Driving to Sioux Falls on Friday at 8:00 AM, I was in prayer for the upcoming weekend. This weekend would be different than most. I was going to “Brothers in Blue” with twenty other men and women from Iowa and South Dakota to go into the Jameson Annex of the South Dakota State Penitentiary for three days. I prayed for my teammates as well as the inmates that we would share this weekend with.
We worshipped and prayed together before entering the prison with nothing but our Bibles. We greeted each of our prison brothers with a handshake. These men had signed up to attend, but their reasons varied. Some looked at it as a way to get out of their cells for a few days. Others thought it would look good when they went before the parole board. A few came to worship and be discipled. As I reflected on the reasons these men came to the event, I thought about the varied reasons that we go to church each Sunday. Some go to escape the regular routine of work and school. Some go because we think it looks good on the “record”. And others go to worship God with a community of believers.
We were divided into small table groups. We laughed, cried, and ate together. Singing songs of worship, praying, meditating, celebrating communion, listening to talks given by team members, and talking around our table groups, it became evident that these men were all across the board as far as their faith was concerned. Some were Christians practicing their faith within the walls of a prison. Some had a basic knowledge of the Christian faith from their childhood, but that was all. And some knew nothing or practiced a different faith. This reminded me of our church family. We are all at different levels of our walk with Jesus.
Most of the guys were younger. Listening to their stories of hurt and pain, it broke my heart to hear that the environment they experienced as children and young adults left them with little chance of leading a healthy lifestyle, much less knowing what it is to be a follower of Jesus. They were longing for someone to love them and give them a sense of belonging. Those who were followers of Jesus shared that prison is a hard place to be a Christian. It is a dark place with a demonic presence and gang activity. Not unlike our world today, is it?
Our team left the prison around 9:00 PM each evening and returned the following morning at 7:30. As each day passed, it was evident that God was present and many of the men were being convicted by the Holy Spirit. A prayer room was manned the entire weekend by two of our team as well as four inmates. Someone was in prayer constantly for everything that happened and for each person present. Prayer requests were also accepted and prayed over.
On Sunday afternoon, approximately 20 guys stood up and accepted Jesus as their personal Savior. We encouraged them to maintain contact with the prison chaplain and to read their Bible daily. By the time we left, we were calling each other “brothers in Christ” with hugs of love and caring.
As I left the concrete walls and iron bars of prison and began my drive home, I again prayed. A couple of things weighed heavy on my heart. These “brothers” have very little hope of ever getting out of the vicious cycle they are in, due to their past, their old “friends”, and the stigma that society places on them. I longed to be able to maintain contact with them and disciple them, but we were warned not to because of prison rules and the risk of jeopardizing future “Brothers in Blue” events.
Secondly, I realized that there were many people who were victimized by the actions that sent many of these men to prison. It was easy for me to love these men and to call them “brothers”. However, how would I respond if I had been victimized by one of these men, or if one of my family members or friends had been hurt, killed, or raped by one of these men?
These thoughts reminded me of what Jesus did for me. I had no hope of ever getting out of the bondage of sin. There seemed to be no way that I would ever be set free. Then Jesus shed his blood and freed me from “prison”. Galatians 5:1,13(MSG) “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.”
I think of how Jesus forgave me when I spit on him, beat him, hurled insults on him, and nailed him to the cross. He still calls me his “child” and loves me. Meditate on this as we observe Lent.
Free forever, Merlin Wynia