Robert, an inmate at Bibb County Correctional Facility near Brent, Alabama, has spent most of his life behinds bars. A drug-user by age 8 and a junkie by 14, he committed murder when he should have been learning how to drive. He was certified to stand trial as an adult, and he has not breathed free air in all the decades since.
But before the crimes and the courts propelled him into premature adulthood, Robert was a neglected and vulnerable child. After his father abandoned the family, his mother could not care for him and his older sister. They were sent to live in a juvenile home run by the state.
In the yard at the home, Robert’s sister would often push him on the swing set. He held onto the chains for dear life.
“Bubba,” he sister would say, “when you can see over the fence, holler. One day we’ll get over that fence and run back home to Mama.”
Robert and his sister never did escape. Instead, Robert wound up behind a new set of fences, much more formidable than the former.
A broken man in prison, Robert began a personal relationship with Jesus. He studied the Bible and grew spiritually.
But it was not until Robert joined “God’s Gang for Change” that his own transformation kicked into high-gear.
When he first joined the program, Deborah Daniels, the PF area director for Alabama, told him, “You have to learn to see over the fence.” Knowing nothing of Robert’s childhood, she simply meant that like all inmates, Robert would need to envision and prepare for success on the outside before he could ever hope to achieve it. But in Robert’s mind, he was back in that swing, and for the first time in his life, someone was telling him how to break out of the self-destructive behaviors and thoughts that had become his true prison.
Robert has emerged as a leader in “God’s Gang for Change.” He shared his testimony this morning at the Resurrection Sunday service, at a microphone shared by Chuck Colson, Bibb’s Warden Price, and Alabama’s prison commissioner Kim Thomas. He was far from the only inmate contributor.
An inmate worship band led songs for a filled-to-capacity chapel. They crooned out Motown-style Gospel number and swayed back and forth like the Supremes. Others emceed or gave eloquent introductions to featured speakers.
Throughout the morning, the Prison Fellowship faith-based unit shone out as an example of what our prison system can accomplish when it transcends mere punitive justice and moves toward the transformation and restoration of God’s creations. At Bibb, the remarkable change witnessed among many inmates has many contributing factors, including: a forward-thinking warden, a caring chaplain, committed PF staff and volunteers, and the dedication of the inmates themselves. And behind and through them all works the Power that raised Christ from the dead.
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Before I accepted my current position at Prison Fellowship, I never dreamed that I would spend an Easter Sunday in prison. But now that I’ve seen it for myself, I can think of no setting more natural or satisfying to celebrate Christ’s empty tomb than here—in the forgotten tombs of our own society, where day by day, God is raising men and women from the grave of sin and despair.
Outside prison, Easter can be complicated. Pink bunnies and Cadbury eggs tempt us on the airwaves; hams must be sliced and new clothes must be acquired. Depending on one’s church denomination, multiple church services and social engagements can keep us “hopping” until we struggle to leave room in our thoughts for the risen Lord.
But behind bars, Easter is simple. It is an opportunity for broken sinners to encounter a bleeding Savior.
The inmates in the Bibb chapel who had not yet encountered Christ—and many already follow him avidly—had an opportunity to hear the Gospel from Chuck Colson. As I watched the rows of bowed heads, I wondered whether any of them would respond with sincerity and truth. How exciting is each and every decision to follow Christ wholeheartedly! Any man behind bars can throw heaven into an upheaval of celebration. Any man behind bars could be the next Chuck Colson, a powerful evangelist, apologist, and leader for the rising generation.
And I felt gratitude welling up toward all the supporters of the work in Alabama and around the country, who make possible such moments of redemption and grace.