The Prison Visit

Wow! There's not a better word to describe the experience we were able to have in the prison. I definitely wasn't sure what to expect but I don't think I could of prepared myself for it anyways. When we walked in we instantly stuck out (which I'm sure was because we were all in our baseball uniforms), but attention was immediately drawn to us and the softball field. We began to warm up and get ready for the double header softball games and inmates started to come up to us asking questions about where we were from. I think a couple of the inmates thought we were actually prisoners from another prison coming to play softball. As the game started and the day went out we started feeling more comfortable and having conversations with a lot of the prisoners. We started to learn that these inmates weren't so different than us and everyone else in the world. It really made me realize how often we as a society or even christians can look down on these people in prisons and look at them as lower than ourselves. I certainly did when I entered the prison. It took me coming into their environment and getting to know some of them to learn that I was completely wrong. The reality is that we all make mistakes and the only difference between a lot of those guys and the rest of the world is that they were caught. It made me realize as a christian that God views every single one of those guys the same as the rest of the world. We've all made mistakes and we have all fallen short of the glory of God but He still loves us all the same. Unfortunately it's really easy to jump to conclusions about people and try and write them off as lower than us. I think the truth is we are all really the same and the fact that we have a God who still loves us regardless of the mistakes we have made in our past is pretty awesome.

Heres a picture of Chuck taking a nap on the bus ride back after the game.