11/4/2000
One of the most amazing and best times I've ever had in my life was my first (hopefully my first of many) trip doing prison ministry in February 2000.  This is the email version of the story I sent out to friends and family right after the trip (with some clarifications added).  If you want to really get a picture of this unique ministry—unique even among prison ministries—go to the www.LifeRow.org web site and read more for yourself.  The head of this amazing ministry is the husband-wife team of Dallas and  Linda Strom . . . and Linda has quite the story herself.

(Also see my story about our 2001 trip—"What I Learned . . .")

Hi, everyone—Here's the basic summary of my prison trip to Gatesville on Feb. 18-20—it was one of the best AND most fun things I've ever done (can you believe it?).  Sorry for the sometimes sloppy writing, but I figured if I didn't do it the day after I got back, I'd never get around to it.

We left Friday morning (Feb. 18) and came back Sunday afternoon.  We went to the maximum security Gatesville women's prison (in Gatesville, Texas, southwest of Waco)—including death row.  About 12 women (plus a few men) from our church in Plano, Texas, went with a 50-60 person group from various churches/denominations mainly from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area—although there were several who flew in from other parts of the country as well as from Mexico.  Part of our group was even a tiny little 79-year-old nun—"Sister G"—who was the life of the party for the inmates and us volunteers—especially when she accidentally said in front of everyone last year that she was "hot-blooded" when she meant to say "hot-headed"!  The inmates now say, "Here comes the hot-blooded nun!"  She works almost entirely in the jails, prisons, and on the inner-city streets in Milwaukee.  The whole trip was absolutely wonderful!  It was so great that we didn't really notice how tired we were getting with a packed schedule—we didn't get around to eating supper until close to 10 p.m. each night and ate lunch Saturday at 4:30.

We basically had "church" in the prison chapel (big—held several hundred) starting with praise and worship (singing contemporary worship songs with a band—instead of organ and hymns—and those girls really got with it on the fast songs!), then a great message (various women speakers), prayer time (for the first time, I actually prayed for people who came up for prayer), and then led small groups afterward.  We volunteers "sprinkled" ourselves by ones and twos throughout the sanctuary and just let the inmates come in and fill in beside us.  We did these 2-hour services five times while there, and the inmates loved it.  We had pretty much the same big group of inmates every time—they came back every time they got a chance, and they were looking for the volunteers they'd sat beside on the first night—we immediately became their volunteers.  

Two of "my" three ladies were in prison for murder, and I wouldn't be surprised if the third one was (she kept cracking me up—she had such a sense of humor!).  But there was absolutely no fear for me—for some reason, I was extremely glad to see these women.  I had no problem hugging or touching them—and they needed that so desperately.  If you are the least bit interested in this sort of thing, and if you ever get the chance, do it—you'll get at least as much out of it as the inmates do.  It's one of the best experiences I've ever had.  Several of these inmates are going to be praying specifically for me and my needs, too—one came back to me to ask who in my life that I wanted prayer for!  You know, I'd bet there's a lot of power in that girl's prayer.  The inmates especially loved the 10-12 men volunteers—they so needed to see a kind, accepting man who cared about them and who wouldn't ask for anything in return.  We hated to go home—it was probably the most wonderful worshipping of God I'd ever been involved with.  These ladies wanted to be there—they've got a church body there in that prison that would put most other churches to shame!

Picture this—a bunch of women dressed all in white, who were very aware of their need for God, and who were infinitely grateful for His truly setting them free and giving them a future and a purpose, and who worshipped Him wholeheartedly and unreservedly.  I got a glimpse of heaven, I think—the bride of Christ, dressed in fine white linen, worshipping the Lamb of God with everything they had in them.  Funny—these are some of the people I'll spend eternity with, and not some of those "nice" people out in the world who think they've got it made and don't really need God or anyone else.  But that's how Jesus said it would be (and God, too, especially in the Old Testament prophets)—God will want and use what the world thinks is foolish and throws away.  I saw a whole bunch of His precious little girls who'll be there with Him some day soon.

