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    Alone Outside the Walls
    Alone Outside the Walls
    Alone Outside the Walls
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    Alone Outside the Walls

    By Jo Antley

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    About this ebook



    Alone Outside the Walls is
    a true story of a wife and mother left alone to raise four children while her
    husband was incarcerated. The trials
    and tribulations she faced are only surpassed by a true-found faith in the one
    true God, the God of heaven and earth, Who saw her through them all and blessed
    her above and beyond all human expectation.
    This action-packed, at times humorous, sometimes heart wrenching true
    account begins in Lake Wales, Florida, stops over in Nashville, Tennessee,
    travels to Jackson, Michigan, retreats to Warsaw, Indiana, settles in Ionia,
    Michigan, moves to Arcadia, Florida, and culminates in Okeechobee, Florida.



    An autobiography that should give hope to anyone, in any
    situation.



    By:
    JO ANTLEY



    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateOct 30, 2003
    ISBN9781410736901
    Alone Outside the Walls
    Author

    Jo Antley

    Jo Antley, known in the ministry as Sis. Jo, was the author of Alone Outside the Walls, a true account of left alone to raise four children while her husband was in prison. How her children overcame and succeeded in life are featured in that book. With the Death of a Son is a sequel, sharing the tragic conclusion to the youngest of the four. This autobiography gives hope, comfort, and guidance to others grieving a life-wrenching loss. The events in this true story take place in the deep South, in the states of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Sis. Jo, a single Mom, worked, raised her children in the faith, spent one full year at Indian River Jr. College, and ten part-time years at Bible College. From that, in 19994, she founded Beacon Ministries, Inc., a prison ministry. She counsels, writes Bible studies, devotionals, and verse commentaries on Proverbs. This ministry is faith supported and reaches all 50 states. Beacon Ministries, Inc. P.O. Box 363 Sebring, FL. 33871-0363

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      Book preview

      Alone Outside the Walls - Jo Antley

      ©2001, 2003 by Jo Antley. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

      ISBN: 1-4107-3690-3 (e-book)

      ISBN: 1-4107-3689-X (Paperback)

      1stBooks-rev. 10/29/03

      CONTENTS PAGE

      Preface

      1. When It All Began

      2. Getting Settled

      3. Adjusting To God’s Will In This New Place

      4. The Windows Of Heaven Opened

      5. God Understands Our Deepest Needs

      6. Being Both Mom And Dad

      7. Coping With Loneliness

      8. Not Like I Expected

      9. Life In Okeechobee

      10. The Night That Changed Our Lives Forever

      11. The Night He Never Came Home

      12. The Trial

      13. Victory Over Circumstances

      About The Author

      PREFACE

      Dear Reader,

      This book is written with a two-fold purpose in mind:

      1. To encourage the person facing life’s battles alone because their spouse is imprisoned behind steel bars and concrete walls.

      2. To help the imprisoned person to a deeper understanding of the trials and hardships their spouse encounters alone in a cruel world during the incarceration.

      To the best of my ability, I have tried to relate in brutal honesty, the struggles, hardships, and discriminations I faced as a young mother while my husband served his time. I also disclose my secret to overcoming the world, my determined faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who saved my miserable, wretched, but precious soul shortly after my husband went to prison the first time. I still marvel at God’s goodness in all that He did for me during those years. It is my prayer that you will marvel, too; and then realize that God is no respecter of persons, and that He is willing to do even more for you, if your love for Him is genuine. He is looking for two things:

      1. Pure hearts that adore Him [worship in truth].

      2. Holy lives that walk in obedience to His Word [faithfulness].

      The combination of those two things, bathed in prayer, will bring the peace, presence, power, protection, and glory of God into our lives and homes. We will be like that tree that is planted by the rivers of water, whose leaves shall not wither; and whatsoever we do shall prosper [Psalm 1:3], because everything we do will be done according to God’s will for His glory.

      Then like me, in the end, you will realize that you are not alone inside or outside those walls.

      That is my prayer for you and my purpose for this book!

      Truly Yours, Jo Antley

      WHEN IT ALL BEGAN

      It was the fall of 1968 in Lake Wales, Florida, and we were expecting another child to be born in February. Shelly-jo was 4 years old; Jeffrey was 2; and Billy had died in 1967. Dave said he heard that he could make big money working for the auto industry in Michigan. Neither of us was a born-again believer at the time, so there was no praying about it. He said he would go and get the job, secure housing, and when the baby and I were able to travel, he would come get the children and me. In early January, I received word that Dave had been arrested [for what I didn’t even know] and that he was on his way to prison for 10 to 15 years.

      When you are in your 20’s, ten to fifteen years sounds like the rest of your life, or at least it did to me. I was twenty-four. On January 31, 1969, the baby came. Dave wanted the baby to be his junior. But, he was gone. This was the last child I would ever be able to have, I reasoned, and I always wanted a son named Johnny. In an effort to appease my husband, I named the little boy, Johnny David. And so began our long, frightening journey, alone outside the walls that kept us from the one we loved.

      I grew up in a non-Christian home. As a child, I wanted to go to church, so when I was 10, I started walking across town to attend the First Methodist Church. That is where I attended until I married at 19. Then I attended nowhere.

      The Lord strategically placed us in the middle of a Baptist neighborhood. Several neighbors kept inviting me to come hear their new preacher, whom they said was a beautiful person that preached the Word in power. I had my excuses. For one thing, I was a Methodist and my adopted mom had always told me to stay away from those Baptists. They believe you’re saved by baptism, she would say.

      Two ladies from the big Baptist church visited me shortly after Johnny was born, and asked me if I was saved. I took offence to that, thinking they thought they were better than me. I said, Of course I’m saved. and I proceeded to tell them of all the good things I had done in the Methodist Church. I especially delighted in telling them how I got immersed into the Methodist Church. They didn’t say anything; but they looked around the room and saw that Johnny was sleeping in a large cardboard box that I had made into a baby bed the best I could. They saw how sick I was and left.

      Three hours later they came back unexpectedly. They had bags of clothes for all three children, a bassinet for Johnny to sleep in, and a complete meal prepared. They put spaghetti, salad, rolls, tea, and a cake on the table along with paper plates, cups, napkins, and plastic spoons, forks, knives. They said they knew I wasn’t able to wash dishes. I had never seen God’s love in action like this before. I decided that I didn’t have to believe their doctrine to attend their church; and I liked the idea of walking into a church where they would be thrilled to see me coming. When Johnny was three weeks old, I took the children and attended the First Baptist Church of Lake Wales, Florida for the first time.

      For several weeks we just went to Sunday School. I told them I liked to listen to Rex Humbard on TV. Eventually they talked me into staying for church. The only song I remember singing that day was Count Your Many Blessings. I had been on quite a pity party; and the Lord spoke to me through the words of that song. At first, I didn’t see anything so special about their new preacher. I didn’t think he was a beautiful person. In fact, I thought he was rather homely. The only words that stuck with me from Brother Theo Burrell’s sermons those following weeks, was God’s will for your life.

      But, one day in April of 1969, I sat at home believing I just couldn’t cope any more. I wanted to run away and I didn’t know if I wanted to take the children with me or not. I went out on the Florida porch and relaxed in a webbed lounger to think about where I might go, and how I was going to get there. [I didn’t have much money.] While I sat pondering these things, it seemed like a voice inside my mind said, You can’t run away from yourself.

      I didn’t stop to think of Who I might be talking to, but emphatically I answered out loud. I’m not running away from myself! I’m running away from this mess I’m in. Silently though, I sat and pondered my own statements. Suddenly, I realized that I couldn’t run away from myself. No matter where I went, I would be there with my messed-up self and all my problems. I didn’t even like myself. In fact, I hated myself. A horrible sense of entrapment, hopelessness and helplessness gripped me when I realized the truth of the statement: You can’t run away from yourself. What am I going to do? I asked out loud. That voice inside my head came back again, and said, How long has it been since you’ve had God’s will for your life?

      Well, now I really had to think hard, because I had always thought of myself as being saved, and surely I had been in God’s will somewhere. At 24, I had only made two important decisions in

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