Singing Praise to God in jail at midnight

Another yokefellow volunteer leader usually goes into the prison and leads the session this week of the month, but she asked that we fill in for her this week. No problem. It does point out that it is really important to have enough volunteers to have someone at the session every week faithfully. The inmates look so forward to the sessions, it's important to be faithful. And that generally means having enough people to be able to fill in for the unexpected when it happens.

I think its great if basically the same Yokefellow volunteers can go in to a session every week, but have back ups for when they need a break or have scheduling trouble or someone gets sick, etc. That way the lessons and people have a continuity that is hard to get otherwise.

So much of the mentoring materials I've been reading lately talk about the importance of building relationships. Some schools are even having teachers spend 2 or more years with the same class as they matriculate onward through the grades because of the power of positive relationships. The Big Brothers / Big Sisters organization builds largely on the fact that one caring person can make a real difference in another person's life, simply by being there to listen and to care. The Youth and Family Institute teaches that the three As of being a mentor are to be Available, Authentic and Affirming.

Obviously, if different Yokefellow volunteers go into the prison each week, relationships are difficult if not impossible to build.

In our small group sessions, we start with a prayer, asking God to join and guide the group. Usually an inmate will offer this prayer. Then, we take the time to go around the room and have everyone, inmate and volunteer, give their first name to the group and share how they are doing. Names are so important to use when addressing other people. Having the inmates say their names every week helps us to know them as people. I also often take in a sign up sheet, where the group participants can sign their full name and write a prayer request. This sheet then comes out of the jail with me and I can use it again, through the week to remember the names of the guys that came to the session and to lift them up in prayer. This sheet can be copied and shared with the other YPM volunteers for the same reasons, and given to the Area Council leadership for record keeping (group activity tracking). So, learning names is a very do-able task that can have good rewards.

Our topics were Prayer and Praise. We'd been discussing prayer for several weeks, with me encouraging the men to spend an hour of prayer time with God each day. Sort of a "God visit". I've been getting the idea that many of the guys do not really know how to pray for this length. I've been remiss not to consider this and bring in more ideas. This week we read Psalm 111 and 112, which are praise centered Psalms. We talked about why we should offer praise to God (because he deserves it, for what he is, what he does and what he gives and does for us).

WMatthew Mathew 15, where we are to consider if we are harboring ill feelings towards anyone before approaching God. That was a good discussion area. Several men are having serious trouble forgiving people that are testifying against them.

We closed with Act 16, where Paul was in prison, singing praises at midnight.

God's invitation to us for prayer

We continued our study and talk of prayer this session. After one of the inmates gave prayer to open the service, we went around the room each person giving their first name and saying a few words about how they were doing. Some mentioned items of concern on their minds. Then we sang several gospel songs; Amazing Grace, Just a Closer Walk, Mine Eyes have Seen the Glory.

We read Psalm 27, each person saying a verse. We repeated the Psalm until everyone had read a part. We shared our thoughts on what the Psalm said to us and the comfort it brings us.

Then we shared our reports on how our prayer life and time has gone this week. I've been encouraging the inmates to try to spend an hour a day (total) in prayer. Generally, the guys seem to be reporting that they have spent more time in touch with God than usual, but not close to the goal.

I've been encouraged during my prayer time to think of this group goal. I suggested they could partner or yoke up with another person on their block to help encourage each other to increase the time for prayer.

We read Mark 1:35 and Luke 5:15 - 16. Both passages report that Jesus sought personal prayer time with God, alone. Luke uses the word "often".

We are called to follow Christ. If Jesus spent time, often, alone with God, that is a strong call for us to do the same.

Discussion questions:

• Is prayer important to Jesus? Why?
• How can we follow Jesus in our prayer?
• How much attention do we give God in prayer?

I asked the guys what other words could be used for the act of prayer? They came up with a bunch of words, including meditation. But I was looking for the word visit. Think of it. What is so very important to a person when they are in jail? A visit. A visit from someone who cares about them, who takes the time to cross town or cross the state to be with them for a while in this place.

God cares, God is present in the jail. When the inmates turns to God, for a time of prayer, why not think of it as a visit with their heavenly Father?

This week, on the outside, there is a Community Prayer service being held Sunday evening at a local church. I asked the inmates to join (in spirit) with the community during the time of the service in prayer and continue to reach for spending an hour each day with God in prayer.

