on their calendars, the anticipation is tantamount to Christmas. “By Sunday a lot of us say the same thing, ‘I don’t
want to leave,’ ” said Larry Lubinus, a member of Trinity, a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod congregation in Boone, Iowa, who has volunteered for more than 40 BiB events. “We just love coming in here and watching as these guys are energized by the saving grace of Jesus Christ.” As the weekend progresses, the singing gets louder,
the prayers more frequent and more direct. Men are praying not so much for themselves anymore, but for their families, for people on the outside, for the volunteers. By the end of the retreat some of the men will seek
baptism or renew their baptismal vows. “To help these guys see the presence of Christ in their
midst, in their hearts,” Stone said, “it does us on the other side a lot of good too.” Tom Kellen, a member of Cornerstone Christian
Church in Redwood Falls, Minn., who served as the lay rector for the retreat, said sending the participants back out into their real world can be a daunting proposition, but the energy generated at BiB fires the inmates with joy and spiritual gifts the volunteers hope are sustaining. “I know I have friends who believe in me,” Newson
said. “I have a committed core of people I’ve shared this with. This has been a beautiful period of freedom for us. We know we’re going back to our real world inside these
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26 JANUARY 2017
BiB participant Bradley Heinold reads aloud a prayer as part of the retreat’s daily chapel services. Each inmate was given a small prayer book that included some common prayers, creeds and gospel readings.
walls, but we go back with a knowledge that it’s about him, not us.” As one chapel session ended, Marv Goodyk, a lay
leader from a Christian Reformed church in Sully, Iowa, stood to comment briefly on a passage that had just been read from the Gospel of John. “ ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ ”
Goodyk said, repeating the words of Nathanael in the Scripture, who was incredulous that Jesus could come from such a place. “People judge others based on their backgrounds, where they’ve come from, not knowing anything else about us. They ask, ‘Just what good can come out of North Central Correctional Facility?’ And my answer is the same as Philip’s to Nathanael: ‘Come and see.’ ” Patrill Ellis, who also stood to speak on the Gospel,
reminded his fellow participants that they can change— they, too, are something to see. “We can make a change,” Ellis said. “People can see
something great come out of us, out of this place. It meant to me that there is hope, if only we are willing to see it. Let people come and see that.”
Adam Klinker is a writer living in Omaha, Neb., where he attends Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church.
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