Mac is one of the guards at the prison we’ve been ministering to over the last year. Honestly, it’s been a while since we’ve been in the prison due to a minor disagreement, but it’s been nice to have guys like Mac still around. One of my first big requests to make of the warden, Mac was the guard on duty to execute the request. Since then, Mac really let me do whatever I wanted since I had the warden’s stamp of approval. From that point on, we were set up to have a good friendship. As our group got involved at the beginning of this past month, the guards were really on my heart. So instead of spending all the visiting hours with the inmates, I decided to spend a little time at the guard shack as well.
As inviting as the prison can be at times (seriously), the guard shack can be on the extreme other end without Mac around. The first few times I went to sit and talk were when Mac was on duty, but it was a totally different environment when he wasn’t there. During this time, my friendship with Mac grew a little more because I saw him as my middle man into the rest of the guards. The more time we spent together, the more I heard about his college years as an athlete, the farm land he now owned and operated, his family and kids, and even the livestock he owned. He offered me free rides if I ever wanted to learn how to ride a carabow (not spelled correctly, but I didn’t want you to confuse it with the deer-like thing. This one is more like a cross between a cow and a buffalo).
The other day I saw Mac in town with his son and he nearly wrecked his motorbike when he saw me. It had been a few weeks. That may not seem like long, but when you go to a place every day, over two weeks is a long absence. I tried to catch up with him about all the changes and what new was happening, but I could tell he was still a little hesitant with giving me too much information. That was fine, in that conversation, I really just cared about him anyway. I wanted to make sure he was still ok and joyful. I didn’t fully get that vibe, so it made me want to pray for him. Before too long, we split and went about our business.
I pray for the guards in that jail just as much as I do for the prisoners now.
With all the outreach and evangelism to the prisoners, there’s often neglect of the guards. The guards are often the ones with the control in the jail and are just as valuable in the kingdom of heaven. It’s fun to share the “former convict conversion” story, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a few guard conversion stories as well. They may not be the headliners down here, but I know there’s a party going on in Heaven for them…
