Prison Diary: Team Effort

This week I’ve been out of town teaching a class on hospitality for an amazing collection of students in Spring Arbor University’s MA in Spiritual Formation and Leadership program. So I wasn’t able to be out at the prison on Monday night. Herb covered for me.

This is a huge part of what makes our class work on Monday nights, that Herb and I are a team. If I was the only one teaching the class I would have had to cancel this Monday. And if Herb were alone he would regularly have to cancel class.

Trust is hard-won out at the prison. People, many well-intentioned people, come and go. So the dependability and reliability of the Monday night Bible study, week after week and year after year, the fact that we never have to cancel, is a large part of why the men in the study have come to trust, love and respect us. We always show up.

But it takes a team to make that happen. Herb covered for me on Monday and I’ll eventually have to cover for Herb. And not only does our partnership make the Bible study reliable for the men, it also makes it sustainable for Herb and I over the long haul.