This was a thank you letter written for the St. John's UMC newsletter

I watched 38 men shuffle into a converted gym on Thursday night, and tell us what they thought we wanted to hear. Almost all of them came into that gym with body language that shouted "don’t get too close to me!" Their words and actions told us that they came as men alone, and lonely, men in pain, broken and living in spiritual darkness. Almost all of them left Sunday night proclaiming that their lives have been changed and saying they were anxious to spread the Word to those around them. I believe the men are sincere when they say they encountered the living Christ during the weekend. I believe them because the hand of God was so easy to see during the weekend.

You could clearly see God at work in small, but unmistakable ways. The inmate who became aware of God’s presence when he was given a place mat with a child’s hand prints, a child whose age and name spelling matched his own daughter’s. The man who cried "You mean I been eating prayers!?" when told how the cookies were baked. The men who talked about the special letter that they received. The middle aged man who wept huge sobs because he had never had a birthday party, and his table mate who wept in sympathy for him. The man who saw a picture of the ladies praying over the van that brings the food to the unit who said in tears "Please tell the ladies that I had four helpings of their prayers!" In the end, it is the miracle of God getting the message that He wants to send and the way He wants to send it into the very hands that need to hear it the most, that turned this group of "hard men" into "cry babies" as one candidate described the process. Can be any question that every one of those men encountered Christ during that weekend?

But what did that encounter mean? Were some of the men on Sunday night still just trying to tell us what they thought we wanted to hear? I am certain that some were. When I see these proclamations, I am always reminded of the story that Jesus told about the seeds in Luke 8:9-18. Christ told us in that parable, that some of these men will fall away almost at once, some over different periods of time, but some will not fall away and will bear great fruit. I saw that promise fulfilled during the weekend as well.

During this weekend I spent more time with the stewards, inmates who had been on a previous weekend, than with the candidates. I listened to man after man tell about how their lives have been changed in very real and personal ways. I overheard the stewards talking to each other about how they still read their letters and about place mats that hang over their beds. I listened as they talked about evangelizing in prison yards, about the problems they have, and their successes! As I listened, I marveled at what God has done. Once again there were stewards who were fasting while they served the special food to the candidates (our term for the new men.) Hard men were showing tenderness for those in pain. I saw stewards’ eyes moist as the candidates talked about the change God is making in their lives. I saw the Church, the body of Christ at work as the men ministered to each other.

I don’t understand how this happened even though I watched it happen; it is truly a miracle of God. I wish that everyone who contributed so much could have seen your prayers and efforts at work. I wish you could see the Lord work with the cookies you baked; we took in almost 50,000. I wish you could see the Lord work with your letters, we took in almost 5,000 hand written letters. Most of all I wish you could see how the Lord answered your prayers. We may never know if we have changed any one!! But, I am so encouraged by the witness of the stewards that our efforts are being successful. Success is just a special blessing, God does not require or promise that we will be successful. God just requires that we make the effort. You have made the effort, and God has blessed it. Thank you