"Outreach............."

”It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge, and my job to love”..... Billy Graham

The Youth Detention Center has been “a whole ‘nuther ballgame” since the beginning of this year. For one thing, the schedule, since they revised it in an attempt to update those churches committed to the cause, has only resulted in utter confusion. It is nothing anymore to arrive and find the date “double-booked”, two groups, both surprised to find the other there, but sharing the occasion. In truth, though, inmate conditions have required a more secure setting for our visits, the gymnasium and the rec-room no longer being utilized, our “congregation” broken up into individual units and assignment left to our discretion. Sunday morning, therefore, while Mark moved from cell-block to cell-block with his saxophone, Chris and Ashley opted for the girls, leaving the two remaining bodies of male occupants to be divided between the young Baptist, African-American fellow who had joined us and this old Pentecostal walrus with his buddy, Dave. Twelve to fifteen boys, mostly older teens, were seated at a small row of tables extended inwardly, down the middle of about an 8x20 foot room, cubicles with barred windows to either side and a guard to the rear to insure all remained calm. While we would later learn that four of the inmates (no identities revealed), are in there on charges of murder, all we encountered an obvious hunger for what we shared. I say that wishing for no credit in what took place. If anything, my own efforts are usually a matter of notes committed to memory, fear of making a mess in trying to deliver what’s on my heart, and honest revelation of both those facts. In spite of my humanity, though, somewhere in it all, the Holy Ghost gives me grace, these lives before me the important issue. One moment our identities can easily be counted. We’re locked in a small segment of a facility built to ensure bondage. Suddenly there is no doubt, however. His presence is thick, overtly manifested in a connection that He, Himself, has created and the Gospel not a condemnation of one’s life, but rather a promise that, in spite of who and what we are, He wants to meet us in the next step, help us in our journey before us. Final prayer was more than words. Eight weeks until next time is too long……