2009-2010 Shining Light Member's blog

I have a confession. I was confused for at least a minute when I looked at the time in the bottom corner of this laptop and it read 3:23pm. I read in my tour book this morning that the group would be boarding the bus to San Quentin at 1:00pm today, so I thought I was going a little crazy. The three hour time difference is definitely taking its toll on members and staff here in CA; when you walk through the halls of the dorm at 10:00pm, it is surprisingly quiet as people are preparing to go to sleep. This morning, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to wake up at 6:00am feeling refreshed. I gotta admit-I don’t know if I have ever woken up at 6:00am feeling refreshed. I’m willing to bet that we’ll all be adjusted to the time change just about the time we’ll be heading back to PA.

California is still beautiful, just in case you were wondering. Yesterday on our two and a half hour bus ride to Preston Youth Correctional Center in Ione, CA, we drove through a number of cities and saw a plethora of diverse scenery. Although he’s no Dave Stoltzfus (who is our totally awesome Elite Coach bus driver from back home in PA), our bus driver for the past two days, Darrell, has been a very educational tour guide. Once we arrived at Preston YCC (if you are wondering if the amazing food staff gave us snack on the bus, they did we were welcomed by Chaplain Skaggs, who expressed a genuine thanks for our visit to his facility. The group persevered through a challenging set-up on an auditorium stage, and our first show went smoothly, as least from my perspective. After the show, two of the young men were asked by Chaplain Skaggs to stay after and speak to our group. Mr. Felix and Mr. Griffith, as the Chaplain called them, were respectful young men who opened their hearts to us within a matter of minutes. Mr. Felix was taking college courses at the center, and was looking forward to working at Best Buy or Staples upon his leave. At the end of his five year sentence, Mr. Griffith plans to become a productive member of society, contributing to the welfare of his community. He knows that he can not undo all the destruction he caused in his community, the decisions that landed him in Preston YCC, but he is looking forward to going back home so he can give back a little bit of what he took away. He impressed me with his kindness and heart for the younger boys in the center when he told us that he voluntarily lives in the behavioral management ward. These are the boys that misbehave on a regular basis; fighting is a daily occurrence. Mr. Griffith lives in here not because he’s a fighter, but because he wants to be a mentor. He is also attending college classes at the center and is looking forward to beginning a career when he is released in two and a half years. The boys brought tears to my eyes. They were raw. They were real. They have faced more pain in their twenty years than I will face in my life. Seeing someone die had become normal to them; they were numb to the pain. But God is softening their hearts. After two years, they are ready to leave the past behind them. And I really hope our show gave them hope. The reality is that some of these young men will be dead two weeks after they are released because they will go back to the exact same environment that landed them at Preston. Please pray for them.

I know this blog is being posted a little late, but this morning the first thing on my mind was not sitting down in front of a laptop. It was marveling at God’s creation at Point Bonita. Worshiping Him through song. Talking to Him in prayer. You should have seen the smile on my face when I was sitting in the grass, looking out over the water at the Golden Gate Bridge. I felt as though God was sitting there next to me, with His arm around me, keeping me warm. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

Till next time..

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 19th, 2010 at 3:44 pm and is filed under tour. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.