After our church service in prison, at which I was the impromptu preacher – I love teaching about the surprise of the living hope (1 Peter 1:3-4) – the men lined up to receive their twice daily meal. You can’t quite see into this bowl but the content was some kind of yellowish liquid that could hardly be considered mush. That’s it. It’s a good thing the church put doors on their latrines.
Thanks to a very generous donor, the group got apples to go with their mush today. Carpenter John dreams of providing them with a proper Christmas meal – rice, beans, meat – each year, but the donation he’d received last year hasn’t come in. Get this…for less than $100 he can feed a prison of 50 people with the simplest of meals. Apples have been provided again for Christmas so if nothing else, they’ll get this small treat once more. [Update: Before the post even went out a donor stepped up to provide their Christmas meal. Praise God for your compassion!]
You should know that these prisoners are some of the sweetest, humblest people I’ve met. I continue to be surprised by that fact…I guess because that kind of temperament is rather contrary to our American idea of movi-fied crimes and the people who commit them. When you read some of the stories about these folks, I know you’ll be surprised too.