‘A word in season’ – Leon LeBlanc
One of my key motivations for joining Prison Fellowship in 2009 was the profound knowledge that, had my life not taken a dramatic change of direction at the age of 17, I would almost certainly have experienced incarceration myself. The change in my life after I encountered Christ bemused many of my friends. But some listened and – in turn – were changed themselves. It’s very hard to argue against a changed life.
The tumult in my life was superseded by peace, stability and the gradual restoration of my professional and educational opportunities – learning how to engage with the world. Some of this was immediate, much happened over years; years of loving support, encouragement, of someone helping me to unlearn much of what had become ingrained.
Occasionally, it can help when talking to someone in prison to have an appreciation that life can take you to some very different places to what is considered the norm. To have ‘been there,’ I suppose you could say. However, it would be a mistake to think that having plumbed great depths is somehow a prerequisite to ministering to those in prison, given that we can never fully appreciate what they may have experienced and what they may or may not have done.
What matters to those in prison is that, whatever we say or do it comes from a place of authenticity.
Every Christian has a testimony. So, I hope it is an encouragement to you that we all can testify to ears eager to hear that such a thing is possible, of the restoration we’ve experienced in our own lives.
One word that is almost ubiquitous in prison ministry is ‘privilege.’ It is a privilege to engage with people in prison; to talk to them, for them to share their hopes and aspirations with you, to make a connection in a way that has become such a rarity in modern society.
Recently, when acting as a Sycamore Tree Facilitator, I found myself saying to the men on my table,
‘Just keep it real. Just stick with the programme. You’ll be surprised where it takes you.’
I daresay, to some of them it must sound like the verbal equivalent of dad dancing. But they humour me anyway. The Sycamore Tree Tutor, by the grace of God, does a fantastic job and the learners do indeed go to places within themselves they may not have imagined.
In the New King James translation of Isaiah, we read,
‘The Sovereign Lord has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.’
I truly believe this is the aspiration of everyone involved in prison ministry – that as Christ always did and still always does, we may speak right to the heart of the matter and, as it is written, speak a word in season.
Leon LeBlanc is a PF Area Coordinator and Sycamore Tree Group Facilitator.
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