Set Free
Judy Popineau Wick
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ”
Some of us were blessed to be raised in Christian families and accepted Jesus as Savior at a young age…and we've reaped the benefits of following Him as adults. But many were not raised that way.
While I will forever thank God for the family I was raised in - I have such a soft spot in my heart for those who found Jesus later and have fallen madly in love with Him. Just the simple “calling out” to God can have a profound effect on our lives…now and for eternity.
Like it has for Anh.
I met Anh (Ann) Vo through a mutual friend who served as a women’s prison guard. My friend told me Anh had found Jesus as an inmate and needed Christian women to mentor her. After connecting through letters and going through the prison-visitation hoops - the day arrived. As soon as I met Anh, I knew we had kindred spirits.
Backstory. Anh was raised in Vietnam. When she came with her family to America she began looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. She lived with her boyfriend, surrounded by lots of drinking and drugs.
On weekends Anh worked with a jewelry distribution business owner. She and her boss would visit jewelry shows to sell their wares.
She and her boyfriend become destitute. With Anh’s help a friend of theirs devised a plan to rob Anh’s boss the next Saturday when he drove to their apartment to pick up Anh for work. When her boss arrived, Anh stayed in the apartment, while the co-conspirator went to the car. As he initiated the robbery, a fight broke out. The friend shot and killed Anh’s boss.
Anh heard the gunshot from inside and collapsed on the floor. It was only supposed to be a robbery, but she knew she was now an accomplice to a murder. She turned herself in and owned up to her role, receiving a sentence of 25 years to life.
After several years in prison, Anh experienced an undeniable encounter with Jesus. While walking in the courtyard one day, she experienced a bright light shining on her and a sense in her soul that there was a God and she was loved. She immediately found a Christian group that ministered at the prison.
She was brokenhearted over the crime she helped commit. She repented of her sins and invited Christ into her heart. Radically transformed, she started attending a prison Bible study and immersed herself in God’s Word. She shared her newfound faith with other inmates. Many were won to Jesus.
After serving 21 years, Anh was released from prison six years ago. Today she serves as a counselor supervisor. She loves Jesus with all her heart.
There’s nothing like a transformed life!
If you reply, we will forward any encouraging words to Anh.
Maybe you would be interested in checking out ways to serve those incarcerated? Prison Fellowship is one good option. It could change someone’s life…maybe yours.