Some of the volunteers who had been there several times went instead to the various cell blocks (with names like "Seg," "Cell Block 2," "Reception," and, of course, Death Row) to be with the women who couldn't be let out for the sanctuary services—they don't usually let us "rookies" do that.  In fact, there are almost 2,000 men inmates at Gatesville, too.  But the volunteers who went to the cells asked to do it and considered it a privilege—they say it's a life-changing experience in itself.  (See the incredible stories about death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker, executed in February 1998, on the www.LifeRow.org site.  Not only did she lead inmates to God, but she led prison ministry volunteers to Him, too—a truly remarkable lady.) 

Linda Strom (of Discipleship Unlimited) is the lady who heads this wonderful prison ministry in Milwaukee.  She reminds me much of Bruce Marchiano (his heart and message).  Jesus just constantly flows out of her, and everyone is drawn to her almost immediately (volunteers AND inmates).  Mary Stocking, one of Linda's good friends and part of the Texas and Wisconsin ministry teams for over seven years, describes the prison ministry, Linda, and Dallas this way:

"I came to Discipleship Unlimited with great hesitation.  I thought I had already seen and heard the Holy Spirit at His best.  I thought I was a healed Christian woman.  I thought things that horrify me now; things about people who belong in prison and those who deserve to be executed.  And there were certainly places a woman of my breeding should try not to go: 'cockarocha' motels and greasy spoon diners!

Nine years ago, would I have in my wildest imagination thought my heart would be at home sleeping in a woman's shelter in Houston or leaping with joy to be on my way to a prison in Gatesville?  No.  Being involved with this ministry has spoiled me for luxury—the unreal.  Linda and Dallas have made a place for the real of God to exist—a place where denominational constraints simply don't exist.  A place where the truly lamest among us, the poorest of the poor, have a front row seat.

I see the masculine make way for the feminine to soar in Linda and Dallas.  I see most fully what I think God must have intended in the partnership of marriage: a gentle giant carefully holding a vessel of teeming life and love.

And one last thought: When I think of Linda, I see her embracing with her eyes, then her arms, anyone who comes within range.  Often, like a child opening every last present, she'll be pulling out their gifts and talents for the glory of God before they realize it.  And deeper she goes for their hidden talents.  Rather than keeping them for herself, she selflessly lets them go for God's purpose."

I can hardly wait to go back in February 2001!  As crazy as it sounds, I felt so "at home" in prison.

P.S.—One more thing, about "Sister G"—she said she'd had a hard time as a nun the first several decades because of carrying around pain from life with an alcoholic mother.  She was born in Malta and then learned Italian before coming to the US (in 1952 or earlier).  She said she got so mad at her Mother Superior once when she was young that she said, "I wish you go to hell and I  JUMP on you!"  Can you imagine?  Yeah, I'd say she could be "hot-headed" at times!  I had the privilege of (and time of my life—I laughed so hard I cried) riding back from Gatesville to DFW Airport with her after the trip—she sat there beside me and patted my leg the whole time when she wasn't gesturing—a lovely, lively, warm lady that all of us were drawn to immediately.  She acted like you were her long-lost child when she met you—and you could tell she meant it (you can see why the inmates love her so much, since she treats them that way, too).  She also said something hugely important:  that she didn't really know God until she started working in the jails, which was several decades after she became a nun!  As she put it, she had "head knowledge" of God but no "heart knowledge" or relationship—exactly the way I would describe where I'd been until April 1998.  "I found God in the jail," Sister G said.

"I didn't find Jesus in the convent; I didn't find Him in the church.  I found Him in the jail.  When I went into that jail and saw how the Lord works behind the bars, I began to find the Lord in my own life."  
—Sister "G" Giselda Fenech

“¹The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, 
because the LORD has anointed me 
to preach good news to the poor. 
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 
to proclaim freedom for the captives 
and release from darkness for the prisoners, 
^2ato proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor 
^band the day of vengeance of our God, 
to comfort all who mourn, 
³and provide for those who grieve in Zion— 
to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, 
the oil of gladness instead of mourning, 
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor.”

 (Isaiah 61:1-3)  
This is the "job description" of the Messiah (Jesus), prophesied almost 700 years before the birth of Jesus. 

Jesus Himself quoted Isaiah 61:1-2a in the Nazareth synagogue at the beginning of His three-year ministry when He said, 

“Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

(Luke 4:16-21)