August 2026 Newsletter
August 4, 2026
Down through the ages, the inimitable call of God on the lives of His servants is still the same (Matt. 28:18-20)! He never calls any of us to be successful, just faithful (Rev. 2:10c)! We will not be judged on the quantity of our work for our Lord, but rather on the quality of our work for Him (1 Cor. 3:13)!
Any time that this passionate soul winner is led by his Lord to assist His people in western Greene County, we always bear real spiritual fruit together (John 15)! Pastor Don Bible of Bibles Chapel Baptist Church had me to share the glorious gospel message with the children in Vacation Bible School. Mrs. Julie Johnson is the director, and she always does a great job of leading! We have seen many children, young people, college students, and adults come to faith in the Lord Jesus over the past 26 years in many evangelistic settings! Pastor Don always has His people prayed up and ready to go with the gospel! All day long I could really feel the overwhelming Holy Spirit power surges as the faithful warriors of Bibles Chapel Baptist Church were calling on their Lord in passionate, persistent, powerful prayer! That is where the power comes from! “No Prayer. No Power! Much Prayer. Much Power” (Jer. 33:3)!
My Lord instructed me to use the EvangeCube to share the gospel along with a power point illustration on my iPad. I also gave each student and teacher a beautiful marked New Testament! The children and young people responded positively! I give the gospel in a much different way in a VBS setting because one must be very careful in sharing the gospel with children! The only pressure that they need to experience is from the Holy Spirit! A precious 12-year-old adolescent boy accepted Jesus as His Savior and Lord! I never ask the children to come forward, but to just raise their hand that they have accepted the Lord Jesus. Then, I dismiss the class, and I ask those who have made a decision to stay and speak with the leaders and pastor. This young man was under such strong conviction that he sat there by himself in tears of conviction and repentance! That took a whole lot of courage! I did not know at the time, but one of his teachers was the same lady who had brought him to VBS with her children! As I began to do the follow-up with him, his teacher was so moved by the overwhelming power of the Holy Spirit that she began to literally sob in tears of great joy as she got up from her seat and came to him and hugged him! It was one beautiful scene!
The overwhelming power of the living God continues to move mightily in the Jefferson County Jail! One of the men walked into the Church Room and said: “Brother Jeff, I got 10 years yesterday! Last month we prayed that I could see my children. That weekend my children came to see me!” He was so happy that he was able to see his children that a 10-year sentence did not steal his great joy! One of the cell blocks is really on fire for their Lord and they are leading newcomers in their cell block to Him! One of the new believers was released and he wrote to the men to let them know how thankful that he is for them sharing the gospel with him! He told them that if he had not been in their cell block that he still would be spiritually lost! He also said that as soon as he got back home, he led his children to faith in the Lord Jesus!
For close to two years, the men in the Jefferson County Jail have been asking about baptism! Only the power of the living God could have put a baptismal service together in this very dark spiritual place (Luke1:37)! I want to personally thank Sheriff Jeff Coffey, Brother Ronnie Phipps, Brother Chris Barnes, and Captain Courtney Breeden for all their hard work in getting the service off the ground! Without their professional expertise, it would never have happened! Brother Ronnie Phipps created an excellent order of service to honor the men who were baptized! A strong portable baptistry was donated by the ministry Men of Valor! Sheriff Jeff Coffey shared his heart as he gave his personal testimony to the men! It was like our Lord dropped a cannon ball out of Heaven into the middle of the Church Room! Praise the Lord that Sheriff Coffey is neither afraid nor ashamed to speak for his Lord (Mark 8:38)! I wish that you could have seen the look on the men’s faces as he boldly told them about the importance of salvation and baptism! Thirteen men were baptized outside in the rain! Of course, we are not allowed to show the baptismal service in public, but the Leadership placed info about it on their Facebook page! Each man was presented a beautiful baptismal certificate that each of us signed. It was then placed in a protective folder in a locker that they can take with them when they leave the facility.
