my prison experience (pt. 3)

When 6:15 p.m. rolled around it was time to hit the stage. It would be awesome to say that we had no preconceived notions about anything but I'll be honest and say that I thought we were gonna go in there and bless them. I think it ended up being mutual or them blessing us more. We started off with an upbeat song and had them jumping up and down, clapping, dancing, and singing. The response up to that point was great, but it wasn't until we played a slow one that we really saw the power of the Holy Spirit and realized what was going on.

We started one of our slowest songs of the night. I closed my eyes and sang the words and when the time came for me to play the lead guitar part, I opened my eyes to look out at them and they looked no different (at all) then every Sunday morning when we play these same songs, except that these guys were in all white, no fashion show here, just God-worship happening. We hit the chorus and I could swear that the gates of Heaven flew open and the most manly choir I have ever heard was basically screaming "MY DELIVERER."

We played a few more songs. Some were upbeat and some were slow like that one. The overall response was amazing. When we finshed our part I didn't feel like we accomplished something or that we "did what we came to do," it just seemed like we had church. A bunch of broken people crying out to Saviour together.

The preacher went up there and delivered a fiery message about what it means to follow Christ and that it isn't easy, especially in there. He did an alter call for those who had never known Jesus. I estimated that about 100 out of the 300 came forward. Some of them were pretty "hard" looking dudes. They surrendered their lives to Christ, their only hope, and then rejoiced together, had fellowship with us and each other very briefly before being rushed back to their cells (prison rules). We found out that if they weren't rushed off at a certain time, it would have resulted in a lock down at which point we would have been there until about 10:30 p.m.

I had never hugged a prisoner, or even former prisoner (to my knowledge), until last night. I made some friends, and some promises to go back and visit or play again, promises that I will keep. I ran into Jesus several times while I was in there. I was kinda sad to leave my brothers there.

Now, thinking back to last night, the craziest part was to see 300 inmates with their hands in the air and hear them sing the words "my deliverer." For us on the "outside" it is easy to sing that, and see the results of God delivering us from a life without Him. For those guys, whether they follow Christ or not, their situation isn't getting any better. Tomorrow they do the same things as they did today. Their hearts change for sure, as do ours, but we have privileges here to worship and speak freely. In there, I'm confident that it is not a popular life choice.

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy blog. I felt that I should give every detail I could remember. I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but the memories will come back one day, and I'll probably write about it. I hope it touched your heart and inspired you the way the experience did me.