PP 269

Dear Prayer Partners,

It’s hard to believe I have been home a whole week already. Time is flying. I need to bring you up to date on the “Great Escape”. It kind of seemed like that.

Thursday The morning I was sitting in my chemo chair with the needles in my arm, but no medicine going through because the pharmacy hadn't’ mixed my bags yet. Three nurses came to me seeming pretty happy, and said, “Mr. Goris, we have good news for you. Your release has been approved. Do you want to continue with this treatment, or do you want to quit?” I said,” I want to continue, but I want to get it done and get out of here”. They assured me the bags would be there shortly.

Two hours later I was still waiting. Another nurse came along, and I said, “When will I be released?”  She said, “I don’t know but it needs to be soon, because we aren’t allowed to keep you over the weekend.”  Wow! I said, “Unhook me, I want to call my wife”. She said, “Oh, I’m sure your wife would rather you have this treatment.” Two and a half hours later,  I’m finally finished with my treatment. I wanted to talk to Jan because she had met Tom who had just flown in to visit me. I wanted to stop her because she was staying in Charlotte 2.5 hours away, and I wanted to tell her to pack her stuff for going home. We were told that Jan would be the first to know of my release, so when I called her I said, “Well what do you think of the news?” She said, “What news”. I said, “I’m getting released.” She couldn't believe it was real. I told her to turn around and go back to Charlotte and pack up all her things to go home. She did, and then came for the afternoon visit with Tom. It was a
great visit.

That afternoon they told me to pack up my stuff because I would be leaving Friday. I asked what time on Friday. They called the man in R&/D(receiving and departure). He said that  the earliest they do anybody is 8:30 am. I said put me down for 8:30 am. I spent the rest of the night and early Friday morning getting rid of my stuff. Inmates both friends and others were looking for handouts. I handed most everything out because what we consider junk here is pretty valuable there. I tried to take care of my friends.

Friday morning I got up early and took my clothes and bedding to the laundry and was supposed to get a receipt for it. There was nobody there, so I threw the stuff in a big hamper they had and an inmate said, “I’ll sign that for you, they never look at it anyway.” I found a cart and went to my room and loaded my bag of books on it and my personal things. I went to the waiting area on our floor waiting for my name to be called. I know how they are on remembering to call, and also sometimes they lock down the elevators and you can miss appointments. At 8:30 amfor some reason the gate to the elevator opened and my cart and I were pushed through. The elevator was there.  I went to the first floor where R&/D is. I still hadn’t been called. The
big steel door to the hallway to R&D is always locked and a guard needs to open it. An inmate was coming through and said, “Here, you want to go here?”  I said, “Yes” and shot through the door. My next big fear was showing up at R&D without being called. In Duluth that would have been a fatal mistake. As I got to the R&D door an inmate was just coming out and said, “Here, you can go in here”. I said, I don’t know if I can. I saw a guard in there and said can I come in?” He said, “What do you want?”  I said, “I’m supposed to leave at 8:30, my wife is waiting for me.” He said, “Well nobody is out there, nobody called”. I
said, “You’d better check.”

 Jan and Tom were waiting for me. The guards gave me a speedy check out, didn’t even look in my boxes, they just wanted me
out of their hair. In fifteen minutes I was outside with Jan and Tom. We got outside the visitor center where the shrubbery was manicured and looks so great. I said, “Wow, I didn’t know I was living in paradise.” We laughed about how it all went. It was almost like a jail break. Nobody called me, nobody told me to go, and if I hadn’t taken the matter in my own hands I probably wouldn’t have gotten out of there until noon. It seemed to be all legal, at least nobody shot
at us as we left.

It was so great to be free. Tom and Jan knew I was most hungry for fried eggs and bacon. So Tom took me for breakfast and then we parted.  Tom flew home.   Jan and I had the next three days which we had looked forward to so much and it was wonderful. We stopped for gas and I got out of the car and felt like I should wait for a guard to walk ahead of me. I went into the gas station with five dollars cash in my pocket and bought a newspaper. That was so great.

The drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains was so nice. We stopped at Bill Graham’s “the cove” and saw that. In the chapel they have a prayer tower. We realized we had not stopped to pray for this great occasion, we intended to, but got too busy. So there in that prayer tower we thanked God for caring for us and preserving us to this day. Rather Jan prayed.  I was so filled with emotion I couldn’t speak. I find everything is very emotional to me. The country was so beautiful, the trees greener, the cars newer, and it just seemed that everybody has such a good life and affluence.

We planned to travel short days, but drove until midnight the first two nights because we stopped so much and wanted to get to Amy in Kansas City and see them. In Kansas City Amy has a bunch of friends who are prayer partners and many came over to celebrate with food and prayer. Matt Tucker’s family, who live only about 20 minutes from Amy, came too, and met the
Prayer Partners and now they will be prayed for too and know the
people. It was a great time.

Sunday night we got in Minneapolis late so stayed with Tom and Jill in their new place in Bloomington. We slept in Lydia’s bedroom. Monday morning bright and early we were at the probation office to meet the probation officer. He’s a nice man. I only have to send in an email report once a month, but I am under supervised release for three years. I’m not supposed to leave the state for the first two months. I told him my life expectancy and I said I feel strong right now and I would like to visit my grandchildren in Dallas and in Kansas City while I still have strength. He said he could ask the judge, but usually that is not done in the first two months. I said I’d rather he not ask the judge, I just don’t want my name coming up in front of her more than necessary.  Later as we were driving home, the phone rang. It was the PO. He said he had called the judge and she said she would give permission due to the circumstances.

So many blessings, so much grace, it’s hard to take it all in. We went to a picnic in the park with Lisa’s church. Experiencing the worship was just overwhelming to me, I couldn’t  sing, although I wanted to very much. Then the expressions of joy and love to me from the people really did me in. I was very emotional. I thought, I hope I can get used to this.

Sunday we went to our home church in Willmar. For three years I was wondering how that would be. There was hesitancy on my part, but I thought I needed to break the ice. The experience was so wonderful. So much love, grace, and acceptance, just overwhelming,  but so good. I’m so glad we went. We stayed with my sister Marcy who lost her husband to ALS 18 months ago. It was good to be with her. Our extended family has grown so much closer through all of this.

This coming weekend grandson Levi is having his graduation party here and there will be many prayer partners here from Lisa’s church, as well as extended family. Then, (be sure to remember this one,) if you can make it we are having a thanksgiving celebration at the Willmar Evangelical Free church on June 27 at 6:30 p.m.. Everyone is invited, even if you haven’t been a prayer partner, if anyone is interested, please come. We are going to honor God for his faithfulness, forgiveness, grace and mercy. I pray that it will be a time of encouragement for others who are going through hard times. Our family will lead some worship, I’ll do some speaking, and we will pray. Pray with me for that time, that the Creator of the universe will receive all the glory and praise, and not the creature. All the good that has come from this is from God’s hand and he blesses us even when we are unworthy. Pray that the Holy Spirit will go before us that night and direct everything that is said and happens. It’s all
about God and his goodness.

Everything is hard to do now that I am home. Getting new phone service, figuring out what to do for a computer, I lost so much contact information so if you haven’t heard from me please send me an email, However I am still learning Gmail and am not even sure I can save addresses right.

I’m so thankful for our home here in Elk River. It has been so good for Jan and I love it too. I hope in time you can all come and see our nice little place. It’s a real garden apartment. Right out our door is a beautiful garden that Jan keeps herself very busy in. We have grandchildren stopping in and  running through. It’s really great. It’s so nice to have the little ones around.

I could go on and on, but I think you have read enough if you are still with me.
I’ll be keeping you posted on how it’s going.

Thanks so much for following.

 Bob