The Inmate Worker In The Clinic Would Overcome

“Hi!”

A familiar voice echoed in the hallway. Coming from the very back of that unit near the Infirmary.

“How you doin’, Ma’am?”

“Oh, Hi Sir! I’m fine. Thanks. Busy as usual though I just got here…And you?”

He cracked a soft laughter. Managing the volume of his voice. Careful the sound would not go beyond from the space where we both were standing. I was getting a particular stock from our Supply Room. Him…Sitting in that corner where there was a table meant for Inmate Workers like him. On top of the table, there was a tier of papers or forms used to open charts for sick inmates. That was his duty and those who were there before him. To make charts from cleaned up, old ones. And then, wait for orders. If either Custody or Medical staff needs something to be cleaned up and other errands reserved for his role.

He must be sentenced for many months. Perhaps, years…As I saw him every weekend I tried to schedule myself. He was becoming familiar with every face that walked into that Clinic. Including mine. I could see and feel his reservation. Of whom to greet and not greet. But I usually tried not to wait. I always acknowledged him. And told him how grateful I was that he was keeping the areas in the Infirmary clean.
I didn’t have to know his crime. I just knew with the way he cleaned the areas around the Clinic patiently. Hours after hours. Only to clean again at the end of the day as other staff might not be conscious of keeping our own areas neat. I always saw him with a friendly grin. A smile most of the time even when being told to do a particular duty. I could sense he wanted to change. I could sense the hunger inside him. Wanting to do good. Holding a mop or a broom with bare, callous hands that once held guns in the street. The respectful words he tried to utter every time someone walked into his domain. Instead of cursing.
He was looking down. Staring at the open chart he initiated as he tried to gather the needed forms.

“Excuse me, Sir!”

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure, Ma’am.”

“Can you help me with this inmate in the wheelchair that needed a dressing change? It’s not possible for him to get into the exam table.”

“Oh yeah! I know him. I always help him out and I know he doesn’t mind me helping him. He told me he appreciates my help.”

“I do, too.”

“Ready? One. Two. Three.” The paralyzed inmate used his strong, muscular arms to keep him stable from that transfer as the other inmate worker helped him with his lower legs.

The inmate worker turned his back. He understood his part was done and he didn’t have any business during the dressing change. Not like outside the streets. When he wanted to hear anything going on so he could preserve his life from those wanting him killed. Better yet...To make the hit even before his surrounding enemies get him...

“Thank you, Sir.” I added as he made that quick u-turn. The paralyzed inmate thanking him, too, at the same time.

“You’re a big help!”

He replied with just a smile. But I saw the reflection from his weary face. He was proud of being able to help out others. He was proud of the change that started in his heart. He saw the goodness of being able to love instead of hate. He saw the reality of being useful instead of living without a purpose.

My dressing change had long been done. As I saw the familiar figure then with a few charts already made on his table. I silently prayed for him. I knew he needed God’s strength in order for him to move on. And pursue the change he wanted. I knew he would overcome. But not by his own power.

But of God’s…

I invite you to listen to this song "Overcome" by Jeremy Camp. I pray this will encourage you in your life's journey and that of my own. We all face trials. But despite the tribulations in this world, it is true that we can have peace because of what Jesus had already done... Jesus "overcame" the world!!! And as we follow our Master, how true that we should be encouraged instead of feeling despair and hopeless. But we also know it is only by drawing near our Savior that makes our walks strong. So...let us "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; NIV)


"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
- John 16:33 (NLT)

