The following piece I plan to share with the inmates next week. 

  Let me be clear why we come here to the jail each week; every time come we learn. You may think we come to teach as if we think we have some display of wisdom, importance or power. But the truth is we simply mouth the words that Jesus spoke and then listen to the stories you share of unrelenting courage and bravery beyond measure as you recount stories of heroism of Biblical proportion.

Giant Goliath's are faced over and over again. Unequal matches, where you have been pummeled and crushed to the ground repeatedly, only to rise up and fight again.

We cry and whine over a splinter while razor sharp, barbed shafts pierce your very hearts! But somehow, by God's grace, your heart continues to beat a slow, quiet rhythm of hope: desperately faint in some; irregular in others: flat-lined and resuscitated in others. And just when all seems motionless, our eyes filled with tears and anguish, someone’s soul gets set on fire! 

Color flushes back in once pallid cheeks, corpses rise, ground is reclaimed, restoration happens against all odds! Strength returns and we stand in absolute awe as Christ resurrects another soul from the dead; He restores sight to the blind and makes the diseased leper fully whole!

 Oh we come here to see miracles, where smoldering faith bursts into flame! Bruised and nearly broken reeds are healed! Oh friend, we come to be inspired by you!

What fool would stay home and watch a pointless sporting match when we sit ring-side and witness the full scale battle of life!