Setting the Captives Free - Part 2

...Continued from Part 1

The next Sunday a small group of women from our church joined me as we entered the jail. The ten women who filed into the exercise area smiled when they saw us waiting for them. Several came over to hug us. We sang hymns and again the women sang, "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord." Three men from the jail who were being baptized at the church were led by a guard past the exercise yard. Bro. B. J. gave the message from Luke 4:4-5, "Starting All Over Again." He shared that he was once jailed for grand theft auto and that he had sold and used drugs. He told the women that obedience to God brings rich rewards and leadership is given to those who try again.

While a song of invitation played on a small battery-powered boom box, one of the young women began to cry and walked toward me. I talked and prayed with her, and she accepted Christ that day. Lynn told me she has two small children. Two other women were also saved. As we rejoiced together, the three men who had gone to the church for baptism returned. We applauded and cheered as they passed by the exercise yard. As strains from "I Can Only Imagine" floated through the steel fencing, we praised God with the new Christians. Later, we held hands for circle prayer and testimonies. Again, I apologized to the women for never coming to the services. We invited them to our church SWAT support group (Servants With a Testimony) for those addicted to alcohol and/or drugs. We told them about the SWAT Sunday School Class and the "Get Real" Discipleship Class that blends SWAT team members with the church body. We told them we would bring our used Sunday School and Discipleship literature to the jail for them to read. One woman who had been a prisoner there for sixteen months said it was the best service she had attended.

As I heard the electronic doors click open as I left the jail that day, I suddenly realized that I had not experienced any symptoms of the claustrophobia that usually plagues me in closed areas. Outside, the afternoon breeze caressed my face. I repented again.

A few weeks later, three of the women inmates were led into our church in chains for baptism. Later, as we knelt to pray with them at the altar, I felt a steady drip, drip, drip, like raindrops on my hand. Looking over, I realized they were healing tears falling from Lynn, the woman I had led to the Lord. Two weeks later, she made parole and went home to begin a new life in another county. She assured me she would attend a church near her home. I pray often for Lynn and her children. I thank God for His blessing of meeting her, and I thank God for T. J. , a woman God used to open the eyes of my heart.