Barabbas Project

Robert Tisland

                  Cities of Refuge

Paul Cantwell

Paul Cantwell #186354
Robert Tisland  #562846 and
James Blunt #481727

GBCI; PO Box 19033
Green Bay, WI 54307

James Blunt

Three  sections
INTRO: https://ffupstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/birth-of-barabbas-project.pdf

Three Hearts, One Vision to Complete: https://ffupstuff.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/3-hearts-1-vision-to-complete.pdf

Kaizen, A WAY AHEAD- "the meat and potatoes of what we are doing"


 Letter of explanation and Introduction by Robert Tisland

Personal explanation

          We are believers in Jesus, beyond any doubt, HOWEVER, because we actually understand that being a Christian is supposed to be about loving people, forgiving people, helping people m being merciful. In other words love looks like something… because of that we find ourselves actually rejected by most churches of the world. You see, for most people religion is all about rules and regulations that are generally putting place by the church to control people through fear of failure and punishment of failure and punishment of failure. I grew up on one of those churches.  My dad was a pastor in one of those churches, and he never lived any part of what he preached. Truthfully he was a complete hypocrite and the most violently abusive person I’ve ever known.

            We didn’t write the churches because we are fancy, this or that we write them because we know that the churches are called to love prisoners, forgive them, help them, and most of all, we wrote the churches because they have failed in every aspect of loving people, especially those in prison.

            The cities of Refuge will be places if love and healing, for those of any religious belief at all, it is about taking in those that society threw away. And about actively helping those people reconcile with their families and friends,  get all the counseling  they need, live in a safe community where they will not be feared, hated, disrespected or discriminated against. There won’t even be any parole officers inside these cities of refuge. WE will give them what society won’t –a chance to successfully get on their feet and live a truly free life.

            The expectations inside these places will be that once the former prisoner reaches the end of their 7 years, they will have been able to walk out with maybe $250,000 in savings, walk out reconciled with family and friends in new healthy relationships, walk out without any of the psychological luggage that they came to prison with. It will not be about controlling people, but guiding people through mentorship, education and counseling in every area of their life.

            Yes are expectations are huge, but we just don’t have it in us to worry about the enormity of this vision. We know that our Daddy in Heaven will make it all possible..after all he sent Jesus to love the brokenhearted and the prisoner. WE fully understand that what we proposed is massive, but the vision is clear, and we see the end result.. nothing will ever stop us. We expect to be condemned, rejected, mocked, attacked and persecuted along the way, and we don’t care. WE cannot possibly give up on this, it literally consumes our lives! We have a broken heart for prisoners, for their victims, for prisoners families, we love and someone has to stop this madness.

            So we are not your typical Christians, we actually believe Christianity is about loving people and that love looks like something. Actions must actually match words. We aren’t perfect, we are forgiven!

I promise you we will see these things come to pass. We will see love become the new culture norm.