Christmas Eve Behind Bars: Follow Up

I want to thank you for praying for Angie and me on Christmas Eve as we ministered in Hutchinson Correctional Facility (HCF). Angie and I felt an army of prayers backing us. Here is what God did that night.

The days leading up to Christmas Eve were heavy as I experienced intense spiritual warfare. I woke up on Christmas Eve day and felt the attack in intense ways. I wasn’t sure how I was going to minister that night, but right before we headed to HCF, I went on a quick walk and prayed. I went to see my good friends Andy and Lisa Entz, they both felt like the accuser was attacking me—so they prayed for me and that night’s service. They prayed for victory and within 30 minutes there was a feeling of freedom! Praise the Lord.

We arrived at HCF early so that we could pray and dedicate the night to the Lord. The leaders of the church behind bars (the Protestant Call-Out), are mostly TUMI students, and they were able to come early and help us set up. We had a powerful prayer time with these leaders and felt fully prepared. There was a spirited atmosphere as the room filled with hugs, greetings of “Merry Christmas,” and sounds of Handel’s Messiah playing overhead. It was definitely surreal to hear Messiah being played inside the prison.

Angie opened with three songs. During the third song “Here I am to Worship,” the men just sang out with their hands raised in true worship. There was something powerful during the tag, “I'll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon the cross.” These guys were all in this place because of some deep sin, yet they sang of how the Lord has taken their place. What a joy to witness.

Following worship we did the Advent readings. In the prison we could not light candles, so instead we prepared overhead slides to represent the color of each candle. Two by two the guys would come up and explain the different candle, read a Scripture, and then pray. Hearing these TUMI students read the Scriptures was powerful. The words of the Scriptures were alive and going forth in the prison. The men were grasping and taking to heart the promises and prophecies of Isaiah.

Following the advent readings I gave the message from Ephesians 3:19. the summary of the message was; because Christ overcame the obstacles of becoming a human, He can overcome any obstacle that you find yourself in. The reason Christ did all of this was for love’s sake, and to fully understand this we need to encounter the love of God.

I closed with the story of Moses and two other friends I know that found themselves in serious trouble, and yet the Lord encountered them with His love and grace and turned their lives around and is now using them in dramatic ways.  After each story the guys would erupt with applause for what God had done. Hope filled the room.

Following the message, I closed with a time of prayer. I suggested the guys close their eyes and I led them through a series of prayers, inviting the Lord’s presence to be felt and His love to come near. I could tell the Lord was breaking in as several of the guys cried, it was tangible that the Lord was meeting them.

As I dismissed the men, about 20 of them flocked to the front to greet us. They thanked us for coming and wished us a Merry Christmas. But I was especially touched by a few testimonies, several of the guys shared with me how they felt the Lord’s presence and the love of God. One of the guys shared, “I am a former Satanist and I haven’t cried like this in a long time.” What an amazing memory I will carry, Christmas Eve with 120 inmates and a former Satanist telling me he cried and experienced the love of God in a new way.

Thanks again for standing with Angie and I in prayer.  

The Unprepared Bunnies by Bree Penner

Bree wrote this composition recently at school, based on the story The Ant and the Grasshopper  Angie and I both enjoyed it and wanted to share.  It has a great moral.  I thought in light of advent, are we preparing ourselves for the return of Christ?

One glorious morning in fall, deer were gliding over the funny fields. They were preparing for winter.

In the storage there are scrumptious berries, tasty green grass, massive wells for water, huge hedge apples, and icy insects. 

Coldly, the following bossy bunnies booed at the deer’s work.

“You are so busy; you didn’t even accept our offer for Thanksgiving. I bet all your food will be rotten by the time winter will show up,” Boomed the bunnies.

Gently, the deer stepped up and informed the bunnies, “We will continue our work until we have enough food for winter.”

The bunnies jumped back in surprise. Then turned back and bounced home.

Soon winter came like a flash.  Wind and snow invaded the wood.  The deer ran into the storage room.

The bunnies hastily ran to the deer and begged, “Give us some food. We are desperate!”

“Sorry but no, we put a flavoring on our food that bunnies will die if they eat it.” Replied the deer.

“Give it to us even if it will kill us,” argued the bunnies. So the deer handed them some food and the bunnies died instantly.

The deer survived the winter.

THE END

Moral: Be prepared for what is ahead.

Christmas Eve Behind Bars

 

"Each one of these men is a son; they have fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters." That stuck out to me as Warden Cline of the Hutchinson Correctional Facility (HCF) gave me a tour of the prison and we passed by man after man.

For the last two years HCF has allowed World Impact many opportunities for ministry events, including TUMI classes. We are getting to know these men well; a wife of one of the inmates told me recently that World Impact staff is family to these guys.

This past fall, my wife Angie got her volunteer card so she could come with me to HCF and lead worship. I heard from a friend who spent time in prison a few years ago that the inmates would love hearing a female voice. They hear men all day every day for years on end, so the opportunity for them to hear a woman sing worship songs would bring them great joy. At our last ministry event we got to fulfill that joy. Angie led worship and at the end we asked if anyone wanted to come up and sing with us. They called out, "No, we never get to hear a woman sing. We love this!"

As I visited with the men that night, they asked about the possibility of Angie and me returning for a Christmas Eve service. I didn't really like the thought of being away from our kids on Christmas Eve. But I felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to further discuss this with Angie and our kids to see if we could do this ministry event. We presented it to our family, and while they were a little sad, our kids were excited for this opportunity. They considered how all of the men were separated from their families all the time, and how at the holidays it must be hard. And again the thought came to me: each one of these men is a son.

So we have decided to spend Christmas Eve inside the Hutchinson Correctional Facility. We will lead a basic service: the incarcerated will read different Scriptures and prayers for the advent season, I will give a message, and Angie will lead Christmas carols. We are sincerely looking forward to spending this time with the church behind bars.

I have heard all sorts of comments about inmates. They deserve to be locked up. They are criminals. We should just leave them alone. But my heart is burdened for these brothers. The more time I spend with them, the more I see that it is only by the grace and mercy of God that I am who I am. I didn't do anything to earn the situation I am in. I have sinned mightily before the Lord – but the sins I have committed simply have different consequences.
 
As we worship and celebrate the arrival of King Jesus the Son this Christmas, would you take some time to pray for this service? Would you consider praying for the 1,000 TUMI students taking classes in prisons across the country? Take some time to think about the incarcerated and how they are separated from their families on this holiday. And then let's worship Jesus for how He rescued us all from a life of sin and has brought us into the kingdom of God, where we are sons and daughters of the Babe in the straw.