But we are praising God for His continued GRACE.
This past year was probably one of the toughest our family has faced in a good while. Many challenges... not all were necessarily related to Samuel.
There was one particular challenge though that bowed us low... but for GOD. Just let me say this... please keep praying for Samuel's protection physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
*Pray that he wouldn't become "institutionalized".... as in being incarcerated becoming the norm.
*Pray that God would continue to protect him... we feel it's as if he is living in the middle of sodom and gomorrah. There is much open wickedness around him.
*Pray that God would protect him from emotional and physical attractions.
*Pray that Samuel would stay close to God. There is not much in the way of chapel or Bible study.
*He is going to have to go through "group" -- a re-education group (brainwashing) about his crime and others' and their crimes too. Everything is very openly discussed. They always have women facilitate these groups because they are afraid men would be too understanding and therefore too "lenient"... pray for wisdom and grace for him.
*Pray that he would be a faithful man.
As far as Praises:
*Through this last year's trials we drew closer to God and to each other once again. We have had some wonderful and deep conversations! God is faithful and good!
*Samuel has a great job in laundry that he loves.
*They have allowed "J-pads" this year which allows him to buy music tracks, email us (YIPPEE!) and even has some games. We are thankful for the distraction.
*Thankful for dear friends of ours that see him on a regular basis.. and particularly for our Pastor who visits and encourages him
*We are also thankful for his heart and spirit. And although there are times of depression and sadness for him (okay, us too... ;) ) he is mostly filled with joy and thanksgiving. Praise God.
We don't write letters too much anymore... but we do get to talk every day and see him a couple times a week. We DO get to email though... and I will put his most recent email here for old times sake (since this blog IS called Letters from Samuel... :) )
"Hi hope all is going well for you today. I so wish I could call you today but just like yesterday the phones are down again. I asked Pastor to tell you yesterday when he came up here to see me to let you guys know. We had a great visit together. We talked about where I want to be in ten years. Not like normal, but as what path will I take and where it may lead me. He told me that I kind of have an advantage over other people because of were I am. There are not as many distractions. And I have nothing to worry about like bills, work and other things that may take my focus off the next steps in my life.
So back to you. Happy Valentine's day. <3<3 I just want you to know that you are very special to me and I love you so much. More than a truck full of chocolate. Lol .. So do you and dad have any plans for today? If I was out I would take you guys and a special person (well hopefully) and her family out to eat at a nice place. Maybe the Mexican place in town. I think that would be fun. Just my thoughts. I know, hopeless as always.
Thank you for your last email, it is good to be reminded of things like that. It is so true that the world is so corrupt. All we can do is to stay in the Word getting closer to Him by reading and praying. But more than that it is to retain what we learn and live by it.
Well I should go for now.
Love you sooooooo much hope you have a good Valentine's day. Stay positive always.
Love, your son,
Samuel Shelton ††Joshua 1:8-9
And here is our latest family picture
We also added a puppy to our family this year-- his name is Buddy and our cat Snuggles really likes him -- he was a Birthday/Christmas present for Lee
Below I will put some additional pictures from the last year ... as well as some fb posts from our Pray For Samuel prayer group on Facebook.
From the FB Prayer Group
Here is the post by Tullian T. that I mentioned above:
May 11, 2018
Have you every blown it? I have. You might want to read this.
How Can I Keep from Singing?
~Tullian Tchividjian
My friend Jacob Smith once suggested that all of us are three bad days away from becoming a tabloid headline, and most of us are already on day two. At a time when our worst private moments, most shameful secrets, and deepest character flaws can be easily found out and publicly exposed for the whole world to see, I find great comfort in the fact that King David knew what that felt like.
This “man after God’s own heart” appallingly brought disgrace on his divinely appointed office. He sinned against God and all of God’s people. He abused his God-given power for personal and sexual gain. He took advantage of a woman under his care and then subsequently had her husband killed to cover up the fact that he got her pregnant.
In the Jerusalem tabloids, David’s sick and sinful story would have been plastered all over the front page.
David’s well-known affair with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah was played out in the public square. It was a scandal for the ages. And, to make it worse, it was permanently recorded so that every generation from then until now would know about it. Google searches can’t hold a candle to the documented permanency and truthfulness of the Bible. David’s dirty laundry has been hanging in public for more than two thousand years. Apart from his defeat of Goliath, David’s sexual affair and murderous cover-up are what he is remembered for most. Can you imagine what would’ve become of him had social media existed during his time? In our current #MeToo climate, King David would have most definitely been “Public Enemy Number One.”
I have no doubt that he was tempted to disappear, to walk away, to shut his mouth forever, to go into seclusion and never come out. It is, after all, a lot easier and less painful to go into hiding when something terrible about you has been publicly revealed--when your well-groomed public image is exposed as being fraudulent. When someone is reeling from disgrace, the only welcome place seems to be a deep, dark hole, far from the public’s angry stares and wagging fingers. Knowing the frail human condition in a way now that I did not know before, I’m sure David, in his darkest moments, was tempted to kill himself. For, when public shame marks your life, the grave has a welcoming face. Yet this notorious adulterer and murderer and abuser was lifted up by God’s gracious hand to write his most famous hymn in the aftermath of his most infamous fall. And we can all be glad that he was.
