Help in times of trouble...

Jonah 2:1-2
From inside the fish Jonah prayed... "In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry."

I read between 30 and 60 letters from inmates each day. Many are seekers, "Babes in Christ" trying to learn the basics of Christian living. Some have been Christians all their lives, but lost their way in the world. Still others have really come to know Christ since being incarcerated, have studied everything they can get their hands on, have made life-changing decisions and express their strong committed to living their faith inside prison and when they are released. But all of them, every last one of them are in need. They need basic things like shampoo and postage stamps, and they need medical care and mental health treatment.

One letter I will always remember came from a 43-year-old Hawaiian woman named Sarah Ah Mau, who was being housed in a facility in Kentucky. In heavy black script, she told us about how she and several other women from Hawaii had been shipped all over the U.S. from Texas to Oklahoma, and finally to Kentucky in the middle of winter, where she complained that the facility was cold and damp, and that she was very ill and she did not know what was wrong with her. I added her to my prayer list, and poked a calendar, with its personalized form letter, into a padded envelope for Sarah. I thought about her several times. I found it ironic that she was there in Kentucky and desperately missed her island home, while I was here, in Houston, missing my own home in Kentucky.

I recently learned that it is not unusual for the State of Hawaii to export felons, because there is such limited space on the islands, and it is far more cost-efficient to build resort hotels rather than prisons, and pay CCA to house offenders elsewhere. I learned this from an internet report I just stumbled upon of Sarah's death on New Years Eve, 2005, of "natural causes" after an undiagnosed illness, in the Wheelwright, Kentucky Otter Creek Correctional Facility operated by CCA. I've spent a few afternoons going through our files looking for Sarah's letter, but I don't expect I'll find it. But I'm praying for her family, and for everyone who is away from home.

In Texas, the heat becomes almost unbearable in the summer, and the prison dorms have no air conditioning. Some prisons here are said to have unreliable water treatment facilities. They are all understaffed, filled to capacity, with persons suffering from addiction, mental illness, cancer, HIV, illiteracy, emotional trauma, misery and hopelessness. We pray for them all.

Great God, you created the world and you called it good. Yet from the beginning, we have failed to live up to the trust you have placed in us. Forgive us, Father, when we fail to care for your creation, and for your children. Forgive those of us who have turned away, for the wrong we have done, and for the good we have left undone.

We lift the names of those made known to us:

Willie G. Garrett, Vanessa Campbell and her children, Lee Suarner and his family, Samantha Stevens and her loved ones, Wendy Casey and her family, Angela Aultman, Reneicie Broyles and Leslie Haley, Patrick Jones and Dora Harvey, Mark H. Dillon, Esther and Larry Nelson and their family, Darlese Lillard, Lucy A. Johnson, Angela O’Brien, Cynthia D. Smith, Doug Brown, Staci Canoll, Allison Boyter, Whitney Eason, Charles Martin, Brenda Howard, Sheila and Jody Merrit and their children, Barbara Cuyler, Edna Cuyler, Constance Brewer, Rickie Alvarado Mathews, Randy Lee Bowman, June C. Lumpkin, Cloteal Beasley, Marquita Hatcher, Annie R. Lewis, Jamie Smith

For these and all your people, bring them your healing grace and divine guidance.

Send Your peace, grace and mercy on the inmates and administration of Houston County Jail in Crockett, TX, Dawson State Jail in Dallas, TX, CMCF in Pearl, MS, KWIC in Pewee Valley, KY, Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, FL, Brush Women’s Correctional Facility in Brush, CO, IDOC-Rockville Correctional Facilty, Rockville, IN, Bradshaw State Jail, Henderson, TX, Joe F. Gurney Unit in Tenessee Colony, TX, Gatesville Unit, Gatesville, TX, Larry Gist State Jail, Beaumont, TX, Harris County Jail in Houston, TX, Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, KY and Otter Creek Correctional Facility in Wheelwright, KY.

Thank you for hearing and answering our prayers. Help us continue to see your face in the each one of these. Empower and inspire us to do your will among the people. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.