the man who killed her mother and one of her brothers. After enduring months of physical, mental and spiritual suffering, Immaculée was still able to offer the unthinkable, telling the man, "I forgive you."

In 1998, Immaculée emigrated from Rwanda to the United States where she continued her work for peace through the United Nations. During that time, she shared her story with co-workers and friends who were so impacted by her testimony they insisted she write it down. Three days after finishing her manuscript, she met best-selling author Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who, within minutes of meeting her, offered to publish her book. Dyer is quoted as saying, "There is something much more than charisma at work here - Immaculée not only writes and speaks about unconditional love and forgiveness, but she radiates it wherever she goes."

Immaculée's first book, Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House) was released in March of 2006. Left to Tell quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. To date, it has been translated into seventeen languages and has sold over two million copies. Immaculée's story has also been made into a documentary entitled The Diary of Immaculée. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, The CBS Early Show, CNN, EWTN, CBS Evening News, The Aljazeera Network as well as in The New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, and many other domestic and international publications. She was recently featured in Michael Collopy's Architects of Peace project, which has honored legendary people like Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Immaculée has received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Saint John's University, Seton Hall University, Siena College, Walsh University and the Catholic University of America. She has been recognized and honored with numerous humanitarian awards including The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace, the American Legacy's Women of Strength & Courage Award and the 2015 National Speaker’s Assocation’s Master of Influence Award.

Left toTell has received a Christopher Award "affirming the highest values of human spirit," and was chosen as Outreach Magazine'sselection for "Best Outreach Testimony/Biography Resource of 2007." Left to Tell has been adopted into the curriculum of dozens of high schools and universities, including Villanova University, which selected it for their "One Book Program," making Left to Tell mandatory reading for its 6,000 students.

Immaculée has written six additional books in recent years - Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, Our Lady of Kibeho, If Only We Had Listened, Visit from Heaven, and The Boy Who Met Jesus, and The Rosary.

Today, Immaculée is regarded as one of world's leading speakers on faith, hope and forgiveness. She has shared this universal message with world leaders, school children, multinational corporations, churches, and at events and conferences around the world, including a recent presentation to over 200,000 people in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A major motion picture about her story is under production with an international release in theaters in 2018.
PLEASE VIEW IMMACULEE'S WEBSITE FOR MUCH MORE

Have we no Shame - Help me Live not Die!

Are you going to leave me to die? I have seen all of the hurt and pain that can be imagined. Yes there are many desperate teenagers, fighting drug addiction in our city as in any other city. At times I am haunted by the memory of one young girl after having slashed her wrists say,
“I don’t want to die, I just want to be loved”.

To allow myself to deal with these issues at times I would write a graphic poem, based on the story of this young girl I wrote "Terror and Tears" See Below“.  It was at time like that I cried out in disgust, what are we doing, have we no shame? What about these children, are we going to let them die on the streets? Saturday Report in the last paragraph says; “average life expectancy for a woman entering the sex trade is seven years”.

What are we doing? We open a needle exchange and say come, we will give you clean needles so that you won’t die of Hepatitis or HIV or some other horrendous disease, but you will still fry your brain – pardon me for these harsh words. But is that not what is taking place?  Good decision making all but gone, beautiful young women who just want to be loved are probably going to die within seven years. Give me a break you say, we have a lot of programs in place to help them. Re-read the quote above – little hope, to be used as an example.

Now what I am going to say will fly in the face of all civil libertarians and those who hold that view. Under the mental health act and I quote; “A police officer or constable may apprehend and immediately take a person to a physician for examination if satisfied from personal observations, or information received, that the person  is acting in a manner likely to endanger that person's own safety or the safety of others” For example if a suicidal person is standing on the bridge ready to jump, we pull out all emergency resources to save that person from themselves. That person can by several Doctors be committed to receive help.

Why on earth do we allow these drug addicted teenagers, who can no longer make healthy choices, leave them to die on our streets. Yes I will go on record to say that we forcefully confine those who are so vulnerable and often just want to be loved. No, not in prison or a psychiatric ward, but set up beautiful rehabilitation camps with all of the counseling, skills training etc.. to give each special person back their dignity in a loving environment. The cost is not even a question, it can be done.

Please Help Me Live No Die!

Yes! This is a very drastic and difficult position to take, forceful confinement.
If you have thoughts on this subject, please email Tony@doorsofhope. com
 
PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR A DIFFERENT VERSION I WROTE

I want to Live Not Die

God - The voices of your children cry out
In the shadows of the street pacing waiting
Memories of earlier life are haunting
Too painful to dwell on long
Who am I - once I knew love
So long ago it seems
Today I am used by those who seek pleasure
Just my body, my mind is not there
My mind wanders, Mom Dad are you there
To earlier days
Who will rescue me
Please don’t let me die
I do not speak
They say it is too late for them
I allow this to take place
I don’t want to hear
Deep down I hear their cries
Forgive me
The pain is deep
Too late
Please don’t let me die
                                t.r

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