Prayer On Friday Morning

Lord, today, I just want to lift up people, not only my family and friends but to everyone who will come here, seeking hope. Needing compassion. Hungry for love. Tired. Hurting. Abandoned. Can’t get out of unwanted situations. Wanting to be accepted not rejected. Finding things that do not truly satisfy their needs and instead trap them. You’re the only One Who can truly satisfy one’s soul. You’re the only One Who can give the physical and spiritual healing everyone needs. Your love is the only one that is unconditional, boundless and faithful. Help us Lord to have Your strength. Help us Lord to endure. Help us to see things through Your eyes. Remind us to share and give away the love You have poured into our hearts. Protect us against our enemies. Help us to never get tired serving because of what You had done in the hearts of those who accepted Your grace. We are the best sinners whose life You had and continue to change around. Remind us we are no better than others who still are wandering in their life's roads without true directions. Make us sensitive to others who happen to walk in our own journey and guide us and give us the boldness to share the work You had began in our hearts. Thank You Lord for Your love, mercy and grace. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.-Philippians 1:6 (NLT)

The Dying Man

The dying Jesus is the evidence of God's anger toward sin; but the living Jesus is the proof of God's love and forgiveness. ~Lorenz Eifert

Downing almost 20 oz. of the icy-cold water in my car, I ran to the restroom as soon as I entered the Clinic last Sunday afternoon. It was right across from the nursing supervisor’s office. As I emerged from the door, the day supervisor called me and wanted to talk with me inside.

“Hi Rcubes! I called you because I want you to know that the man you sent to the hospital last night is dying now,” she broke the news with a faint smile, weary from the hours of answering phones from those who were higher in Custody and from the treating staff at the county’s hospital.

“What?” I exclaimed in disbelief.

“I mean…I knew he was very sick but for him to go down so fast like that….Bleeding from where?” I quickly asked.

“Wow! You remember!” she uttered.

“I want you to know (as I remained in long silence) that I had read the chart and I could see, you had done the best you could and did the right intervention. There’s just so much we can do,” she reassured. Perhaps, sensing the loneliness that crept over me, mirrored in my still-tired face from a busy shift the night before. What was sad was that the supervisor told me that they didn’t have any info on any family member, so they could let someone know.

During the course of another chaotic shift, we got a dreaded phone call. The hospital staff just called a Code Blue on him.

He was an obese man. Still young in his mid-40’s. The body ruined by an early vice of abusing alcohol. He had developed liver and renal failure. He was just complaining of vomiting when he came to the Clinic when I first saw him. Wheeling himself in, with the wheelchair provided when he got booked in, he also told me how both of his legs had osteomyelitis so it was difficult for him to walk. I didn’t see any vomitus. But I went ahead and called the on-call doctor. He stated how he felt better after I medicated him for nausea and vomiting. I told him he would see the jail doctor still the following day. A couple of hours later, his wheelchair came into view. Requesting to be seen again, he looked pale then. He told me when he used the restroom, he saw a lot of blood. To prove his claim, he showed me some toilet paper housed inside the paper tube.He denied having problems from his unit. Except he kept repeating about his medical condition as he was already being treated for those by the jail doctors.

“You can throw that away! I believe you. But this time, you need to go to the hospital.” We started the IV right away and gave him lots of IV fluid to compensate for the fluids he lost. His blood pressure was on the low side. I put the oxygen prongs in each of his nare and reassured him. He looked uneasy. When he got to the hospital, they found out he was bleeding internally but they couldn’t find the source.

I didn’t know this man. Except I knew he was a man also loved by the Son of Man. I kept hearing he might not make it before they did the surgery. But I didn’t believe that. I knew the love and compassion the Son of Man has for everyone who would call on Him. And I pled quietly for that dying man.

For the Son of Man Who understood what he was going through. What his spirit needed.  Because He came here to die so we could live. As I was off on Monday, I ended up calling the same supervisor who dealt with the news first thing. She gave me an update. That the officers who arrested him found a sister. And that…The man made it... For some reason, she said, he was holding on…

I thanked her. Not at all surprised with the news of extended hours, days or years for that sick man. Because I knew…Jesus was always quick to reach out. And save…He took our sins and put them all on Him on the cross. Because He loved humanity. He loved us. It was not the nails that held Him on the cross. It was His love for us. Yes…This Man…The Son of Man…Loves us!

