About a week ago, I did two services at the York, Maine County Jail.  I have done shows here regularly since 1987, and Sue and I have lots of fun and unique memories from this jail.  There was the evening show there when the power went out and we were in total darkness with a room full of convicts!  There was the time we went and the guard assigned to us was Sue's prom date from high school.  There's something intimidating about meeting your wife's ex for the first time, and he's got a gun on his hip.  We've been there for Christmas parties.  One time an inmate used shoe polish or markers and wrote hate messages directed at us on the walls of the library shortly before we arrived.  And while last weeks show may not have been as memorable as any of these, it was a good afternoon.

Chaplain Trent Boyd is someone we've worked with a lot, at his church, our school, and the jail.  He met me in the lobby, but there was a scheduling snafu, so I only had 25 minutes to do the first show.  This was for the women and protective custody men.  While I felt very rushed and disorganized, several inmates thanked me and said they enjoyed coming out to the service.

I was able to do a full show for the second set, which was for a much larger audience.  I did "Why Don't You Look into Jesus", my club juggling routine, which is always dependent on whether or not my repetitive motion injury is flaring up.  It wasn't, and the routine was almost perfect.  More importantly, I ended with an illusion built around Mary Magdaline's washing Jesus' feet with her tears.  This was a perfect open door to talk about grace, and the audience hung on every word.  I prayed with the group, but didn't do a public invitation to pray (I don't do that much any more; a topic of a future blog, no doubt.)  I did, however, encourage them to make an appointment with Trent if my message got them thinking about God, desiring forgiveness, etc.  Several approached Trent even as they were being dismissed from the program to schedule a meeting with him.  I know they will be in good hands as he ministers to them.