God… comforteth us in all our tribulation…
2 Cor 1:3-4
Monday of this week I covered the medical wing, which is my favorite wing in the jail, due to the tremendous tangibility of GOD working there, bringing miracles and salvation, week after week, to those who need rescue. Praise Jesus!
At one point I walked up to one of the glass doors of one of the cells and there was a little man in the cell, who seemed startled to see me suddenly standing there. But right away he said to me:
“Sir, are you a pastor?”
“Yes,” I responded.
And at that point, this fellow instantly burst into tears. This sort of a thing is not at all uncommon, and we’ve written about this in past E-blasts.
This fellow proceeded to tell me he had no hope, that everything was so horrible, that he was in an abusive relationship with his wife, that nothing ever changed, and so forth. This man was crying hard the entire time, and this went on for several minutes. This Inmate, through this deep discussion, told me that he just wanted to know GOD, and that he loved Jesus. I was eager to start talking to him about prayer and about being close to Jesus (GOD) — to get into all that as deeply as possible. But to my surprise, right when the inmate was finished talking, and right when I was going to start discussion with the inmate, one of the guards walked up, right to where I was at the cell, wherein I realized that the guard needed this Inmate for something. The guard told the Inmate that he had a visit and he therefore had to leave the medical wing. But then the guard opened up the door, where I was directly with the inmate, with no glass door between us. This seemingly small point was very notable, because I can go years in the medical wing, talking to the people that come and go from that wing week after week after week, really getting to know them, considering them family, but always with the thick glass of the medical wing doors between us. Communication can be difficult, because it is hard to hear through the doors, and because it is sometimes loud — so, to be suddenly, unexpectedly, right next to an inmate, with no barrier, brought me a jolt of joy. Standing right there face to face with the crying inmate felt amazing. And hardly able to speak due to the tears, this Inmate said to the guard that just opened the door to his cell.:
“Can I please I pray with Pastor Jeff before I go.”
He had a very hard time saying the words, due to the tears.
KJM, as a practice, is not to touch an inmate in this situation, but in the power of the moment, I made the decision (or, rather, I believe GOD in me made the decision, see Isa 26:12), that the best thing to do here is to hold this crying inmate’s hands while praying with him (the inmate was reaching his hands out to me).
So I put my hands over his. My hands were much larger than his, and my hands engulfed his, and where my hands also went over his handcuffs, which felt very cold and hard at that specific instant. But also, I felt the LORD bring me a shot of joy by touching those handcuffs, Just in that moment, being able to pray with someone in such need, and touching their handcuffs, brought the joy of the LORD.
After the prayer was done, this Inmate thanked the guard and thanked me, thru more tears — but now I could see a faint smile through the tears; it was one of those smiles where I could see that the inmate was feeling the LORD with them, thus bringing rescue.
I found it interesting, thinking about this later, how right when I went up to talk to the inmate, he was called out of the wing. Of course GOD is in control and He is ultimately the reason that these events coincided, with him being called out right during this time of urgent need for ministry. Through the week, I talked to GOD about this a little bit, and He put a powerful thought into my mind, which gave me a realization, which was that the inmate was called away at that point because He was answering our prayer before we prayed it, such as in this verse:
And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Isaiah 65:24
So, all that was needed was the prayer, not the conversation I was anticipating. So, whatever GOD had in mind for this inmate was completed with the prayer. And as I said above, the Inmate did seem changed by the prayer, By whatever it was that GOD did with that prayer. The next day I saw the same officer, and I was able to thank him for letting me pray with the inmate.
-Jeff Grupp, Lead Chaplain and Founder