This Man - Jeremy Camp



In only a moment truth
Was seen revealed this mystery
The crown that showed no dignity he wore
And the king was placed for all the world
To show disgrace but only beauty flowed from this place

Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands
Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands

He held the weight of impurity
The father would not see
The reasons had finally come to be to
Show the depth of his grace flowed with
Every sin erased he knew that this was
Why he came

Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands
Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands

And we just don't know the blood and
Water flowed and in it all
He showes just how much he cares
And the veil was torn so we could have
This open door and all these things have
Finally been complete

Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands
Would you take the place of this man
Would you take the nails from his hands
From his hands...

I See Aliens

“Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.” – 1 Peter 2:11 (NLT)

"Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping. For I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were.” – Psalm 39:12 (NIV)

“And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as "foreigners in the land." – 1 Peter 1:17 (NLT)

“I’ll go,” I told the Charge Nurse to remain in the Clinic as there were only the two of us before the night shift started. We just heard a call from the radio, a unit whose deputies had to extract a combative inmate from his cell with force. When injuries were present, nurses had to be there.

I was starting to feel hot as I felt my sweat emerged from my forehead from the long walk it was taking me in the long corridor. The unit’s heavy metal door was open. Past on my right side where they housed those inmates on discipline alone, I saw the flooded floor and bunches of towels and blankets thrown on the floor to attempt to dry the place. As I looked straight ahead, I saw the bloodied shirt of an inmate whose back was facing me. He was surrounded by so many deputies, clothed in heavy riot gear. Their faces I couldn’t see as they wore the helmets with only the visor visible and only their eyes and noses were seen. Wearing thick pads around them, they were all surrounding the obviously very combative inmate strapped on a safety chair. I thought….If I wasn’t familiar with the things that went on in the prison, those deputies in riot gears looked like aliens with huge and thick pads, and faces covered with helmets. My thought was suddenly interrupted…With the lingering fume from the pepper spray that was deployed to paralyze that inmate who was constantly yelling.

I saw his white shirt all bloodied. The source…From a deep gash that was obscured by a spit mask the deputies had put over his head. He refused to be treated. He wouldn’t allow me to touch and assess his injury. I saw a bump protruding from the right side of his head. It was not a hard decision. With his odd behavior, it seemed like he was under the influence of “something” and that his gash might need some suturing. I gave the paper works to Custody as I turned around, toting my emergency bag on my shoulder. I saw the deputies wearing heavy gear easing up a bit after they secured the inmate on that safety chair. One took off his mask and I knew him immediately. From one of the units when I also responded to a “mandown” long ago. His sweats dripping on his face. He gave a big sigh.

“Are you guys, okay?” I asked the two of them who happened to go out with me in the corridor.

“Yeah,” a tired response echoed in the silent hallway.

“Take care,” I added.

“Thank you,” they softly returned.

I had walked past them as I was wearing a lighter clothing perhaps… Oh…What a sight it would be for those who were not familiar with such incidents! I knew many people believed in “aliens”. I did, too. Except I didn’t need to look up in the sky and search for unfamiliar flying saucers and objects or weird lights…

I see “aliens” everywhere. When I hear human beings talk about “following Christ” or they are “born-again Christians”. I see “aliens” who show no favor to rich ones over the poor. I see “aliens” when they weep over sins knowing they contaminate their spirits and who do not hesitate to repent to Jesus. Then, work, though hard, to not fall again with the same acts believing the strength He gives. I see “aliens” who believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again on the third day and ascended to heaven. I see “aliens” who truly walk…in Spirit and Truth…Yes…These “aliens” are everywhere. Actually, I do see some lights…Little lights they shine. Reflections from the Light of the World…

“Dear friends, I warn you as "temporary residents and foreigners" to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.” – 1 Peter 2:11 (NLT)

“Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” -  2 Corinthians 7:1 (NIV)

“So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God's holy people. You are members of God's family.” – Ephesians 2:19 (NLT)

Example of "cell extraction" when inmates defy authorities to go out of their cells or if they are being combative to them: