Lockhart: Puppies & Chow

On April 28th, I went on my fourth prison ministry trip to Lockhart near Austin, TX. Lockhart has a special program available to a certain pod of their work program facility called Paws In Prison in which prisoners are assigned a rescued dog to train for a certain period of time before they are adopted out. Training isn't limited to standard house training, however, as one dog, Sandy, was very willing to demonstrate. She knew four tricks very well (sit, shake, lie down, and give kisses), and she would perform them on a random loop before you ever gave her a command. Then there was Shiloh, a dog whose training extended to curing her of what must have been a brutal past. She had learned to trust the prisoners, but she was extremely shy around anyone wearing different clothing. A couple times her trainer encouraged her to get closer to me as I knelt down and avoided eye contact. It took a while, but eventually she bumped me with her nose which was as much contact as she was willing to give that day.

The ladies in that pod told me they found the program to be very therapeutic, and it helped them to pass the time a little faster. Also they felt a sense of accomplishment whenever they received a certificate of completion for a dog's training, and a couple of them saw potential careers doing that. I was very glad to get the chance to see such a program firsthand and to hear from the participants themselves about the effects. I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up getting involved sometime in the future, whether I was raising funds or working at one of the cooperating shelters.

Another thing about Lockhart that especially intrigued me was the idea of prison cooking. The ladies had access to a water pot of some sort, and they would save up certain ingredients from their meals to make something a little tastier. The strange recipe I remember is for Chinese Food which consists of beef Ramen, coleslaw, instant coffee, and Sweet & Low. They cook the noodles in water first to soften them, and then they mix all the stuff together in a plastic bag (including the beef packet from the Ramen). They heat the bag in the water pot, and--tada!--you apparently have something that tastes like Chinese food. I didn't actually get to taste it (we had a no-gift policy to follow), but if I somehow get stuck with nasty coleslaw, now I know how to use it.

There are other recipes as well, the most popular being a cake made out of sandwich cookies and soda. Just type in "prison cooking" into Google search, and you'll be amazed what you'll find. I'm just saying...prisoners have gotten extremely creative. Plus if you have kids or will be babysitting in the near future, the recipes are easy enough to make with them; some of the ladies I talked to told me they definitely planned to teach these to their kids when they got home.

Aside from prison ministry, all of the I Am Second members that went to Austin that weekend attended Chris Plekenpol's (he's one of our Seconds) church, Wells Branch Community Church. Chris gave a very powerful sermon about reaching out to nonbelievers, a good portion of which displayed the comedy of his very animated personality. The band "Shades of Gray" played for us (they had at prison ministry, too), and I got a chance to meet their bass player, Steve, before the service. Steve is a very nice person, and everyone should talk to him. :)

All in all, prison ministry was (once again) fantastic. Although it was the weekend before finals, I can't say I regret going. And to Nicole, a girl I took under my wing this trip, I say I expect to see you at the very next trip we go on during the fall semester, so be ready to lead!

One last thing I want to mention before I close out is that now that it's summer for me, I plan to work on a couple of my personal video projects for this blog, so get excited! Remember that you can find me on YouTube here. Right now, there're one speech and six videos of me singing, but the videos I'm working on will be different, more on the inspirational side and less on the vocal indecisiveness side.

Anyway, enjoy summer, y'all! It only happens once a year!