Timothy’s Gift Prison Tour

I had a unique and awesome experience to travel with a small group of people from my church to FL to do a Prison Tour with Timothy’s Gift (if you are unfamiliar, I highly recommend you check out the website: www.timothysgift.com)

Seven of us left for FL from Nashville on Tuesday, December 11 in an 8 passenger van with all of our gear loaded in the back. Our return date was December 22, and for most of the days we had two 90-minute programs scheduled… one day we had two 90-minute programs and one 30-minute program for the staff at one of the prisons. Let me tell you, it was buuuuuuusy! Lots of driving, but I have to say I enjoyed being with everyone and getting to know everyone better on this trip… we really became a family

Our official tour didn’t begin until the next day. We were scheduled to do 20 Christmas programs in 10 days (all at different facilities). We visited facilities from a Level 3 category to a Level 6 category (which includes those on death row). A maximum security prison falls under the level 5 category or the most secure, while a minimum security prison is accordingly labeled as level 1. Within category 5 exists a level more secure than the maximum security prison. A super max prison facility provides the highest level of prison security. A super max prison holds those considered the most dangerous individuals; this includes inmates who have committed murders, gang violence, assaults, rapes, or other serious violations. I say this to give you an idea of the type of people we were visiting while on our Prison Tour.

Why were we visiting these prisoners? Why were we giving them a Christmas program? There is an old hymn I came across called “Rescue the Perishing”… its first verse says:

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying;
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

We were there to share the love of God… to remind them that they are loved, and that regardless of what they’ve done in their past, it doesn’t have to continue on… there can be restoration and change, and there are those out there praying for them and believing in them that they CAN break that cycle. Even if they don’t, though, they need a message of love, positivity… hope! These prisoners are very often forgotten about. For a lot of them, families or friends don’t visit them anymore. They have nobody. Where, then, are they going to get love? Our human-ness probably tells us that they are unworthy of love because of what they have done (and honestly, there are those incarcerated that shouldn’t be there… Timothy Kane is one example, and you can find out more about him over at the Timothy’s Gift website), but let me tell you something… they need love in the same way everybody else does, and they are worthy of it! Who are we to say they aren’t? Who did Jesus hang out with in his time? He showed love to those that nobody else would… the prisoners, the prostitutes, the liars, the cheaters, the murders. Heck, David was considered the man after God’s own heart, and he was an adulterer and a murderer. Everybody deserves love, and sometimes I wonder if everybody showed more love to each other would a lot of these men and women be in prison today? Love is one of the most powerful things… genuine, unselfish love.

It’s so easy to get “comfortable,” lukewarm in our faith, and we become hardened to these people in prison (and those not in prison that do things we do not condone). “My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no on searched or looked for them.” – Ezekial 34:6. The sad thing is that a lot of us don’t shed a thought or seek out those that are lost in this world. Newsflash: Jesus died to save EVERYone! NOT just those that “say the right things, pray the right prayers, do the right deeds…”

This tour was an eye-opener for me, as well as draining physically, mentally and emotionally. It is a wake-up call and reminder to not allow myself to be caught up in my own world that I forget those that are hurting so much, that feel so incredibly lost and hopeless. It’s so easy to get self-absorbed in our own pleasures that we lose compassion for these people. I met people on this tour that have done such horrible things that you would wince and cringe at the thought of and think, “How could anybody do such a thing?” There are people we did these programs for that will never get out… prison is their life.

