No Excuses From Working





The sun slowly rose on the eastern skies. One by one, the imprisoned bodies woke up and gave themselves a stretch and yawned. Donning themselves with blue uniforms, they started getting ready to be sent for work in different areas of the prisons.


Lined up neatly in a row, by two’s, several marched ahead to go to the bakeries to bake the loaves of bread that would feed the entire jail population for the following days to come. Freshly-baked aroma filled the air and woke up those not working and who stayed behind in their cells.


Some went to the kitchen to make some meals, some of them to serve the custody and medical staff in the dining area where they could learn some etiquettes in taking the staff’s orders and the manner they would serve the ordered food. Others would start making big batches of food for those incarcerated. Hot oatmeals were stirred in a big pot, soups were boiling, chickens and vegetables were cut up for a particular menu and individual trays were readied that would go to different housing during “chow times” [meals].


The garage was busy with the inmates learning how to fix cars, painting them, restoring the engine parts.


The laundry area was noisy with the busy washing machines, full of heavy loads of prisoners’ uniforms. As the dryers joined in with the rhythmic din, some inmate workers were already folding some dried clothes, arranging them in neat piles on a big bin.


Some were outside, clearing the tall weeds, mowing the lawn, putting fertilizers on the beautiful landscape they had created days before.


Others could be found in the Bridge [central part of the jail] where they would maintain the cleanliness or help the staff with some errands within the facility.


Still, some others, feeling lazy would put in a sick call request, hoping that the facility nurse would give them a few days off from their work. There were so many lame excuses but they didn’t know that it would be hard to get a valid off-work status, as jail nurses were always keen in detecting their needs or symptoms noted.


Yes, these broken lives are kept busy and by rehabilitation, hopefully will make them useful when they are released. This process gives them a new life to stay away from society‘s illness: drugs, alcohol, rape, robberies and other forms of crimes. With the skills learned, they can become more productive.


As Christians, previously broken and restored by the saving power of Jesus, we must not stop, too and be useful for the Lord. I think, sometimes, it’s easier to make excuses from witnessing with those people around us needing to hear the Good News. But there is a continual “harvest” that waits to be reaped.


And yes, we do this witnessing because it produces a joy of working for Him. It is a joy to see when new believers come to Christ.


Jesus said, “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, Who sent Me, and from finishing His work. Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now? Look around you! Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ‘One person plants and someone else harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and you will gather the harvest.” - John 4:34-38.





20 comments:

  1. Rosel,

    Thank you as always for giving us an insiders look into the lives of men incarcerated. Here is adding to your prayers that God is working in their lives during this time and they will come out much better people than when they went in and lives will be forever changed for the better.

    Love and Hugs ~ Kat

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  2. Rosel,

    Just praying Angels would be encamped around the prison, the cells, and each corner of every room in which these men work! May they feel HIS love and Presence manifest in the atmosphere!

    love you you and may Joy unspeakable pour over you as you are a light for Jesus each and every day

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  3. So, so good. I deeply appreciate God and His messages and heart for His children in their every day. So many of us miss what is going on right in front of our eyes. Opportunities lost forever to us; left for another faithful one to harvest. Thank you for this powerful analogy.

    As I read I wondered, do they take turns learning each area of work or how is it that the inmates are assigned their jobs?

    May God's love and hope flow so freely and obviously that lives will be changed just from you toiling each day.

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  4. @ Shanda: They are usually evaluated to make sure that there is no medical problem and are assigned for a period of time to whatever they choose. Some likes to work in the kitchen because they have more access to foods that otherwise, they won't have if they are not working.

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  5. Praying for you daily as you do your work, thanks for being such a warrior. I love you.

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  6. Such beautiful writing. I can smell the bread, and hear the noise in the laundry room. I love how you "take us there."

    Advice: Do you know of anything like Brothers in Blue in prisons, but for female inmates instead of males? There's a group of us women in northwest Iowa who would like to do this in the prison, much like our husbands do two times a year in the Fort Dodge, Iowa, prison. Do you know of anything? Thanks for any info you have.

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  7. @ sister Jennifer: I'll head over to see you :)

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  8. As always, thank for your reminders...
    BTW, come and grab the friends award !

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  9. Loved that video Rosel. It completely finished this post! What an impact! Once again, thank you!
    Christy

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  10. What a deep and meaningful post! I don't even realize what I take for granted everyday! Being able to wake up a free man, being able to go to Church and study the word without any walls to keep me imprisoned. Makes me want to do more to share the Lords word and help others who are in need.

    Thanks for the wonderful post!

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  11. @ Bro. Steve: Not only are you free physically but more importantly, "spiritually". Thanks to prison ministries, some inmates commit their lives to Christ. So, they may be behind bars, but spiritually, they just had gained the freedom that comes from Christ. And there are so many people outside prison walls who are still not enjoying that "freedom"...That's what sad for me.

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  12. "Be not afraid at His sweet, lovely and desirable cross, for although I have not been able because of my wounds to lift up or lay down my head but as I was helped, yet I was never in better case all my life. . . . He has so wonderfully shined on me with the sense of His redeeming, strengthening, assisting, supporting, through-bearing, pardoning and reconciling love, grace and mercy that my soul doth long to be freed of bodily infirmities and earthly organs, so that I may flee to His Royal Palace, even the Heavenly Habitation of my God, where I am sure of a crown put on my head and a palm put in my hand and a new song in my mouth, even the song of Moses and of the Lamb, so that I may bless, praise, magnify and extol Him for what He hath done to me and for me. . . . Farewell, my children, study holiness in all your ways, and praise the Lord for what He hath done for me, and tell all my Christian friends to praise Him on my account. Farewell, sweet Bible, and wanderings and contendings for truth. Welcome, death. Welcome, the City of my God where I shall see Him and be enabled to serve Him eternally with "FULL FREEDOM". Welcome, blessed company, the angels and spirits of just men made perfect. But above all, welcome, welcome, welcome, our glorious and alone God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; into Thy hands I commit my spirit, for Thou art worthy. Amen."

    Last and dying testimony of John Nisbet (1627-1685), quoted in Jock Purves, Fair Sunshine: Character Studies of the Scottish Covenanters, pages 92-93.

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  13. @ Bro. Ike: Powerful quote/testimony of a dying man, ready to go Home. Death is just the beginning...

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  14. Hi, just checking in to see if you had a new post. wb

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  15. Great post. And what an interesting video.
    Charlotte

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  16. As usual I was blessed to read your insights. Yours is a unique perspective and never fails to open my eyes to Gods work among the broken

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  17. your blog is amazing. You're amazing. thank you for sharing your heart as you work with all those who walk with no hope. Sarah

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  18. Yes, Sweetie, we are long overdue for some ice tea and cookies. Oh, how I wish we could sit down and munch on those cookies and I can tell you how powerful prayers are ministering to us in my family. Our lost one is just "a prayer away." I know God is in all this pain and bringing home the lost sheep. Meanwhile, we see traces of God's favor in bringing us so much help and I can't praise Him enough or thank you enough for your love and faithfulness to our friendship. May it all be multiplied back to you one hundred fold.

    Love and prayers to you also,
    Mary

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  19. Rosel, that video is so powerful to be such a little cartoon.

    God bless you as you continually bless others.

    Love!
    Beth

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  20. Just found your blog and you have shed some light on prison life.

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"Faith is taking the first step even if you don't see the whole staircase..."
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

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