My Old Man's in Prison

One day when Lily was several years younger we went to Mr. Bunky's for supper. Now, Mr. Bunky's is kind of different. You can get rat poison, freshly made sausage, baby formula, deer licks, saddles, boiled peanuts, used-to-be fresh produce, farming and plumbing supplies, etc. -- or you can eat in the restaurant. Now, there are all sorts of people in this restaurant, from F-16 pilots just back from Iraq to millionaires who don't look like it to dirt-poor farmers who don't look like it either.

So, there I was sitting with my young daughter when a man in hunting gear strolls up. His pick-up line was, "Where's your Old Man?" By which I assumed he was inquiring whether or not I had a husband.

"In jail," I said. He did a double-take.

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said, not sure whether to proceed or turn around.

"That's all right," I said. "He gets out Sunday night. He's there on a prison ministry."

Paul loves the Kairos prison ministry. He's there right now. As these things usually go, he does it because he gets more out of it than the prisoners do. He says. I went once for the closing ceremony. I didn't like being locked in with murderers and rapists, though I did make an effort to see them as God's children. It was odd holding hands and singing praise music with them. But I loved their shy smiles and their shining love of God. I was still happy to be let out and Paul is not allowed to bring them home, the ones that eventually get out. Obviously I am not cut out for this ministry.

But Paul is. He comes back laughing, crying, deeply touched and happy. He comes back refreshed and filled with hope. Some of the people who are now his friends will never get out of prison, yet they've found joy and purpose. Paul says they're not really very different from us.

Drugs have put many of them behind bars. Not from illegal trafficking so much as from doing terrible things while high or in order to get high.

The prison tries to accommodate the ministry because it changes people. In a good way. I could tell you stories and might one day. The prison also has services for Muslims, Rastafarians and Buddhists. Paul said that there were no services for Jews. I thought that was interesting -- must not be any Jews in S.C.'s worst prison. Or at least not any practicing ones.

There's a Muslim guy participating in this Kairos weekend. The food is good, which brings in a lot of unlikely folks. (Plus everyone in the prison, whether or not they are participating, gets a bag of cookies every day.) The Muslim guy will stand up from time to time and ululate something unintelligible about Allah.  One of the other prisoners says he does it all the time. He laughed and said, "He's saying 'Allah says kill the white boys.'" There's a lot of unlikely humor in the prisons. I guess you create it where you can find it.

One time Paul was giving out cookies in the "mentally challenged" dorm when he ran out of cookies and one of the very large scary-looking inmates got upset. The guard had to intervene. Paul made sure everybody got cookies, though I think it may have taken a year off of his life.

Some of the prisoners tell their stories. One who hadn't spoken for the 11 years he'd been there began to speak, finding his voice after being shut down for so long that everyone assumed he was mute. Miracles do happen. Sometimes all you have to do is show up.

My Old Man's in prison. He gets out tomorrow. Then he needs to mow the grass.

Comments

[I Gallop On]

I love it. What a great story.

And God bless your husband for being willing to go in there and minister to those inmates. I don't think I could do that either.

Pax. Kimberly

[groovyoldlady]

Ooooo. Goosebump-a-rama here.

Just yesterday Mulletman and I led worship for a large gathering of Maine's Prison Ministries. As a result we've been invited to sing/play again. In prison. Regularly.

We've been really praying about where God wants us using our music besides church. Maybe this is it... We're certainly praying and scoping it out and willing to give it a shot.

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Donations to the ALA are on a lump sum basis. You can give $2 or $200 :-D, but you'll only be charged once - not per mile!

[Angry]

That’s so good of Paul. I know I couldn’t do something like that, I’d be too nervous of what could happen.