Work Days – Part II

Thanks again for a fantastic workday.  We painted, stained and fixed so many things including the play structures, girls bathroom, and foyer doors and walls.  Flower beds were made ready for flowers and mulched, doors were sanded, windows and blinds were cleaned, insulation was sprayed into gaps in the “bird wall,” and shed hinges were raised.  We even discovered, stirred up, and got stung by some Yellow Jackets (actually I think I was the only one stung — humbling!)  Lunch was great!  Thank you ladies.

This month our work day will be on Saturday morning the 19th, again from 8:30 to 12:30, then lunch.  This has been a “building” time, not just the physical plant is being improved, but our relationships are deepening and our knowledge of who we are is growing.

Thank you and see you on the 19th for more painting, fixing, cleaning, and straightening!

Work Days – Part I

At our annual meeting we asked for the congregation to partner with the Church Council’s idea of saving construction and maintenance costs by having regular work days at the church. Our first one took place on the last Saturday, July 18th. I’m grateful and humbled by the response. We had about twenty people who came from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM.

We knocked job after job off our list including: trimming the shrubbery around the building, pulling and raking weeds in the beds and play yard, sanding and weather treating the memorial benches, cleaning out the storage closets at the back of the sanctuary, fixing the storage shed door outside in the play yard, preparing for the painting of the doors and wall in the foyer, painting the new book shelves and microwave tables for the DayCare, changing all the emergency lights and battery packs in the fire safety units, fortifying the service closet shelves, replacing the plastic caps and fixing the broken slat on the play structure, cleaning and organizing the stage in the sanctuary, organizing the Sunday School supply closets in the educational level, painting the column in the nursery, and chipping the old glue off the wall in the hallways downstairs in preparation for paint and eventually cove base molding.

All this in addition to filling up the dumpster to overflowing. AND, don’t forget those who prepared lunch. Turkey and Cheese, Chicken Salad, Potato Salad, PBJ, chips and home-baked cookies – a humble feast.

What a day. Bob Dasher, our Treasurer and I estimated that we saved over $2,000 in maintenance and construction expense with this one day’s work. Amazing! For all of you who came, thank you, thank you, thank you.

This was a great beginning and I think the benefit was not only measured by what we did to the building, but also by what God, through our care for the building is doing to us. I learned some new things about some people. I saw a lot of people who did not know each other too well, work and talk and laugh and learn about one another. It was a great time that I look forward to repeating on the 15th of August. Same time, same place.

The Two Miracles of Prison Life

It’s good to think about the first-hand accounts of the challenges of inmates and their inside view of life and suffering.  Recently my daughter sent me an article written by a friend who shared some of these experiences.  This is a note a wrote back to her giving an additional insight into the subject.  I thought you might find it helpful.

I’ve seen and heard these stories from many men in prison.  At MCTC there is a test applied to those who are seeking to join the in-prison church: after listening to their “story”  is the listener more moved by what the inmate says is taking place toward him, or by how much the inmate regrets the way he has treated others.  It’s something simple, but yet seems to indicate if there is true repentance or some level of manipulation on the part of the inmate.  (This has been shared with me by the chaplains and is NOT anything with which I have been directly involved).

I’m not discounting the emphasis in the article you sent, but just wanted to add to the discussion.  The men I am most awed by are the ones who will not place a thread of emphasis upon how they are treated by guards, the system, and etc.  The men who seem to be moving in the most earnest path toward repentance are the ones who express deeply how they have #1 come to humbly embrace the grace and forgiveness of God, and #2 forward a deep remorse for their past crimes and the suffering they have caused others.  This seems to address the issue of the con by some  “suffering” inmates who will use every means, including sympathy to advance their desire to get out.

It is seen, for example, in those who volunteer to receive baptism — that’s why a probing examination of faith and practice is done before candidates are given the go ahead.  The first time I heard this from the chaplain at MCTC I was surprised, because I thought of him as a deeply sympathetic advocate of the inmates.  And I discovered that he is, but they must first pass the test of true change.

Even when they do pass the test, it is only the first part — the miracle, as I call it, of a changed life – behind bars.  The second part of the test is the miracle that takes place in  the same man upon his release.  This the second miracle –  of remaining on the straight and narrow with his freedom attainted.  It’s always a disappointment and surprise when the ones who seem the most rehabilitated on the inside return in such a short time, having committed similar crimes as they spent so many years paying for in prison.

It’s a very challenging issue, a shifting and multi-faced complexity to say the least.  When one looks at the guards, or when one looks at the prisoner there is a two sided complexity.  Some of the most quickly forgotten persons in the mix are the victim(s) and his/her/their family.  The horror, suffering, and pain of their ongoing side of the story is the first part of the complexity that is so often forgotten or assumed to have improved.

I was very surprised, for example, during our first graduation ceremony at MCTC that only two of our nine graduates could have their pictures taken for public use.  It was because of the Live Victim Act in MD, which prohibits the public display of these men in the fear that their victim(s) or his/her/their family might be re-traumatized by seeing their picture in a pubic format (newspaper, TV, or other media outlet).  This was explained to me by a man who has been in prison for over 40 years.  He shared in detail how he wrestles with the ongoing pain of what his crime must continue to do to the living family members of the person he killed when he was 19 years old — he is a lifer, now 63 and one of the humblest and godly men I have known (on the inside).

Well, I could go on and on.  I applaud your friends attempt to get at the core.  For me, the most rewarding part of prison ministry is being given the privilege of making a contribution.  I don’t know how many lives I’ve helped or influenced, but I do know that the Lord has changed mine by the experience.