June 24 Letter

June 24, 2020

Day 569

Dear Friend,

I am asking you to please pray with me and my family.  On Friday, June 26, my sentencing judge, Richard Arcara, should be receiving my final response to the lawyers replies to his second set of very pointed inquiries in regard to the motion to vacate my sentence I sent to him approximately one year ago.  My “jailhouse lawyer” has been diligently working on this 17-page document since February, and the end result is excellent and right on point.

So please pray that God moves Judge Arcara’s heart and that he will soon send me home completely vindicated!  I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing the motion this far and am looking forward to many seeing God’s hand at work in a marvelous way which brings glory only to Him!

Today, just prior to our scheduled weekly recreation time outside, we were informed it had been cancelled.  We consequently heard several rumors why, but eventually the warden sent out an email and informed the inmate population that Covid-19 has officially made its way into Ashland Federal Correctional Institution.  But for me, it hits a little closer to home.  A week ago, last Monday, they began to allow the three men in our unit who work in HVAC to go back to work.  It turns out the guard who supervises the HVAC crew tested positive today for Covid-19.  So, any inmates who work around him were put into immediate quarantine in the unit next door in our building.  One of them is K, who meets with our Bible study and prayer group each night, when 10-13 of us cram into one of our 7′ X 9′ cells for this purpose.  So please also pray that none of the inmates, especially K or those who were meeting with him, has contracted Covid-19.

It just dawned on me that it is already summertime.  We pretty much missed Spring being locked into our climate-controlled unit 24-7 since wintertime.  And it never even dawned on me we were close to summertime, let alone in it!

Thank you for continuing to pray for us.  Kathie especially needs your prayer as some broken teeth have been giving her fits and are now forcing her to have more painful oral surgery.  I would love to be home with her as she goes through this trying time!

In His service,

Philip Zodhiates

P.S.  Please also pray for “J” and “A,” who regularly come to our Bible study and are close to giving their lives to Christ.