I can see their faces when I close my eyes at night.
Most of them are excited, some of them seem a little scared, others don’t so much show emotion but instead overflow with the sounds of happiness.
Who do these faces belong to? They belong to children and grandchildren of incarcerated men and they have all come to Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary to spend an entire day of bonding with their fathers and grandfathers.
This amazing event is called The Returning Hearts Celebration and it is sponsored by Awana’s prison ministry called Lifeline. The story of Lifeline’s birth is really quite impressive. A group of fathers in a men’s Bible study asked Awana’s founder to come speak to the group. While he was there, they asked him to develop some sort of program to help those who were incarcerated fathers be Godly fathers and examples for the children they had left behind. For a full history of Lifeline’s creation, go to Awana Lifeline’s website.
The Returning Hearts Celebration is a once a year event that is held on the grounds of the prison. Awana and it’s volunteers descent onto the prison in the early morning and begin setting up a carnival-like setting that will be the backdrop to a day of bonding and reconciliation between the fathers and children who attend. The family units spend the day playing games, riding a carousel, eating lunch, and learning about Jesus. Last year, children’t came from as far away as Texas to see their fathers.
The youngest that I saw was 4 years old and could not even tell me who he was there to see. His grandmother wrote his name and his grandfather’s name onto a piece of fabric torn from an old t-shirt and pinned it to the boy’s shirt so he could be matched up with his grandfather. She then put him on a bus that traveled 2 hours to the prison.
The oldest was 17. He and his brother and mother had driven all night long to get to the prison. They arrived at a hotel at 3 in the morning and were signing in to see their father at 10. They came from somewhere in Texas and it would be the only day for an entire year that they would get to spend time with their father.
As the wife of a corrections officer I knew a little about what to expect in the prison, but what I was not prepared for was how many men (many of whom were murderers) came up to me and thanked me for leaving my family for a weekend so that they could spend time with their children. You haven’t experienced anything in life until a man who was most likely a murderer sits behind you in tears thanking you for giving your time and money to spend the weekend in prison. I will never forget that for as long as I live.
This year, I will be traveling back to Angola to volunteer my time for the Returning Hearts Celebration. I am excited to go back and to see the work that God has been doing in the hearts and lives of these men. Will you consider joining me there? Awana needs about 600 volunteers to make this event a success and right now, they do not have enough people signed up. Please go to the Awana Lifeline site to learn more about the Returning Hearts Celebration and to sign up. You can also comment on this post with any questions you have and I will contact you via email.
I hope to see you there.
Returning Hearts Celebration
May 15, 2011
Angola State Penitentiary
