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Men at Work Project #2

11/21/2014

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I'm not a cold weather guy, especially after the brutal winter we had last year. Denis invited me to help clear out some logs and brush off of his 70 acre property. The problem was that it was a mere 15 degrees outside. So I bundled up a bit like mom might dress her toddler--lots of layers but the mobility of a winter mummy. Denis fired up his 1960's era John Deere and I followed behind in his farm utility vehicle.

He went easy on me that day but even then I found myself removing the layers of warmth as my body increasingly provided its own heat. Denis regularly gets his exercise and his thinking done by working on his property. Even though he was raised on a farm, this farm in fact, Denis worked in the marketplace for most of his life. It wasn't until he purchased his family farm forty years after his father sold it off did he find his true calling as a prison chaplain.

After Denis and his wife returned to the farm he began to look for a new job to pay the bills until retirement. Instead he found a new career in full time vocational ministry. He was surprised to land the chaplain position at Prairie du Chien Correctional Institution but knows full well that God granted him this unique opportunity.

I did not know him while he served at Prairie du Chien but I have seen Denis truly shine in this ministry. He is retired now but has not ceased serving "the least of these." He now ministers as the Wisconsin Volunteer Director for Prison Fellowship. Denis passionately promotes the nearly limitless opportunities for volunteers to help the inmates. In most cases, there is a long list of believers who are waiting for someone to lead a Bible study or help lead them into deeper fellowship with the Lord. Often they are released or relocated before their name appears at the top of the list.

It's "easy" to link work and ministry when serving in a prison ministry. Work IS your ministry, but that doesn't mean it's easy work! Tireless and dedicated describes Denis' ministry, but it's also unseen--too much so. Such ministry usually happens with in the bowels of places where most people never want to go. Yet we need a lot more men like Denis to evangelize and disciple the broken and forgotten men and women in our nations prisons.


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Men at Work Project 1

11/5/2014

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I didn't know they actually made entire walls of razor wire. Today was my first foray into the Men at Work Project. The goal is to visit every man in our church at his work place in about a year's time.

My first experience was in a maximum security prison. It "just so happened" that they were hosting a once every five years tour of their facility. The top brass in the Department of Corrections from our State Capitol were on hand as well. Without the timing of this tour, I would not have been able to catch this man in his work environment. The old cliche-"It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there"-was exemplified during the two hour tour.

The well manicured lawn and floral beds, which were grown by the prisoners, were the last pleasant sights before we were swallowed by the thick concrete walls. It's not long before you are eager for a glance out a window and hungry for a breath of fresh air.  Though housed on a single ground level, it felt as if we were in the basement during the entire tour. Visions of "Escape from Alcatraz" and "The Shawshank Redemption" kept running through my mind. I wondered how long I would be able to tolerate the "seg" (segregation) units with only a few books and magazines as my friends. 

Today I was "scared straight," even though I have never done anything remotely close to earning a stay at this iron fortress. I found myself extremely grateful for the fact that, even as an unbeliever, God's common grace kept me out of significant trouble. But I didn't deserve that grace any more than I deserved his saving grace that released me from the prison walls of sin and hell.

Even though this has to be one of the highest stress jobs there are, every staff person we met were exceedingly friendly and helpful. Though this man has always exuded a quiet strength, especially under pressure, this experience gave me a whole new appreciation for the difficulty of his daily responsibilities.

I believe that I may be of some encouragement to the men in our church through this project, but I am expecting to be the person most changed by it. Ironically enough, next week I will be visiting  a retired Prison Chaplain. 



(This facility and employee are unnamed for privacy reasons.)


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    Men at Work Project

    The goal is to visit the workplace of as many men in the church as possible in order to better understand their world and how they can be encouraged and supported.

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