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A Day in Prison with OSL on Motorcycles |
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The highlight of the weekend was our visit to Coleman Federal Prison. We met up with the Operation Starting Line team at their hotel Saturday morning, and rode over.
 Coleman is the largest federal prison in the country... with 5 separate prisons in one HUGE compound housing over 7,000 inmates. Our group went into the medium security prison all along with 17 bikes.
Even though it wasn't the maximum security part, the place was surrounded with 25+ft chain link fences topped with rolls and rolls of razor wire. It was a real eye-opener. I don't know about anyone else but, I was very apprehensive and skeptical about what we were walking (or riding) into. We've all heard stories about prison life and the things that happen there. Well, if any of those things really do go on, we didn't see it. We were there from about 9:00am 'til somewhere around 4:00pm and our experience is one we'll never forget.
What we DID find ourselves in the midst of... was a few hundred inmates who were well behaved, respectful, very interested in all the bikes, and most importantly... very eager to hear the 'Word' and talk to us one to one.
Many conversations were initially about the bikes (they were a HUGE hit) but, I know in our case, many (conversations) turned to God. Quite a few guys that we talked with were already Christians, yet they still yearned to hear more. When it was over, we prayed with quite a few and almost every one that caught our eye on their way out made it a point to thank us for being there and bringing the bikes in. You could tell, without a doubt, that they were truly sincere about this.
We'll never know how many inmates' hearts were touched yesterday but, I know there was a presence there that could only be explained as miraculous. So many incarcerated men who were so very eager to be a part of all that was happening and to hear AND talk about what Jesus can (and in many cases HAS DONE) in their lives.
Excerpt from an account by Ken of Fellowship Riders, an Operation Starting Line Ministry Partner
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