If David had not suffered through this dark night of the soul, we wouldn’t have the shining light of his prayer for mercy.
In Psalm 51:1-17, David breaks down. He loses his composure as he composes his song of confession. He comes clean. He admits his sin, acknowledges his need for forgiveness, and appeals to God’s mercy. He petitions for God’s unfailing love in the wake of his greatest failure. Keenly aware of his transgressions and unable to shake his shame he begs for God’s compassionate cleansing. He knows that God and God alone can remove his guilt, set him straight, renew him, restore him, and sustain him. He knows that while others may never forgive him, he will be OK as long as he can be assured of God’s forgiveness.
Having pleaded to God for these things, David makes God a promise:
“Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.”
(Psalm 51:13-15)
He promises God that he will steward his failures in service to God and others. He promises God that he will tell the world about the seriousness of sin and the gloriousness of grace. He promises God that he will spend the rest of his days singing of his righteousness and declaring his praiseworthiness.
His days of selfish rebellion will bear fruit in years of unselfish proclamation of God’s one-way love.
This forgiven sinner becomes the instructor of sin and forgiveness. This absolved adulterer becomes the lyricist of our unfaithfulness and God’s fidelity. This pardoned life-taker becomes the lead singer of a song about a God who gives new life to those who deserve death. David won’t shut up. David can’t shut up. God doesn’t want him to. As my friend Chad Bird once said, “The absolution becomes a song in his heart that must be sung.” God broke him for this very reason. This man after God’s own heart is now singing about the heart of God from a place of deep experience that he could not have known apart from failure.
What’s so interesting and encouraging about this is that David’s song and story are proof that God’s intention for those who crash and burn is NOT that their lips are now sealed. Rather, he intends to pick them up, wash them off, and open their mouths wide so that they will speak more loudly than ever of his amazing grace and unconditional love.
This is why it is such a travesty to me when we use the “Qualifications” passages (1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9) as weapons to shut the mouths of those who have sinned greatly and have lived to tell about this God of great expenditure--a God who meets our guilt with his grace, our sin with his salvation, our faults with his forgiveness, and our perversion with his purity. When we do this, we rob the Church of the very empathetic voices that God intends to use to set people free. Psalm 51 is biblical proof that, however one wants to interpret those passages in Timothy and Titus, they are certainly NOT meant to silence the voices of all who have destructively blown it. In today’s religious climate, David would have undoubtedly been deemed forever disqualified and unfit to lead, much less pen seventy-three Psalms that God himself published. If anything, Psalm 51 proves that there is no-one more qualified to speak of the significance of sin and the gladness of grace like the one who has “been there and done that.”
As I said in an earlier post, recovery institutions (AA, NA, etc.) have figured out that the best people to reach those who have bottomed out are those who have bottomed out themselves. I think the Church could learn a lot from that. Who better to praise the feast of God’s redeeming grace than prodigals whose sins once drove them to hunger after pig slop?
I’m not sure where we ever got the idea that our “goodness” is what qualifies us to have a powerful impact on people. Because the truth is—none of us are “good” (Romans 3:10-18). And our impact on people becomes powerful when we acknowledge our badness and live out of our brokenness. In fact, the more honest you are about your failures, the bigger your effect on people will be. It is, without question, our failures and not our successes, where God’s grace shines the brightest through us into the lives of others. Every person I have ever known who has crashed and burned, and as a result, come to terms with their own powerlessness, has taught me something about God’s love and grace and forgiveness that I would’ve never known otherwise.
Have you, like David (like ME), blown it big time? Do you think that your sin has sewn shut your lips? Are internal and external voices telling you that you are not qualified to sing, speak, share, and shout the Good News whenever and wherever you can? Have you been shamed into silence by those who claim that the bad and broken should not stand before God’s people and testify of his grace? Then I have the best of news for you: You are forgiven! No—more than that—you are pure and perfect and righteous in the eyes of God because of Christ. Even more than that, Jesus opens your lips to sing his praise for the world to hear. Washed clean by his blood, robed in his white garments, and filled with his Spirit, we are his mouthpieces.
As Peter and John once said when the religious leaders of their day tried to silence them, “We cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). We cannot. We will not.
Those who stand at the foot of the cross—forgiven and pure and shameless in Jesus Christ—have no mute button.
“Through all the tumult and the strife,
I hear its music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul,
How can I keep from singing?”
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This time last year one of Samuel's good friends and former celly's --- AND one of our adopted sons committed suicide. He had been released just 5 months prior and was engaged. It was SO tragic.
More from the FB Group
UPDATE:
Samuel is doing soooo much better! We feel like God has done a marvelous work in his heart and that we have our son back. Satan is SO vicious and wants to destroy him and all of us!
I am SO glad we have a Saviour that will NEVER leave nor forsake us! God has been so faithful to uphold us and carry us through. Once again we just praise Him that these things have drawn us closer to Him and teach us to trust Him.. but also have drawn us closer to Samuel and have open and honest communication which has helped to heal all of us.
Please keep praying for us. We SO want God to have the glory in this and in all things.
Thank you family and friends for your continued faithful prayers and well wishes.
We treasure each and everyone of you!
God Bless!
I want to leave you with a passage that we have memorized this past year that has come to mean so much to us! GOD IS GREAT!
Matthew 5 King James Version (KJV)
5 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
