Bell Gardens Baptist Church

Bill & Barbara Bielecki

May 3, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

Please allow us to share our hearts with you.

This past month has been a very busy one with the move to our new home. We are beginning to feel a little more settled in. We thank the Lord for the house it has been a tremendous blessing. To be able to have space to move around and have friends over is such a blessing.

One of our friends from the jail (and ex-inmate) spent the afternoon with us two Saturday's ago. We had a barbeque and he helped us clean up the yard. It was a great day.

I am planning my first women's get-together as well as a baby shower for one of the young mothers' who just had a baby boy. The date planned is May 17. The women are very excited about this and we are looking forward to the time together.

The Church service has been going great on Sunday. We have been averaging between 45 and 50 inmates. We are so thankful to be able to plant seeds for Our Lord in the lives of these friends. We are almost through Genesis. The inmates have really enjoyed learning about "Abraham" and are understanding Faith and Obedience to Our God.

The Movie night also has been very successful. The Lord has blessed us with so many good movies that are packed with truth, and hope, and encouragement. We have showed the movie "Rudy", "Radio", "Reggie's Prayer" and this week we are going to show them the Life Story of "Johnny Cash". I do not know if you have ever seen it but it is an amazing testimony and so very powerful. Did you know that Johnny Cash appeared at many of the Billy Graham crusades? This movie is not "Walk the Line", but is really the life story of Johnny Cash put together by his son and Dan Rather. The name of it is: "The Gospel Music of Johnny Cash." It is a powerful love story of God through Faith, Strength and Redemption, and a love story between him and his wife (June Carter) of 35 years. We recommend you try to see it, it is so powerful.

The Women's Bible study has been going great. Last Thursday we started at 9am (we only have an hour slot), we did not finish until 11am. The women had so many questions and they are so hungry for God's word. Please pray for these inmates. God is preparing their hearts. I know that these women hearts are so tender and are seeking to know God. Not just the women but also the men's hearts also. They look so forward to Church and movie night and Bible Studies.

There is a lot going on in the Courts here as well. God is opening so many doors and shining his light. Bill is coming along side of many of the people helping them with Civil Rights issues. And in the process, he is sharing God's Word with them.

Just this morning we received a call from a woman at 7am. She said she was sorry to call so early but she just needed to thank Bill for encouraging her and helping the people here. She said that last night was the first time in months that she actually started cleaning up her house. She felt so encouraged by the way things are changing here that she finally saw some light. She explained how if it were not for Bill she would have given up along time ago because she had no hope at all. She said she has started praying and thanking God for sending Bill here to help the people.

Well please allow us to share with you some of our personal needs. This always seem hard for us to do but we feel it is so necessary to share so that you will understand.

We need help financially to stay afloat. The month of April was a very hard month. Our donations dropped considerably. Because of the move we put out a lot for gas and the cost of transferring phone and electric. We also had a lot of Mothers that needed help with diapers and formula which we are out of right now so I can only give it on a emergency basis. Yesterday we had a mother who's father was in Pine Ridge hospital he is dying and she ran out of formula and had no money to purchase any and she had no one else to turn too. When the Mom's get out of the hospital it takes at least a week some times two weeks to get on the WIC program to get their formula. We try to help whenever we can.

I still make treats for the inmates; this has become so important to them. Sometimes, it is not much at all but it is a way to communicate to them that we care about them. They look forward to this. Last week I made cheerios treats and a box drink. It usually costs me about $25 for Tuesday and $25 for Sunday. To me it is well worth it because they know we care about them.

Truthfully, Bill and I are very concerned about our finances and how we are going to meet our obligations. The rent has been paid for this month already (which we thank Our Lord for). But we still have electric, phone, gas, hospital bill, and food. We are trying to cut cost every where we can. We are trying to stretch and even when going into Pine Ridge we try to make sure we go for more than just checking the mail. We try to do all our running around in one trip.

Bill and I have prayed about this and we know God will take care of it. We know God is teaching us through this time in our lives. Bill and I believe and know deeply in our hearts that God has not abandoned us and that he has a purpose in all this. We have been fighting discouragement and loneliness. We miss our family and our friends. We miss taking walks in the forest preserve and downtown Wheaton.

We miss our church family. We miss the encouragement that we had when we first came out here.

We are making new friends here and we love them deeply. But sometimes we just get drained and need to be filled with love by our friends, their encouragement and laughter and that Christian fellowship. Sometimes we feel so alone and abandoned.

We believe God will meet all of our needs, he promised us that he would. We must go on doing the work the Lord has given us to do here and we will do it and gladly do it for Our Lord and bring Glory and Honor to Him.

Bill and I were talking today and if we were asked to give it up there is no way we could. We came here to serve and Honor Our Lord and we will be faithful to the end no matter what the circumstances we Love Our Lord and want to finish the race.

Would you please consider helping us on a monthly basis financially? Would you please pray for our ministry here and for all of our friends here? We need to here from our friends and family it is always such an encouragement and it keeps us going.

To those who have contributed to our ministry we thank you deeply and we pray for you.

May God Bless you all.

Sincerely and
In Christ's Love,

Bill & Barbara Bielecki
Lakota Native American Outreach