As I continue to work at St. Clair Correctional Facility as an Assistant Chaplain through We Care Program, I am amazed at the wonderful ways that God works through his children. One of those beautiful moments was on Tuesday morning of the annual We Care Prison Crusade. I took the team of men entrusted to me to minister that week up to our property to show them where we are living and to pray together before going into the prison. Shirley and I were not expecting what was about to happen. After a while of kicking the walls, climbing around, and looking out over the valleys on either side, I called everybody together for prayer. I shared that our property contains the centroid of St. Clair County, Alabama, and a few possible visions for how we might use the property to glorify God. We shared some prayer requests and joined hands to pray. As the sun poured warmth on us and a gentle breeze drifted through, the men began to pray. We were blessed as the men prayed for Shirley and I and the kids and this mountain on which we stood and call home.
In a few moments of silence between the mens' prayer offerings, I heard what sounded like an eagle or a hawk in the surrounding air. You see, up to that point, we had seen and heard woodpeckers, buzzards, and small birds. I was moved to realize that the Lord had sent us such a beautiful bird to fly overhead and call out with us to Almighty God. Was I just hearing things? I did not see the bird as we were praying. I felt encouraged and determined. Those moments with these men of prayer, with my wife standing in support from behind, and my Lord pouring out blessings upon us were rich indeed. We prayed for the men in the prison, for the day was still ahead of us.
Some men in the prison are too intellectual to see the value of the simply wonderful plan of God's salvation in Jesus. Some men are too scared to open up for they fear what may ensue. Some men love their sin too much to take hold of Jesus Christ. Some are even explicitly serving Satan. Some hold their life too important to waste on following Jesus. Some will lie to us just to get us out of their way. "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelation 21:8)
But, thankfully, there are some in prison who delight in the Lord and they receive us who are coming to share and encourage in Christ. These men like the volunteers fit the following verses. "As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:4-5)
Yet standing before the Lord that morning, we were joined in unity preparing to enter the prison. Just a few evenings later, we would be standing with our arms interlocked with those believers in prison who do not think it shameful to bear the name of Jesus Christ on their lips and hearts. They bear their crosses to His glory. We stood with them, the rejected of society, and declared in our hearts in praise to God how awesome it is for all of us to know God's kindness and forgiveness for the sins of our lives that would have imprisoned us forever apart from God!
So that hawk's call was a welcome sound, declaring to us the glorious freedom that is in Jesus. I hope that each volunteer was blessed through this crusade. I would like to express my gratitude to every one of the volunteers who came to Alabama for a week to enter into a spiritually dark place and be instruments for the glory of the Lord to shine from the heavens and reflect from our faces. Amen!
As Shirley and I and the kids were driving on our road one day this week, we passed a spot where we saw the hawks. That verified that they were actually nearby. And then later they came again to fly over this place again. We praise you Lord!
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