I'm Roy Ellsworth, a 54 year old
ex-convict. Allow me to preface all that I will say here by saying I'm
not proud of being an ex-convict. However, it sure beats being a
convict. It means that I am free. It means God has granted me a new
lease on life; a new start, a new beginning. That new beginning began in
January of 1969 when God, Christ and the Holy Spirit came into the
Dallas County Jail and into my cell and into my heart, bringing with
them Love, Joy, Peace, and Forgiveness. Life has not been the
same
since. I've been down many roads and over, through, and around many
mountains since then. I've had successes and I've had failures and
through it all God was with me and proved His promise true when He said
"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
I would like to commend each of you for your love for the offender. The
Lord knows they have had pitifully little Love in their lives. Actually,
the offender is starved for love. They live in an environment where
there is a marked absence of love and human warmth. "Mail Call" is a
lonely time for many of them because no one cares enough to write. I
recall months on end when I heard from no one. When your letter reaches
the cell-block, all ears come to attention and hearts seem to flutter
and time seems to go by on tiptoe as convicts listen for their name.
When they hear it a smile lights their faces; when they do not,
disappointment clouds their eyes and a veil lowers in their feeling of
dejection.
My friends, Love not only "covers a multitude of sins," it is the
strongest force in the universe. It has the power to literally gravitate
the prisoner to you and renders him/her amenable to your counsel and
encouragement. Do you know any one who does not want to be loved? Do you
want to be loved? Well, the prisoner does, too, and your consistent
letters of love, support and encouragement will go a long way in
assisting them in taking a serious look at themselves and reaching that
point where change can take place in their lives.
I'd venture to say that 95%, if not better, of all inmates are adult
survivors of child abuse. At one time they were little boys and girls
playing on the school yard. Now they are gracing the cell-blocks of
America. Why?
The scripture says, "Where no counsel is, the people fall; but in the
multitude of counselors, there is safety."
They were abused as children and because of not having adequate counsel
to work through the hurt, pain, and anger incurred by the abuse, they
were "left to themselves" and suppressed their anger because they were
too little to retaliate. Suppressed anger acts like a shaken up bottle
of pop, when you remove your thumb, it spews out. When the abused child
reaches the breaking point, his suppressed anger spews out in the form
of antisocial behavior. Thus, you have crime at unprecedented heights;
jails and prisons bursting at the seams, and there is only one solution:
JESUS CHRIST!
I am certain that you realize all the above to be true. There is so much
more I could write you regarding the offender, but suffice it to say
that your involvement with them is most likely the only wholesome
relationship many of them have ever experienced and it just may very
well be that God will use you to reach a lost soul with the Gospel. All
you and I have to do is plant the seed and water that seed and allow Him
opportunity to produce the increase.
I am the author of the
Ellsworth Letters.
These letters are directed at prison populations and I would like to
invite you to logon and review my material. These letters have been well
received by prisoners in some 15 States, and 5 Countries. Currently only
300 copies of my letters are being passed out to the prisoner each week.
I would like to see these letters flood jails and prisons all across
this country and globe, because I know they will read them and will
benefit. I solicit your help in this endeavor.
May God richly bless you as you continue to serve Him.
