Prison yard revival
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Danny Sams calls putting on a concert for inmates at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in La Grange “one of the best gigs in the city.”
On Saturday, July 23, a blistering day with the heat index near 100 degrees, hundreds of inmates in uniform khaki pants and shirts took seats in lawn chairs, on the grass or leaned on
the fence in the yard to hear Fourth Watch, a band with musicians from Southeast.
Chaplain Casey Heilman, who pastors more than 1,000 inmates at Luther Luckett, planned the event, lined up the musicians and asked Southeast’s Prison Ministry to provide hot dogs,
chips and lemonade.
Musicians with Fourth Watch have been to the prison many times.
“We love going into the prison,” Sams said. “The guys there are so appreciative of anything we do, and it’s just fun to worship with them.”
It’s familiar territory for volunteers such as Fourth Watch and Southeast members Bill and Beth Filiatreau, who have volunteered at the prison for 20 years.
The group gathered at the prison’s front desk long before the concert began, handed over their driver’s licenses, walked through the scanner and received yellow wrist bands that
identified them as visitors.
Chaplain Heilman sat in the middle of the crowd. He said outreach behind prison walls is much the same as the churches he has pastored in other places.
In addition to outreach events, Heilman spends a great deal of time counseling, teaching Bible studies, leading daily worship and coordinating small groups such as Men’s Fraternity.
“Men behind bars are no different from the outside,” he said. “They need guidance, hope and encouragement. They want to be better husbands and fathers.”
Myron Parsons, who works in Heilman’s office, has been incarcerated for five years. He carried ice and containers of lemonade.
“This outreach provides a chance to fellowship with guys in the yard,” he said. “We hope some will come to a Bible study or worship service.”
Parsons attends a Men’s Bible study group and goes to worship services at the chapel most every day.
“I fell by the wayside,” he said. “I repent of the things I’ve done. Now, anything I do, I have to pray about it. I always pray we can bring guys together. We are locked up for crime, but it can be
a time for guys to come to know Christ and establish a relationship with Him.”
Dustin Moore sat in the yard to listen to the music. He said the concert was a nice break from the routine.
“I like it,” he said. “I may come back here.”
Steve Duncan watched the concert from the grass. He attends a Bible study during the week.
“When I came here, I cried out to God again,” he said. "My dream is to serve my time and be with my daughters and grandchildren again.”
Linville Cox said that seeing a group like Third Watch come in to give a concert is very meaningful.
“A lot of outside people forget about you when you’re incarcerated,” he said. “It means a lot that they come here. It helps us know we’re not forgotten, that we matter to someone.”
Fourth Watch played music from every genre to please an audience with a wide variety of music tastes. There were country songs, rap, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and worship praise
songs. The crowd clapped and cheered for each one.
As Southeast member Clinton Sims performed his signature song, “I’m Clean,” men in the audience echoed the theme, repeating the phrase “I’m Clean” with Sims. After singing two hip
hop sings, Chris Forehand told about his own “gangster, prison” days.
Forehand told the crowd how he began to write rap songs when he was 13, and opened for rap acts such as Master P, LL Cool J, Kurtis Blow, Eight Ball, MJG, the late Notorious B.I.G.,
Heavy D, and UTFO. Although the money was good, Forehand discovered that he could make more money selling drugs.
He was shot in 1995 in a drug deal gone awry and spent almost three months in the hospital. He knew then that he needed to turn his life around, but rap and drugs kept him on the
streets.
After several run-ins with the law, he was convicted of dealing drugs, theft and being a persistent felon and sentenced to six years in prison. There, Forehand finally realized that the
calling on his life was truly from God and made a firm commitment to give his life to Christ.
He currently is an Associate Minister of the Mt. Sinai A.O.H. Church of God in Louisville.
“I was sitting in a cell in LaGrange,” Forehand told the crowd. “I was addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol. That was what sin was doing to my life. Then I began to understand the Gospel
with a sober mind. He changed my life, and He’ll do the same for you.”
Southeast member Jon Renner said he loves playing for the crowd at Luther Luckett. He played drums for the concert and told the men gathered in the yard that there were few
differences between them.
“We’re all sinners,” he said. “It’s only by God’s grace that we’re here. In God’s eyes, all of us are sinners inside and out. We’re no better.”
Sams echoed the sentiment.
“We see them singing along,” he said. “We see their faces. They’re a captive audience, but you don’t see it in faces or in their disposition. They worship God along with us.”