The last few days have really been inspiring. Over the weekend we conducted a tremendous Bill Glass prison ministry event in San Antonio with over 2000 decisions for Christ, (half for the very first time). That represents about 24% of the population of inmates incarcerated in the jail and prison populations that we visited which is phenomenal.
Satan must have seen it coming because he geared up his spiritual warfare to a full frenzy mode, and the event was beset with problems from the very beginning with too few volunteers including several coordinators who could not attend for a variety of reasons, and a bunch of other problems, all of which were handily met and overcome by the Bill Glass management team.
Several speakers, (including me), were assigned to a large jail where we would move from pod to pod. Each “pod” (cellblock) contains approximately thirty cells and 30-60 inmates. The pods are large rooms with cells located on two levels, (upstairs and downstairs), and they surround a common area containing metal tables and benches where the inmates eat their meals. Off to the side of that common area are bathrooms and showers. Some of the pods have television sets and some don’t. The Bill Glass speakers address the inmates while standing in the common area.
It’s a difficult task for us. It begins very early in the morning, and we leave the hotel usually no later than 6:00 a.m. We grab a cup of coffee and an energy bar at the hotel hospitality room and leave and head to the various jails and prisons in the area by caravan of cars, motorcycles, buses, and vans. When we arrive hundreds of us go through extensive security checks that are sometimes far more grueling than those conducted by the TSA at the airport and it takes a couple of hours of standing around, (hurry up and wait), before all of us ever get inside.
The platform speakers and entertainers usually go to six pods per day, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. Singers generally have completely lost their voices by the end of the day and likewise for those of us who speak. I give my complete testimony six times a day and have to nearly shout in order to be heard, (we usually don’t have microphones). My weak scratchy voice does not fare all that well, and I drink water like crazy to try and compensate.
As one might imagine some of the inmates don’t want to hear what we have to say, particularly the first thing in the morning. The guards wake them up and they come walking in all groggy and mad at the world. They are fierce looking with tattoos all over them and mean eyes. They listen to someone who might be singing country music when all they like is rap, (or vice versa), and then they have to hear about God, (not exactly their cup of tea).
Some inmates deliberately try to disrupt the event by talking loudly or watching television, or acting obnoxious. The toilets are very loud as they flush and the guards make various announcements over the P.A. system all the while we’re trying to deliver our message of hope.
But the Bill Glass team is very talented with Spirit filled musicians, athletes, famous personalities, ex-cons who love the Lord, and interesting people and the majority of the inmates are won over and are happy to find a way to break the monotony of being incarcerated by having us visit them.
I was challenged as never before when I arrived at one pod and not one prisoner was in the common area. I was in an extremely dangerous gang unit pod and they were in complete lockdown and considered too dangerous to allow out of their cells, (even one at a time). They were confined to cells 23 hours per day with one hour to exercise alone. So I’m standing in this pod looking at 30 solid steel green doors with tiny thick glass windows. Due to the teammate shortage I only have one other fellow in the pod with me.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so discouraged. I almost turned around and left, because I couldn’t see anyone and as I looked at the thick metal doors I could not envision them being capable of hearing me through the thick steel doors. The guy with me said, “They can hear you, go ahead and give it a try”.
So I stood in the center of the pod and gave my testimony to 30 green metal doors. Occasionally I would see a fleeting image of a face, but that was it. A couple of inmates put pieces of paper over the windows. It was exceedingly difficult to stand down there talking away to seemingly no one, but God gave me the strength to do it. I repeated to myself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” more than once I tell you.
After I finished as I was leaving I saw my teammate begin going from door to door stopping at each cell trying to talk to those inside. At lunchtime I sought out the Bill Glass director and I asked him if he thought we might be wasting time and money that might be better spent on a prison yard where more inmates could hear the word. He pooh-poohed that idea and said the pod concept was effective. He told me that we never know what goes on behind those closed metal doors and that the Holy Spirit can move through those doors and touch lives. He encouraged me greatly by telling me that every pod was different and I’d have better results that afternoon and he was exactly right.
Later that night at our banquet I ran into the teammate who’d been with me in that pod. He told me that three of the inmates that he talked to made first time decisions to accept Christ. These were all violent-violent gang members, some of which were charged with murder. He was only allowed to visit the prisoners in the bottom cells of the tier but all of them told him they could hear every word I’d been saying.
Hmmm . . . Satan was working on me, but the Holy Spirit was working even harder on those hardened inmates and triumphed that day.
The next time you get discouraged and are thinking about not giving your testimony, try to remember that we never know what the Holy Spirit is doing behind seemingly closed doors. He can go right through thick steel and also the hardest of hearts and even thicker hardened steel heads like mine.
Have a great week!
Rev, 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.