An Unusual Visitor to an Inmate Prayer Meeting
by Lynn Everett McBride - executive Director
Monday night, March 16, 2009, as we were finishing the Match2, M2, mentoring program in the visitation room, at the El Dorado Correctional Correction Facility, El Dorado, KS, the group of volunteers I was with were walking down the sidewalk heading for the administration office.
As we passed the chapel, I saw three inmates waving at me and I responded by waving back.
The next evening, before our Tuesday night Bible study, I asked, “What were you guys doing in the chapel.”
They replied, “A prayer meeting and it was really something.”
“How's that?” I asked.
A long pause followed; then one of the inmates said, “Well, there were three of us praying when the officer looked into the room. He left immediately and went back to his desk. Soon he returned and interrupted our prayer group to search the room.”
“What was he looking for,” I asked.
The inmate replied, “A fourth man. He said when he looked into the window, he saw four inmates, so he went back to his records and saw there where only three names signed in and he wanted to find the fourth man. He searched all the closets and looked everywhere. We told him there were only three of us in the room, but he insisted he saw a fourth inmate. Well, finally he left and we finished the prayer time.”
We might call this a modern day version of Daniel 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. We do know that Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”
Over the past month, we have been urging the inmates to participate in prayer groups, especially leading up to the National Day of Prayer on May 7. Currently, we are studying Henry Blackaby's book, Experiencing God.
Well, I believe these inmates "Experienced God."