Dear GraceInside Friends & Family,
Oh, there’s no place like home for the holidays,
For no matter how far away you roam,
If you pine for the sunshine of a friendly gaze,
For the holidays you can’t beat HOME SWEET HOME!
Listen. That old sweet song is playing gently on the radio. It’s Christmas Eve. Candles are glowing in the windows. Outside the window, snow is gently falling. The beautifully decorated Christmas tree shimmers with its hundreds of little twinkling lights. The lights reflect off of the ribbons and bows on all of those shiny presents that are stacked high around the tree.
Precious family members have come to stay for the holidays. Granny and Grandpa are here, along with aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings. They’re all in the kitchen, which still smells heavenly from tonight’s big holiday dinner. Now the grown-ups are sitting around the table, sipping on coffee and hot chocolate, nibbling on Christmas cookies and catching up on all of the family gossip, stories and recent happenings.
From the living room come sounds of laughter and squeals of delight, excitement and anticipation. Children are chasing each other around the room, jumping on couches and chairs, and knocking your cherished Christmas decorations off of the tables. That poor snow globe didn’t stand a chance anyway. The stockings are of course “hung by the chimney with care”, and some of the smaller kids have actually crawled into the fireplace to try to look up the chimney to see if they just might catch a glimpse of you-know-who. Maybe they’ll at least hear the sounds of sleigh bells and of reindeer hooves prancing and pawing on the roof!
A few of the older kids are over at the old nativity scene, busily moving the little cows, sheep and donkeys around. Uh-oh. Somebody has taken Baby Jesus again. And now somebody knocked a camel off the table and onto the floor. Oh well, another year, another few camel legs broken off! Mom can always glue them back on after the holidays are done.
Truly, there’s no place like HOME for the holidays! These are precious memories that you’ll remember your whole life long… But hold on. All of this begins to blur and fade away… What is happening? The loved ones, the sights, the smells, the sounds – they’re all melting away…
Your eyes slowly open. This isn’t home! It was all just a DREAM – memories from your long lost past. Is this really even Christmas Eve? Is it Christmas Day? Or is it just another day? In fact, you’re not sure if it’s actually day or night. Those flickering fluorescent lights stay on in this building 24/7. You look over at the wall – which is actually just dull, cream colored cinderblocks.
You look down towards your feet and see the black steel bars of your cell once again. You look over in the other direction and see that ugly steel toilet/sink combo thing still sitting there in middle of the floor.
And then it happens. Your cell mate wakes up and turns on his radio – and you hear that song: “Oh there’s no place like HOME for the holidays.” And then you remember that dream you were having – the sights, sounds, smells and the joys of being at home with loved ones at Christmas. But it’s time to face reality. I’m an INMATE. This STATE PRISON is my “home” now. This is where I live – and it’s where I’m going to live for years and years. These bars, these cinderblock walls, the barbed wire – all of this is my home now. I have no “family” here. The slack in letters, visits, etc. over the last couple of years speaks the cold, hard truth: I’m not really part of a real “family” anymore, and likely nobody even thinks about me or cares about me.
If you are an inmate and feel unloved, alone, judged, ashamed, worthless, forgotten, is there anyone or anything that can HELP??? For over 100 years, with YOUR help and support, GraceInside has placed caring, compassionate CHAPLAINS in Virginia’s state prisons. Currently we have 33 Chaplains, stationed at all 40 Virginia state correctional facilities, ministering to 24,000 incarcerated men and women. Our Chaplains provide pastoral care, crisis care and spiritual counseling and encouragement to these all too often forgotten men and women – people that Jesus called “the least of these” and told us to LOVE!
Here’s the EXCITING thing: The Bible tells us that once a person puts their trust in Christ, they experience a NEW BIRTH. Just like you and me, when an inmate accepts Christ, he or she is “ADOPTED” into “God’s FAMILY”! He/she has a “spiritual home” – with God as their loving heavenly Father, and with Jesus Himself as their loving Brother. And beyond even that, inmates discover that Chaplains and Religious Volunteers love and care for them unconditionally, and that these caring individuals are now their FAMILY in Christ!!! Wow!
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. – Galatians 4:4-8
This Christmas season, would you please pray for God’s leading and then GIVE the very best gift you can give to help GraceInside hire, compensate and provide adequate ministry hours for caring, compassionate Chaplains? Or better still, would you become a recurring monthly donor/sponsor, helping us let every single inmate in our state prisons know that he/she is a beloved Child of God? Thank you SO much for your prayerful partnership and support in this vitally important ministry!
Glory to the Newborn King!
Randy
Rev. J. Randy Myers
Executive Director
