At the Keryx weekend at Kinross Correctional earlier this month, my fellow volunteer Chuck and I had a special blessing that is hard to convey. Many times 
we experience things that don’t translate well to answering the question, “What happened on the weekend?” I’m guessing many in ministry could relate – pastoral blessings, blessings received in the Sudan or some other mission field, blessings received at a dying patient’s bedside and so on.
Back in 1998, at a Keryx weekend at that prison, I encountered a rather interesting prisoner. Nice guy, and one of those who wore sunglasses all the time to hide his eyes. As we were walking across the yard coming back from afternoon chow on Friday, I was talking to him and he was looking straight ahead when he said, “You know, Jeff, I’m having a real hard time dealing with all the goodness I’m seeing here on this weekend.” Mind you, we hadn’t even been there for 24 hours yet at this point.This prisoner completed his weekend and we became good friends shortly thereafter at the weekly accountability groups and the monthly gatherings. Turns out this man is a very talented musician and writer. Our relationship has continued over all these years as he has suffered some rather severe health problems (mostly resolved, but with some lingering after effects) and as he helped to comfort me and my helpmate after the death of our son in 2002.
This prisoner was one of the musicians assigned to assist in leading the singing during the recent weekend. Over the years we have encountered many very, very talented prisoners – at my very first weekend, for instance, I sat next to a guy who, using just felt-tip markers, could create drawings that looked just like a picture in their detail and accuracy. There have been many very talented musicians but I would have to place this particular man in the top two – not only can he play a guitar, he can sing and he can write music.
Our blessing during the recent weekend was this – three times during the weekend he entered the Food Room where we were assigned and just played and sang for us. He sang hymns, he sang contemporary songs (when he was taking requests, I said “I haven’t heard “We Will Ride” since you did it ten years ago – remember that?” He said he hadn’t played it in that long, sat there for a minute thinking, and played it from memory and it was GOOD) and he sang original compositions. This happened for 20-25 minutes each time.
Blessings like that happen all the time – in a place where evil is so real – where when the goodness of God manifests itself in contrast to the evil, all one can do is say, “Praise God.” We can’t take pictures on this mission trip to show you. We can’t record what we hear and what we see and bring it outside to play/show you. All we can do is try to use words to communicate a spiritual moment – a moment that occurs because we choose to glorify God by serving Him. We don’t serve to be blessed – we serve to glorify Him – the blessing are just fruit of the pursuit of the glorification of the living God.
There is one recording my friend has made that you can hear. It’s in the following video. This recording appeared on National Public Radio a while back – it was done over a telephone (the only way it could be done, given Michigan prison policy). The photos in the video are not of the prison where my friend is doing his time – and he is serving a long sentence (We are not legal advocates for the prisoners and do not take “sides” in any legal matters. We are there to address spiritual matters and nothing more. We have no relationship with the producers of the video and in fact, we have no idea who they are. The appeal at the end of the video is outside our ministry’s scope of involvement). The photo at :24 is of my friend and is most likely one that was taken during an authorized visit with someone. My friend may never see life on this side of the prison fence or he may receive mercy someday from the state – either way, I count it a privilege to be his friend.
