A Table of Thanksgiving – Join Us at the Table

This November, it’s not just one day of showing gratitude…we are celebrating a whole month of Thanksgiving…for you, and everyone in our Dismas Ministry family.

Throughout the month of November, we are celebrating GRATITUDE.

Gratitude for our Dismas Ministry family.
Gratitude for our Donors.
Gratitude shown from the prisoners we serve.
Gratitude to God for His abundant blessings.

Follow us throughout November on our social media outlets and our website as we share messages from prisoners, chaplains, and family and friends of the incarcerated who express their gratitude for our ministry. We enjoy hearing from you, too, our friends and benefactors.

Please join us at our Table of Thanksgiving and share your expressions of gratitude.

We cannot do this work without your prayerful and financial support. During this season of Thanksgiving, we invite you to share your expressions of gratitude.

Here are a few ways to share your gratitude:

  1. Send us an email at gratitude@dismasministry.org (We’ll share these on our social media sites, anonymously.)
  2. Comment on and share our social media posts. (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.)
  3. Create your own posts and tag us in your comments. Use the hashtag #sharinggratitude.
  4. Donate on our Thankful Thursdays (see below).

We are celebrating Thankful Thursday each Thursday in November.

Provide a Bible for a prisoner in need.

Provide a Prayer Book for a prisoner in need.

Provide a Study Course for a prisoner in need.

Thursday, November 26

Let us Pray for you! Send us your prayer intentions anytime before November 26, and we will pray for you on Thanksgiving Day!

Send your prayer intentions to prayers@dismasministry.org

Thank You for Joining Us at the Table!

Thank you for being part of our Dismas Ministry Family! We are sharing your GRATITUDE!  The messages below have been received on our gratitude@dismasministry.org email.  If you have a gratitude message you would like us to share – email us today!

“I do a daily post on Facebook from America Needs Fatima. Yesterday the post showed Christ on the Cross and just Dismas on his Cross. The “good” thief. It was a great opportunity to share the Dismas Ministry website with the many people who view my daily posts. I am also very grateful that God has blessed me with the ability to financially support your ministry. God bless your work for so many!”

“I am thanking for every moment God gives me here with my family and friends. Every moment is a Good and Perfect Gift and I am grateful for His mercy and Grace!!!”

“I  am thankful that I have God in my life.  Iam able to go to daily mass 3-4 times during the week, I love our faith…..I am glad that I have a personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son and The Holy Spirit… our Blessed Mother has helped me to know Her Son and Our Heavenly Father and help me to become the person God made.

I am thankful for my family.  My husband who is 76 and still working and in good health, my two daughters and their families… I Love being a Wife, Mom and grandma… I love every minute  with them…
I love watching my girls start their own traditions and keep some old ones… I love to see how much my family love each other…( not to say we don’t have some disagreements) we are normal.
I’m thankful that God has given us all good health and happiness.  I’m  thankful that God continues to help My husband and I to help others..
My prayer for this thanksgiving is that God will give our world a time for forgiveness, reflection of the importance of everyone and that everyone that is incarcerated a time to be able to hear from their loved ones and the church’s and ministries to give them some much needed reading material and prayer.

“I am grateful for all the people through God’s grace who have been the hand of Christ in leading me from being a drunk to being Alive.

Amen.”

“I am so grateful for all the good books I have read since childhood.  I am also grateful that for more than 50 years I have been able to meet with other readers in book clubs to talk, learn, and share the experience of reading.”

“I am grateful for initiatives made by prison chaplains to allow the men and women inside to have zoom prayer services with religious volunteers (Who because of Covid restrictions have been prevented and doing their volunteer service since the March shut down.)”

