Next In Line

A lot of the inmates don’t know the lyrics to contemporary Christian songs, and some of them can’t read the words in a hymn book. “But everyone knows ‘Amazing Grace,’” says college junior Stephanie Gibbs (pictured). “And that’s when it sounds like we’re going to knock the walls down!”

One Monday a month, Stephanie and her team of Prison Fellowship volunteers—all students at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina—head across the state line into Spartanburg, South Carolina, to visit Livesay Correctional Institution, a minimum-security facility for men. The students cross the border because North Carolina prisons won’t allow volunteers under the age of 21. Some of the Gardner-Webb students are only 18.

That’s how old Stephanie was when she first went into Livesay (then called Northside) as a freshman to participate in a worship service for interested prisoners. Having noshed on the criminal stereotypes of “Law and Order,” “CSI,” and the like, some of the students in the group contended with knotted stomachs. But Stephanie was already a seasoned veteran of real-life prison.

“Since I was young, my dad has almost always been in jail,” she explains. Raised by her dad’s mom, Stephanie joined her grandmother on visits to whichever facility he happened to be in. “So it’s comfortable for me.”