Playing in prison to morrow.

[Mike Vande]

Well, it's Friday night,and I am in Sedalia. I just got back to my friend Steve's house, after rehearsing with him and a drummer for a gig at a prison tomorrow. Unfortunatel, we've had a few difficulties with personel. The drummer who was going to go was refused admittance, apparently due to his pre-conversion police record. He plans to appeal it, but it puts him out of the running for this trip. And, the guy who was gonna be the rhythm guitarist needs to be home with is wife this weekend, so he's out of it.

Steve did find another drummer to work with who can get into the prison; I guess he's involved with a prison ministry, and goes in a lot. So, we are gonna go in as a rock power trio. The only thing is, this drummer hasn't played at all for the last ten years. No kidding, tonight was the first time he's touched a drumstick in all that time.

When I heard that, I was aghast. And when we started rehearsing with him, my worst fears materialized in front of my eyes and ears. His timing was shot, his tempo was all over the road, he completely lost the beat if he did any sort of a fill, and his tone was pitiful. I thought, "Oh Lord, this isn't going to work at all. We are gonna stink so bad, no one who hears us will ever be able to forget it. It will be indelibly etched in their brains forever, and they will all suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after hearing us."

While this nightmare was unfolding, I was trying to think of other options, anything we could possibly do instead of this; maybe he could play a hand drum of some sort and we could do a light acoustic set. Maybe we could get the guy who plays congas at the church here to come along. Maybe we could have a terrible auto accident on the way and go to heaven before we get ourselves locked out of there forever for heinous musical crimes against both Deity and humanity.

I was unable to come up with anything I thought Steve would go along with, so we kept rehearsing. Amazingly, after a couple of hours of going over the 6 songs we intend to do, he had improved to the point where I no longer felt my eternal destiny was in danger if we played in public. The guy is still not great, and I fear he will take some time to get his cookies back togther again tomorrow. But, he was keeping a reasonably steady beat by the end of the evening's practice, which is much more than either Steve or I thought he would at the beginning. We won't be great, but I don't think we will cause any permanent damage.

We are going to the prison at Fulton, Mo, which is the entry port and procesing center for inmates of the Missouri penal system. Apparently, the men come through there on their way to whatever prison they will serve their sentences at. The gig is to play three half-hour sets of uptempo if not flat-out rockin' music to get the guys' attention and keep their spirits up, during and after which the chaplain's staff will be working with them. I think the times we play are 11:30 AM, 1:30PM, and 3:30 PM.

Please pray for us, I am sure we will need it both from a musical and spiritual perspective.

[Jennifer Smith]

That was funny and I can relate to that! (playing with worship teams).

Hope and pray everything goes well~!

[DaJudge]

Play Jailhouse Rock like Jake and Elwood did in "The Blues Brothers"

[Mike Vande]

Well, we went into the prison, played, testified, and saw 45 or 50 guys make commitments to Jesus. The drummer played more good notes than bad (well, I think so...it's possible), but the important thing happened, and that is the Gospel was shared and recieved with joyous results.

Praise God for opportunities to see Him work.

[Pianoman]

Mike,

Hope this goes well for you! I've traveled in Gospel
groups around 10 years - but around 6 months ago was
persuaded by some friends who sing at a local maximum
security prison once a month to "sit in" on one of their
services. I was hooked!

I have found it to be very rewarding (as much for me as
it is for the inmates) & have even commented several
times I believe I would rather minister to these folks than
many of the church foks I've been with. They are like
sponges - literally soaking everything out of you they can!

We don't usually have a lot of time to practice - and go
in somewhat unprepared at times - but the guys have been
very quick to tell us they prefer our sincerety as opposed
to our professionalism. They let you know quickly that
they can spot an "entertainment" group a mile away &
they want the "real" thing - not a show.

We usually give a time for the inmates to share - and
I can't begin to count the times I've been brought to
tears as they give their testimonies. The prison we
go to has a lot of folks shipped in from Chicago & the
stories from folks coming from organized crime families
are just unbelievable.

I can understand your drummer situation from experience
as well. I was able to attend once as a limited visitory - but
to go in regulary I had to have a background check, drug test,
orientation, mugshots, fingerprints, TB test, etc. I had to drive
nearly 2 hours to have the drug test taken & the seal on mine was
broken after they shipped it to the lab and I had to drive back
a 2nd time to have it taken again (it took me nearly a month to
get everything done & approved).

Pray this will be a blessing both to you and to the folks
you minister to!