This past Wednesday Troy, Jason, Jimmy, Lee and myself visited the Lansing correctional facility to work with the IFI ministry and those in their program.
He IFI program is for inmates who have shown a desire to be discipled and would like to serve. They have church every Sunday in the prison and the worship is all inmate led.
We spent the majority of the day working with this group of men who were a part of the music program in IFI. Troy worked with their singers. Jason worked with their musicians and Lee and I worked with some of their tech guys.
It was great interacting with these men and hearing the stories of how God changed their lives.
We were talking to men who society and their actions had labeled them as criminals and talking with them now, you’d never think that they possessed such a past. The men are gentle and kind and full of love.
The highlight of the day was the service that evening. I wish I could have taken pictures of the night as these men who haven’t seen what freedom is in many years worshiped with a freedom that 95% of those in our church seats have never experienced. These men had a knowledge of mercy and grace that compelled them to passionately return praise to the Man that set them free.
We were there to teach them, but the teacher was the student on Wednesday. And the topic: true freedom.