Miriam

26 April 2020

Dear Phyllis,

I know this is a repeat; this is a story that I have told you before, but it is one that is well worth telling again. I am not a soul winner. It is a great personal grief that I have brought so few to Christ since being saved, but this does make the few that I have in my basket more precious.

In 1960 I had the privilege of praying with an airman at work one day at Yokota. When Gary Reid told me that his wife was Jewish from Israel, we began to pray for Miriam. What happened in the next few months belong in the catalog of some of my finest memories. The Holy Spirit began a work like I had never heard before or since in bringing Miriam to Jesus. I had very little to do with it other than being an observer, but as I was one of the few people that understood what was going on in her life, Miriam subsequently has credited me as being her spiritual father.

Jeanna Crane is a rerun of Miriam Reid. I really have had very little to do with what Jesus has done for Jeanna, but I was fortunate enough to be one standing on the sidewalk to observe Jeanna as she passed by. Like Miriam, Jeanna somewhat credits me as being her spiritual father, but the most I can lay claim to is being Jesus' mail man who handed her a few letters that came directly from heaven.

In 2005 there was a very major news event that happened in Chiang Mai. A Canadian lady shot and killed her husband.. It was such a dramatic event that it was front page news in the news papers and carried as major evening news on TV. It was so dramatic that this event was even published in the Bangkok Post and made its way to the international wire services to be published world wide. When we heard about it, our first thought went to the lady who pulled the trigger and wondered how someone could get in the ladies prison to witness to her before she was executed. The sentences wasn't passed yet, but there was the distinct possibility that she could get the death sentence for that crime. Amazingly, the wife of my dear friend Dave Moore, had a ministry inside the womans prison in Chiang Mai. Joyce was able to meet the prisoner and subsequently baptized her. Amazing! But that was only the beginning of the story.

Another close friend of mine, Scott Noble, had a ministry inside the prison and was going in every Wednesday to teach English to lady prisoners. Through that opening, Scott was able to meet Jeanna every week. She was deeply involved in New Age and engaged in heated arguments with Scott every week. This went on for six months until one day Scott told her the story about the top North Vietnam general who died in a hospital in Saigon, went out into eternity, met Jesus, and came back from the dead a born-again Christian. More than that, Scott told her that a good friend of his had stayed with that general in his home, and knew him quite personally. That got her attention. She had never heard a story like that before. Jeanna asked Scott, “Would it be possible for you to bring that man who knows the general in here so I could meet him?” Scott asked me if I would go with him to speak with Jeanna in the prison. That started one of the greatest epics of my life that lasted three years.

I had no business in that prison at all. I had no authorization whatsoever, but walked in there on the basis of an old expired California drivers license. They let me in there like I was the warden. There is no explanation for what happened. Prisoner are only allowed to have a .visitor 15 minutes a week and then that is only through a thick glass. Jeanna and I were able to sit together at a table like we were in a coffee shop drinking coffee. Scott was mad. He had been dealing with this hard-head for six months as she stood against him arguing toe to toe. When I spoke to her she sat down listening like a little bird to be feed by her mother. The first week I simply listened to Jeanna to hear her story. When we left I told Scott, “This woman is slam full of demons. What she needs is Neil Anderson's book, Bondage Breaker”. Scott got Bondage Breaker and gave it to her. Jeanna devoured it. She told Scott, “When I read that book I thought he had written my biography. I was on every page.” She asked, “Could you have Bill come back in here to cast these demons out of me?” The next week I was back in there talking with Jeanna. I told her, “Those demons are no problem. I can easily cast them out, but that won't do much good as they will simply come right back in. What you need is light.” That started it.

For the next three years it was my great joy to go with Scott every Wednesday to the womens prison and sit with Jeanna in “our coffee shop” teaching, discipling, and fellowshipping in Christ. The guards were ridiculous. I told them. “You guards are almost a disgrace to your profession. You are supposed to be as mean, ugly, and vicious as junk yard police dogs, but instead you are so sweet, cheerful, and helpful, you are going to ruin the reputation of prison guards”. I mean, it was ridiculous. Every week we would sit there right in the presence of a guard at a table drinking coffee, with the Bible open before us enjoying some of the greatest fellowship of my life.

Jeanna had been married to a monster. He was the scum of society. He was a cult leader and called himself Jesus. He was a crook and swindled a lot of women out of fortunes of money. He was a womanizer. Jeanna had been with him in much of his illicit dealing, and had five children by him. He was at a restaurant with another woman the night of the shooting. Jeanna went there to confront him and a fight resulted. He pulled a gun on her but in the subsequent struggle he dropped it and fled. Jeanna picked up the gun and shot him. The only thing she did wrong was she should have shot him sooner, but Jesus will forgive her for that. Due to the unusual circumstances of the shooting the judge ruled self-defense and reduced her sentence to three years And they were the best years of her life.

Scott was fantastic. She was a avid reader and Scott kept her well supplied with the finest Christian books every week. I never saw anything like it. I have never met such a well read Christian. By the end of the second year Jeanna had the grounding of a seminary graduate. She had a unique environment. Here she was locked up in prison with absolutely nothing to do each day but read the Bible, Christian books, and pray. She had zero responsibility, Now where can you duplicate that? She grew like Jack's bean stock. It wasn't long before I would show her things in the Word, and she would reply, “Yes, I just read that”. What a joy!

At the end of three years it was a bitter-sweet experience when Scott and I went to the Chiang Mai airport to say farewell. Tears rolled down my cheeks. What a sight! Here was a lady who was the central figure in an internationally famous murder. Oh what Jesus had done! She was beautiful. Oh she was a gorgeous model of grace as she waved goodbye to clear customs and return to Canada.

Jeanna was such an intelligent, talented woman I had full expectation that within a few years she might be a household name. Of course I expected her to write an autobiography and be a well known speaker at lady and Christian conferences across north America. I thought she would be a lady Chuck Colson.. I was dead wrong.

For three years her single passion and prayer was for her children. She had neglected them ever since being born and now she was looking forward to being united and training them to be warriors for Jesus. Instead of that warn reunion Jeanna walked into a buzz saw. The next few years were almost worse than the prison, But Jesus has been faithful. Sixteen years have past. Barriers have been broken down, Today Jeanna is very much involved fellowshipping with Messianic Christians. The last I heard from her she wrote, “I might write a book”. Okay. But the main thing is the books that have been written in heaven and it is one of the greatest honors of my life that, as a footnote, Jesus might add, “Bill Cook was My mail man.”

Oh thank You Lord,

                                        bill