Friday, June 29th, 2018
I gave two talks on How to Stay Out of Jail yesterday at the Stearns County Jail in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and handed out 37 copies of my book by the same name. I’ve given 56 such talks in the past two years up to today. Most often, I give more than one talk per jail I visit because they don’t mix cell blocks.
These are not church sermons I give, and the inmates are not like congregants sitting in pews listening to a pastor preach. I talk with them on a conversational level and let their questions and comments guide the conversation. It’s a Holy Spirit thing and quite interesting because I never know from one group to the next where we’ll be going. In my last session yesterday, for example, I taught eight women how to memorize Scripture verses. One staple in all this, however, is my laying out the plan of salvation and praying with them to receive Jesus into their hearts.
As I headed out of downtown St. Cloud yesterday for the drive back to Buffalo, it came into my mind that these talks could just as well be called How to Stay Off Drugs and my book could have the same name. Of the ten men I’ve mentored or am now mentoring, nine of them were drug addicts who couldn’t help themselves. That may not have been the crime that sent them to jail, but it was somewhere in the background. Shawn murdered a young woman while he was crazy high on meth. Aaron stabbed his best friend when they were both drunk. Tyler stole $12,000 from a rich lady down the street because he needed the money for meth and alcohol. I would not feel uncomfortable extrapolating that 90 percent figure for all inmates. I really wouldn’t, not based on what the inmates have told me during those 56 talks.
Most of them have tried over and over and over again to put a halt to their using, only to fall short again and again and again. What I tell them is that they simply need to change their addictions – from drugs and alcohol to Jesus Christ. Then they will be safe. Please pray for the hundreds of men and women who have heard this message that there is hope for them when they are guided by the Holy Spirit to stay so close to Jesus that they can reach out and touch His garment.
Let me know by email if you want to be on the mailing list for True Freedom Jail Ministry monthly newsletters: patrickday@pyramidpublishers.com. This will be the lead article this month.