I was back in the jail the very next day for my regular time with the men. A cell block that I am never permitted to see was allowed to come to church! Three of these dear men had been baptized less than 24 hours earlier! When they came into the Church Room, the awesome power of God was with them! Several of these dear men hugged me and thanked me for standing with them! All of us rejoiced during our prayer and praise time! One of the men gave a praise report that I have never heard! He stated: “I was once a blasphemer and God has forgiven me!” Tears were running down his face! I could see them hitting the floor! When this young man boldly made this statement, the tremendous power of the Holy Spirit was unleashed! Other men began to offer prayer requests and praise reports! Suddenly, a 27-year-old young man who was standing beside me stated, with tears of conviction streaming down his face: “Brother Jeff, I am hearing all of you men talk about salvation and transformation. This is what I want for my life!” For the first time in over six years of coming in this facility, I led this young man to faith in the Lord Jesus in front of the men in attendance verse by verse! I also went through the follow-up process on how to have assurance of your salvation with him so that they can learn how to do it! I told the men that Sheriff Jeff Coffey told them the night before that their Lord would use them right where they are! One of the men wrote on his decision card: “God is good. God is great. I will praise Him forever. I have been feeling closer to the Lord, and it is a great feeling. Praise be to God!” Another man stated out loud: “I can’t stop crying after being baptized!”
A faithful soul winner in Kentucky has distributed several thousand How to Be Born Again flyers over the past year! He just sent over 1,000 to Zimbabwe in Africa with a team on a mission trip! Now he has ordered and received another 2,000 English and Spanish How to Be Born Again flyers! A faithful soul winner in Knoxville has ordered and received over 100 flyers! She has distributed thousands of them over the past 21 years!
Kim and I recently saw a dear lady who we have not seen in many years. She let us know that she appreciates the daily Facebook posts as well as the television broadcasts!
With all my heart, thank you for your powerful, persistent, and passionate prayers! As you can clearly see, they are being powerfully answered by the living God of Heaven and earth! At the end of this month on Sunday, August 30, I will be sharing the gospel on Youth Sunday at Bibles Chapel Baptist Church in Midway, TN where Don Bible is the pastor. On Sept. 27-30, I will be in a revival setting with Pastor Milton Knox in Spring City, TN at Central Baptist Church. The day before, Saturday Sept. 26, I will be conducting a Soul Winning Clinic at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Knoxville, TN where Bob Provence is the pastor. This is in preparation for a revival here on October 18-21. YES! Please be praying with me for these very important upcoming events!
The Lord Jesus could return any day now! I pray that He will find this passionate soul winner leading spiritually lost people to faith in Him wherever He chooses to place me in His world! I appreciate and love you more than words can ever express! I am also sending an excerpt from one of the hand-written letters from one of the men whose heart has been transformed by the awesome power of the living God in the Jefferson County Jail!
For Souls Forever In Heaven,
Jeffrey L. Harvel
Matthew 24:44
Letter from an inmate at the Jefferson County Jail to Jeff:
Brother Jeff,
The love, knowledge, wisdom of God shines through you with beautiful radiance and is entirely infectious; Praise be to God in Heaven who through the blood of Christ and guidance of the Holy Spirit has blessed you with these beautiful treasures and praise also be to God for opening the door for you to preach the word to us men that are in desperate need of these teachings!
From the first “I love you men,” “Use prayer, a little dab will do you,” “Amazing Grace,” “Oh, How I Love Jesus,” “This Little Light of Mine,” prayer circle, and time you put into helping those of us with broken hearts: I knew you were truly a man of God called to teach, and that you truly “in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Colossians 3:17)!
Through your example, Brother, I pray to God I always remember and exhibit the same infectious love of and for God that you have, so that any time I preach and teach, it will carry the same impact of the power of God that it does through you. Thank you, Brother Jeff, for all you do for us! And thank God for you!
