Prison Gymnasium Hosts our Service!

The Saturday before Palm Sunday, a group of 13 of us from our church traveled down to the prison where we've gone for over 20 years.
I would have loved to take pictures, but of course, you are not allowed to take in cameras!
So while I tell about this unique prison service, I will post pictures of Palm Sunday morning service at our church!
There were some firsts this time, even though we have been there at the prison many times.

This time Saturday, we were allowed to take refreshments in to serve the prisoners, as long as the cookies were in new and unopened packages, and likewise the drinks. Sis. Gault had helped Fern Lefever with purchasing the cookies, drinks, napkins and pretty paper plates.
(No, we did not take peppers. These were just a pretty plate that I suggested for Rose to slice for supper one day!)

They had planned on enough cookies for up to 150 men to have 4 cookies each. Last service about 125 men showed up and they had only planned on enough cookies for 75 men! This effort to serve refreshments was a big help in attracting more men to the service, including some who had never attended such a service before.  About 95-100 men were estimated to have shown up this time, about ten of whom said they'd never attended these services before.
Another ten prisoners were busy up in another room setting out the refreshments, since our group was allowed to bring refreshments but not serve them. The prisoners themselves served them.

A scheduling mix-up  made it so that the visiting room where we usually have the service was being used to show a Star Wars movie, and so our service was moved to the huge gymnasium!
No one had any idea how many men there would be, and due to the situation, we were almost all given a whistle and tag to wear, with a button to press if we felt threatened. The guard guiding us through showed us what the whistle would sound like, and boy, that would wake the dead!
We hoped we would not have to use them!

The acoustics in the huge gymnasium were simply horrible and the mikes would only pick up our voices if we were about one inch away from them!
However,  Christian prisoners told us that what might seem to be working against us may actually be for the good, because there were men who would never darken the door of the visiting room for a church service, but they might come to the gymnasium! 

In fact, several new ones did show up, including some who were obviously transgender.
It was a delight to listen to Christian prisoners themselves caring about others who were unsaved, and also caring about seeing the good in what seemed to be bad--an evidence of maturity in these Christian believers.
The Lord helped us, and the prisoners were so appreciative as usual.

I think the best responses came after the trumpet and horn trio played by Robert Lefever, Jonathan Finch, and my Jonathan. The  men just loved that horn music, and also there weren't any words along with it to try to decipher in the awful acoustics.  Of course,  Jonathan's doting wife just loved the part he played on his rich baritone horn, which he has not played in a year.

The other obvious response was when our pastor and his wife sang a duet part in one of the songs.

Our pastor has a strong but mellow voice, and he and his wife both had been trained in a Bible college where they told us that they were not even allowed to use microphones at that time. (I guess it was considered worldly to use microphones.)  So they learned to sing out! You could plainly understand their words, and our pastor's wife has a very nice alto voice that is such a beautiful complement to her husband's.

You could just feel the ripple of response as they sang. 

Praise God for His help, and no, we did not have to blow our whistles!