Saturday, December 8 -
I slept in this morning, skipping breakfast. They said on Saturday they feed you brunch with breakfast food for lunch. I woke up a little after 8:00 but laid there praying and reading through all the days in Our Daily Bread for the first 5 days of December I’d missed. I didn’t want to disturb “J”. I was actually a little chilly overnight last night; “J” went around trying to locate things for me he could trade for. He got me a sweatshirt for about $6 in stamps and a combination lock for about $3. I would like to repay him ASAP. “J” has had nobody send him any money since his mother died, so he’s been relying on the $18 he earns every month. He says he is not worried about it but I’d really like for someone to deposit $100 or so in his account. (If you’d like to deposit money into his account, you can contact Kathie, William, or Josiah through the blog or the 419 Fund).
I didn’t get a headache so badly this morning, thank God and got no coffee today. They do not serve any in the chow hall. “J” told me a guy right down below us yesterday afternoon got busted for K-2, a synthetic heroin, and got sent away to a medium-security prison. So next week we’ll be last on the list to eat. He also came and asked me a question I really had to do some studying in Scripture on, but I believe I was able to show him correctly the answer in Scripture.
At 10:30 we ate pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. Not bad. I came back and read the story of Joseph like so many had told me to do. Then at 2:00 I went to the Messianic Bible Study. I didn’t really meet any of the six other men there, but the teacher, whom I believe was a lawyer from Lexington, KY, was a superb Bible teacher. We went through about 4 chapters of Ezekiel starting in chapter 16. It was excellent. I came back to the room, and someone came in from Lexington, Virginia to meet me who used to live in Stuarts Draft. He was busted 11 years ago for selling meth and is going home in 55 days. I would never have guessed he was a meth dealer, but that was when he was 30. He said, “I missed my whole 30’s.” I asked him if he’d ever get involved in that again and he said definitely no. I told him I was here because I was a Christian. He asked me where I went to church and I told him. Then someone came and got him.
We had tortilla wraps for supper, and I decided to sit with “J” in the “black” section tonight. But the guy next to me at the table happened to be the one I was sitting next to at the Messianic Bible study. I got to know him a little and he is from Puerto Rico of Spanish descent. There was a Cuban-American across from him and another Puerto Rican. But then when “J” got up, a black man came and told me not to sit at that table again. I told “J” later and he was furious. He really takes up for me. He told me he’d straighten him out. That gets me a little worried. But he said there’s no reason to worry. “J” then got the idea that if I put my number in his list of contacts he could call you (Kathie) on my behalf. I was thrilled he was able to call even though I couldn’t speak to you. Tonight he found out his daughter won her first meet at the season opener for the indoor track at the University of Nebraska. He was thrilled. We talked a lot about both our families and then I wrote this. Now I am going to read for the rest of the night.
P.S. I also signed up for about 8 classes today as they can help me get early release: Spanish, Business Plan Workshop, Creative Writing, Critical Decision Makers, Turning Points in American History, History of New York City, Math Refresher, and Technology 101. I am reading “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. Cory would like it.
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