Sweet Hour of Prayer

We had a good group turn out tonight. Everyone introduced themselves, an inmate offered prayer and we sang several gospel songs. We read Psalm 136, where every other line is the same. Everyone said that line every time it came up. It's nice to do this sometimes. When we were done reading the Psalm together, I asked the group what they got out of the Psalm. Several guys laughed and said "His love endures forever. " which is the point of the exercise.

We talked about Prayer quite a bit. I noted that since I'd be so ill lately that my prayer life was better than it had been in a long time. Some days spending an hour in prayer. I asked if any of the guys that said they'd try to pray for an hour a day this past week had reached their goals. None had.

It's interesting to think that prison is actually a place where a lot of prayer can happen, simply because of the lack of time constraints on an inmate. If an inmate is assigned to a work detail, they may not have much free time. But some guys don't work, for various reasons, some having to do with scheduling, some health, some security. And they may have a lot of time to pray if they can discipline themselves to actually do it. I have the same trouble, thinking that I need to get such and such activities done before I can indulge in prayer. Lately, I've been rethinking this stand, and coming to see that prayer should precede other activities.

I encouraged the inmates to reconsider attempting an hour of prayer per day. I encouraged them to imagine meeting God somewhere, on a beach, in a room, across a table. And simply spending time in His presence.

I shared with the guys how sometimes when I sat on the floor and prayed, my dog came and laid down right beside me and put her head on my knee. As if she was saying, "I don't know what my lady is doing, but there is no place in the house that I would rather be."

We read Matthew 22 - the story of the King's wedding banquet for his Son, where the high society folks ignored the King's invitations and the street people got to attend the party, having cloaks given to them to make them presentable.

We discussed the story at length, who do the characters represent? Who do you seem to relate to most? Have you ever gotten an invitation and said you would go then did not? Why? How did you feel? How did you apologize? Did it leave scars in the relationship?

We talked about how God invites us to meet him in prayer and how we find other things we seem to "have" to do instead.

I do believe prayer changes things. It certainly changes me. Can you imagine the effect of 14 inmates praying an hour a day while in jail? Let it become a reality. Let us continue to encourage them to take time, while incarcerated, to reach out to God. Amen.

Dying to Self, Putting on Christ

Fourteen inmates came to the session. That's enough people to split the large group into 2 smaller groups after prayer and song, but I forgot to do it. If the group gets too large, some people won't talk hardly at all. So if you have enough volunteers, and room space, it's worth considering.

An inmates offered prayer, asking God to join the group. We sang some hymns then read Psalm 69 around the room, each person taking a verse at a time.

We then read John 14 through 16, skipping around a bit. Centering on the points that have God working, showing through Jesus. Discussion question: has anyone ever looked at you and seen God working through you?

We talked about how, especially when I am ill, my husband's voice is sometimes the voice of God to me. He is the head of our household, and is God's representative to me. And at times, I am God's representative to him. May we take this charge seriously. May God work through us, like the plant through the vine. Apart from God we can do nothing.

Some folks seemed to get what I was trying to illustrate and some did not. How much will we actually suffer for God? When our spouse needs assurance or comfort, like from illness, can we stifle our own complaints enough to minister to each other for God? As his representative? I encouraged the inmates to show forth God to each other on the block this week.

Talking is one thing, action something very different. I asked the inmates if any of them would agree to pray for one hour each day in the coming week, as I intend to try to do. That started an interesting discussion. What, exactly, were we considering "prayer"? Would the time need to be spent in one full session? And so on. Pretty funny how quickly we get to specifics. Anyway, I opened it up and suggested everyone would have to decide for themselves what actually constituted an hour of prayer a day. Several guys said they would try.

There is a prayer service being planned for our community on July 17, 2005. I'm pleased that there are inmates in the county prison praying too. The guys express every week how much they worry about their families on the outside. Prayer is something for us all to do, spending time listening and talking with God.

I attended a seminar recently on "Building Godly Resilience" by Mark Basinger of Diakon (a Lutheran Social service organization). He pointed out early on that people do better when they have a sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. Certainly, inmates are limited in what they can do while serving their time. Prayer offers a specific activity that they are able to do and in fact may be better suited (time wise) than people outside of prison.

I gave the inmates an assignment - read the book of Galatians for next week.