“Thank you, Dismas Ministry!
We are so blessed!
At the conclusion of the Men’s Faith Sharing Group on Saturday mornings, we go around the virtual table, and give everyone a chance to voice their requested prayer intentions for the coming week.  The last one to speak is Bob Lee, who is confined to a wheelchair because of his MS.  Although he accepts the fact that he will be in ‘assisted living’ the rest of his life, and needs help with the simplest of personal tasks, he is always cheerful and eager to join our Zoom call on Saturday.  He finishes his intentions with the same comment, “Dear Lord we thank you for your continuous unconditional love.”  I second that whole heartedly, and add that I am grateful for ‘everything’ in my life.  In America, we are so blessed, we should avoid taking anything for granted.  Clean water, comfortable homes, access to available food and faith communities – in short all those things that people who are or have been incarcerated do not enjoy.  Due to an untimely death of our St. Vincent dePaul, St. Dismas Jail/Prison Ministry Intake & Case Manager, I am back to working part-time, manning the window/desk for the recently released people who are trying to ‘exist’ in a society that makes it extremely challenging to find adequate housing, employment and transportation.  I now come face-to-face with the disenfranchised and marginalized on a daily basis.  In addition to the unhealthy choices that led them to being incarcerated, it is astonishing to witness the lack of ‘life skills’ and basic education that also separate them from society.  Have I mentioned that we are so blessed?  I will also add I am tremendously grateful for all the opportunities God gives me to share His love!  This tells me that He truly loves me as I am, but does not want to stay that way, and is giving me opportunities to improve and become, as Matthew Kelly says, “the best version of myself.”   Have I mentioned that we are so blessed?
God bless & love, jw “

“Five daughters and a son rallied around me as I experienced three heart attacks and a back (spinal cord) operation. In and out of hospitals and clinics.

I lovingly refer to them as “my staff” as they have been at my side fielding all concerns, questions, appointments, and setting up a “spread sheet” for me to follow med’s, appointments, and track on my exercises. Grateful?  Wow!!  Praise the Lord and ask him to bless “the staff”.

Thank you for all you’ve done for our incarcerated brothers and sister as we all pray for the opportunity to continue our jail/prison ministry when the “lock-down” is lifted.

May the Lord’s love and peace be with you.

“I am gratitude for my family who have been creative to continue to stay connected through new technology. My family is divided by four household but we have had story telling times, poet writing classes and made pizzas from scratch. During these times, we have laughed and enjoyed are family time that used to be at Sundays dinners or family gatherings. We are about to make tamales a 30 years tradition through Zoom. Whether we are together or apart we are a family.

Together we serve God’s People as One.”

“We love because he [God] first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19.

“Grateful for friends and family, especially my husband, at a time I’m not feeling well and we’re having trouble reaching my doctor.
( Won’t it be nice when COVID is under control?)”

“For life that God blesses me with everyday.
For my health and being able to work.
And for my family which are scattered all over.”

“I’m so very grateful for my Catholic faith – especially during such bizarre times in our country when there seems to be a vacuum of morality where for many months there is no common societal morality – simple right and wrong is forgotten.  Violence and bullying prevails (e.g., antics and some factions of BLM) and people’s right to peacefully stand up for what they believe.  The world is upside down, but Christianity also prevails in our hearts
My relationship with Christ raises my heart and mind above the chaos.  I’m assured that while I do all I can here to live the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and maintain a close relationship with Christ, that there is an eternity that I’m living for and is available for everyone, yet not everyone will accept.
Blessings to all of you!”

“Thanks for all you do in support of prisoners, and all affected by their incarceration.
I am grateful for good health, family and friends.”
“During these challenging times in our nation, and in our world, I am grateful for those who are quietly doing good works and bringing hope to others who are struggling right now.”

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to be of service to others in need through my work.”

“Gratitude to God for allowing me to serve the prisoner, widow, orphan, and those least of His brethren.”

20 in 2020

In honor of our 20th Anniversary in 2020, please consider a recurring gift. Help us fulfill our mission and join us in providing bibles for prisoners all year long:

Consider a gift of just $20 a month during 2020.

Donate $20 in 2020
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