"I Love To Tell The Story"

When I visited the women Wednesday evening, I wanted to present the story of Holy Week in a way that would be memorable for the group and, at the same time, give them a method of teaching it to their children. After Googling "The Easter Story for young adults," I found this site that used small objects inside of plastic eggs to tell the story. http://www.naturalmomsblog.com/explaining-the-easter-story-to-your-kids.html.

Because we are limited to what we can bring into the jail, I gave each of the 14 women in our group an envelope with a picture in it. The envelopes were numbered and had a corresponding Bible verse written on them.

One-by-one, I told the women to open their envelope and show the picture. The first was a palm branch. I asked  if anyone could tell the group what that meant. Two women  raised their hands and told the story of Jesus's entry into Jerusalem. Then we read the verse.

We went around the table, opening envelopes -  a loaf of bread, silver coins for the betrayal. a crown of thorns, a cross, a pair of dice for the casting of lots, a stone for the cover of the tomb, (you get the idea . . .) With each picture, I looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone know what this picture stands for?"

The same two inmates answered all the questions! The other twelve women just shook their heads. Eighty-five percent of the group had never heard the story! As shocking as this might seem, a former inmate once told me, "Until I went to prison, I thought Jesus was a fictional character."

Tonight, as we wait for Easter morning to celebrate the risen Christ, let's pray for those who walk in darkness.

God Bless all of you!
Linda