Thursday, October 25th, 2018
At about 2:30 a.m. on June 1, 2016, Shawn Tyler Benson shot Cheyenne Clough in the back of the head with a pearl-handled 22 pistol, as she lay wounded on the ground in a park south of Buffalo.
As depraved as he was then, he is redeemed now, saved in the Wright County Jail when he pulled a Gideon pocket New Testament off a book cart and started reading in the gospel of John. From murderer to saint. A miracle that only God could pull off.
Last Saturday, I visited Shawn in the Stillwater Prison, where he will be spending the next 24 years, and met the Holy Spirit face-to-face, so to speak, as I listened to Shawn tell me about all the marvelous things God is doing in his life day by day. I’ll give you one example.
Shawn was transferred from one cell block to another for no apparent reason. He had barely arrived and was in the block common area when another prisoner came up to him and asked him, “Are you Shawn Benson?” Shawn said he couldn’t understand how the guy knew his name and thought he might hit him or something.
The other prisoner said, “We’ve heard about you, what a strong Christian you are, and we want to welcome you to our little Christian group in this block.”
Shawn smiled and said to me, “God is taking care of me in here. Every day is a new blessing.”
I softly laughed and said, “Well, can you imagine that? Do you think the Holy Spirit had something to do with it? Shawn shuffled in his chair and smiled like an angel in heaven.
October 26th, 2018 at 4:06 pm
Thank you Jesus for doing in prison what prison could not begin to do as an institution – redeem men and woman through the cross. It is so amazing to see the power of Christ’s death on the cross changing people 2000 years later with the same power century after century, culture after culture around the world. Praise God for Shawn Benson and his cell block brothers!
Myron