In our Christmas program to them, we started out with some fun songs to get them laughing. One song that John Starnes sang was a version of “Frosty the Snowman” by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. Man, did they get a kick out of that. I also played a sax solo during the song… I don’t know if some of them have honestly ever seen a chick sax player, but one guy told me afterwards, “Before you played I wasn’t expecting much, but then you played and my jaw dropped… clearly you can.” Haha! To ensure that those in the Latino community felt that they had something for them, I spoke to them a little bit in Spanish right before singing “Feliz Navidad” with them… and I do mean with them… I got them to sing the verse on their own, and they all sang it loud and proud (even the ones that didn’t know the Spanish lyrics, so you heard loud mumbled words sung, haha). Jacob Eckeberger (of My Anchor Holds) did an acoustic version of “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”, where he even changed a few lyric lines to joke about prison food and seasoning packets to get them laughing. Katie Eckeberger (also of My Anchor Holds) brought some Elvis in da house by singing “It’s Christmas Time Pretty Baby,” which got them standing up and clapping at the end (especially after Jacob did a guitar solo, comping himself WHILE soloing… that’s something many of them have never seen before, and they LOVED it!) Leading out of the fun and funny part of the program was the more serious portion. We had a now dear friend of mine, Rob, join us for a few days on the tour. He actually was incarcerated with some of the prisoners we saw on the tour, but has been out for 5 years and is one of the nicest, humble, genuine guys you will ever meet, and man does he have a love for God! He shared with the inmates, starting off by saying his last name and his DC number, so they knew he had been in prison before which automatically gave them something in common, a connection… an ability to share with all of them God’s love in a way that the rest of us couldn’t. It was moving to hear his story, and to hear him tell them that it’s not easy… for those that will get out, it won’t be easy… but you have to fight through. Man, I wish you could have heard him talk… I can’t do it justice.

Laine Barley (follow her here), a wonderful painter and person inside and out, came up and shared some of her story. You would think that after hearing it 20 times it wouldn’t hit you the same, but it did, every time! I think it really rang out for a lot of those prisoners that were there, having felt like God had abandoned them and wasn’t listening to them or answering their prayers. Laine painted for them an angel with a sash across the bodice saying “Covered”, to remind them that God has them covered. Powerful… and add that to the message that was going to be given through two powerful songs. One in which Katie and I sang called “His Name Is Jesus, and the other that was sung by Melissa Greene (follow her here) for the first leg of the tour, Lauren sang it for the second leg, and Shari sang it for the third is a JJ Heller song called “What Love Really Means.”  Each of them did such a beautiful job delivering the message of the song to the inmates, and for most of the tour I was moved just seeing some of these grown men (some covered in tattoos, some pretty big scary looking guys) crying… some kneeling on the ground with their face in their hands weeping, and some looking around to make sure nobody was watching them so they could quickly wipe their tears with their hand. I said for most of the tour because for the majority of it, I played the piano… but I had a faulty piano at one of the prisons and didn’t play, so I had the chance to LISTEN to the words for the first time, and it hit me so hard that I couldn’t hold the tears in. Seriously, the moment was so powerful that I have  to share the song with you… so please, when you have a moment, watch the music video here!

We then did something that I’ve never done before… we served communion to them. They all came up, row by row. I broke the bread, placed it in their hands and as I held their hands I looked them in the eye and said these words: The body of Christ broken for you, the blood of Christ shed for you. I was surprised by how many of them held eye contact with me. There were some that had telling tattoos, like a tear tattooed under the eye symbolizing that they have murdered someone, yet something stirred inside of them as their bottom lips quivered trying to fight back tears, while others didn’t fight it. Some held that piece of bread like it was the most precious thing they have ever been given, and they took their time… said God bless you, thank you for coming… and then dipped the break in the grape juice and consumed it. One older Latino man with hardly a voice came back up after he had already gone back to his seat to tell me (in Spanish) through tears, “Thank you… thank you so much for coming. God bless you. This was the best Christmas… God bless you…” Wow! I walked back to my seat behind the keyboard and cried… I cried at almost every service we did… it’s something that I can’t explain, and I definitely can’t transfer that feeling to you just in this lengthy blog post… but I will tell you, if you have the opportunity/want to experience it, you should! It will change you. So many of them at the end of the services told us that our program was the best Christmas they’ve had, the best concert they’ve ever seen in their lives, that it will carry them through the next year and that we better come back

Wow… what an experience! Ron Miller (the man behind the vision of Timothy’s Gift) has something really special here, and I was so blessed and thankful to be a part of it! He has told us all that he has received many letters in the mail from inmates, and he even emailed me a drawing that somebody drew for me (which is the picture above). I will definitely do this again, and I look forward to it It would be way too long to share all of the stories I have come away with, but please… feel free to ask me. I would love to share it with you all!

Don’t forget to show love to everyone you meet… smile when you look people in the eye… say hello to strangers with a smile on your face… you just never know who will be moved by a simple expression of love. For me, just doing that and seeing their reaction moves me and makes me want to continue doing that… it’s how I would want others to be towards me, so I shall do my best in showing love to everyone I know!

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it!

I love you all!