THE VOLUNTEER

By AIC Timothy Espinosa

Some people really love coming to prison. When they arrive, they are all smiles and seemed to be glowing. I’ve witnessed this in various chapels in different prisons over the years.

Yep, there are people, saints really, who love to come into this forlorn place and visit us prisoners. I’ve seen them old and young and everywhere in between. Husband and wife teams and even whole families. One ministry team flies in from Texas several times a year, then drives all over Oregon preaching in scattered prisons before they fly back again, dog tired. Another group comes annually from all over the US, being compromised of young adults in a music ministry. And believe it or not, we even have had visitors from Uganda!

What possible factor could account for their choice to visit us prisoners?

Several times now, I’ve sat in our prison chapel and listened with rapt attention to graduated Otino Waa students and staff. I laughed as they talked about America’s exotic foods, like pizza, then proceed to compare prisons in Uganda to our prison, as if this were a palace. Imagine that perspective! Of all the sights to see in our state, and with a limited amount of time, what possible factor could account for their choice to visit us prisoners? What is it that compels these volunteers to willingly enter prison, time and time again?

Well, I just so happen to know that the persuader is a person, and his name is Jesus. Yes, it is this single person who inspires these chapel volunteers to willingly sacrifice of their time, talents, and treasure. It is He who compels these saints to darken prison doors with those wonderful smiles and glowing faces.

However, it’s 2021 and for over 19 months, no chapel services nor any of the willing volunteers will come. While it’s certainly a disappointment and believe me I’ll never take chapel for granted again, but it will not ruin our time inside.

He was known to appear in rooms secured by bolted doors

As much of a blessing as the various ministries are to us incarcerated believers, there’s a preeminent volunteer whom both prisoner and volunteer know and love. This one can’t possibly be kept out of prison, for early in His work He was known to appear in rooms secured by bolted doors. It’s even reliably recorded that he’s fellowshipped with those in lions’ dens and fiery furnaces stoked to the limit. So, we can be assured that neither prison doors nor COVID restrictions will succeed in keeping Him from His people.

Who is this miraculous chief of prison volunteers you might ask? Well, it’s Jesus again. He will undoubtedly spend this Christmas with each of us whether we’re in prison or not. He’s promised never to leave or forsake His own, and He never will. He is that supreme volunteer, willing to trade all of heaven for time with us and then a cross of suffering. Yet even now He lives to minister His salvation to everyone who calls on His name.

Both prisoner and volunteer know these truths beyond any doubt. Neither they, nor we, will be alone. As each has given so extravagantly of themselves over the years, they should not fret over the fact they cannot visit us. Jesus will be here as He always has, because he loves coming into prisons!