And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Luke 6:31.
Today was “jail day.” Every Thursday night a jail about 25 miles from here has clergy visits; so we- Eddie and Gail- go there to visit anyone who asks us to come see them.
(This is the jail where our prison/jail ministry started in January of 2004.)
We have been going there for a few months now to visit someone we know. She was transferred there from Florida in Oct, 2010, and immediately called one of her friends- who told us that the inmate had asked for us to come see her.
Our appointments are always at 6:50 pm, and since it is such a long ride up there from here, we usually go up earlier in the afternoon and eat at a local buffet restaurant where a friend of ours is a waitress- oops! excuse me!-now politically correctly called a “server”!
Because we have been going to this restaurant on a fairly regular basis for the last few months, the people who work there have come to know us- not by name, but by sight. And they love to see us. Some of them will come to us with prayer requests, while others just tell us that they love to see God’s people walk in the front door.
(Whenever we are driving anywhere, we pray and ask God to use us to be a blessing to everyone we meet; to put people in our path who need encouragement; and to put the words in our mouths that they need to hear. And He ALWAYS answers that prayer!)
Also, whenever we go somewhere, we usually try to take Gail’s mom for a ride with us. She is pretty much confined to a wheelchair since suffering a broken ankle 4 years ago and she just loves to go out with us on our ‘adventures’. (She lives alone in a house trailer- OOPS!- now politically correctly called a “mobile home”- across the street from us, and we help her out with her personal needs so that she won’t have to go to a nursing home.) BUT, on ‘jail day’ we can’t take her with us because the jail visits are for licensed clergy only- and that is something that mom is not.
We have been trying to figure out a way to include her anyway, and last night we came up with a great idea. We could simply leave her at a department store near the jail while we were visiting the inmate, then go back and pick her up at the store when our visit is over with. (It is an upscale store, so we know that no one would bother her.)
We got to the restaurant on Thursday afternoon, and while we were eating the server came to our table and told us that she had been talking to a gentleman who was sitting alone at the table nearby. He told her that his nephew had just been sentenced to life in prison. She then told him that we were ministers, and asked him if he wanted us to come talk to him- and he said that he would like that very much.
So we went over to his table- where he informed us that his 29 year- old nephew, who has been on trial all week for fatally shooting his wife’s lover last year, was found guilty of first- degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
I- Gail- just happened to have followed that case on the Internet for the last year, and it seemed to me that it was a cut-and-dried case of self- defense. But the jury decided otherwise.
I stood there stunned, then cried with the man for a little while, and gave him one of our ministry cards- which is simply a business card with our names and phone number on it. I told him to tell his sister, who is the young man’s mother- that she could call us at anytime if she needed to talk to us about her son. (We have been in prison ministry for many years now- and we know that the days following the original sentencing, as well as the holidays, are always the hardest times for family members.)
The man told us that he really appreciated such genuine concern from total strangers, then put the card in his pocket and left.
Meanwhile, the restaurant manager had come over to talk to us, (he LOVES us!), but when he saw that we were busy he sat down and talked to mom instead.
After the customer left, we went back to our table and told the manager what we had been talking to the man about.
(Now this manager is not a Christian, and doesn’t seem to want to hear about God, but he told us that it was kind of us to be so caring about the grief that others are going through.)
However, it was no big deal to us because this is what we- Eddie and Gail- do for a “living.” (Except that we don’t get paid for it!)We sincerely care about other people and their problems, and we try to offer them hope and encouragement when they need it. We have a heart for those who are hurting, which is something that ALL people should have (concern and love for others), but which is something that is sadly missing in today’s society!
We were getting ready to leave the restaurant and head over to the jail when our server came over to our table and handed us our cash register receipt with the following words written on it- “next time is on me.” She then told us that the manager had asked her to bring our sales slip to him. When she did, he wrote that note on it, initialed it and then told her to bring it back to us.
She told us to give that receipt to the cashier the next time that we come in and the manager would pay for our meals- for all three of us!
What a blessing!!!
You see, what the manager DIDN’T know was that we were not going to be able to eat there the next time that we went to the jail because we didn’t have any money. (5.00 per person for a salad buffet is expensive when you don’t have it!)
But when we went over to him to thank him, he simply smiled at us and said, “Good things happen to nice people.”
We- Eddie and Gail- don’t necessarily think of ourselves as “nice people.” Rather, we just try to be kind and caring towards others wherever we might be. And we try to obey God’s Word by treating people the way that we would like them to treat us, as Jesus tells us to do in the scripture at the top of the page.
May the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.