Perry

My volunteer work is really rewarding.  I kind of feel like some of the students are my "friends" considering how many times I grade the same people's lessons.  Anyway, sometimes the inmates write notes on the Bible study lessons they send in.  One time right after Thanksgiving this one guy Perry wrote how sad he is that he will be away from his family for the holidays.  For some reason, it really got to me.  I don't really like Christmas and here this guy was sad he couldn't have one with his family, so I've kept him in my prayers hoping God could comfort him somehow.  

I really feel almost a comraderie (sp?) with the students who are in prison because they feel forgotten and unwanted too, so when I put smileys on their papers, etc., it makes me feel less bad about my situation knowing I'm maybe helping theirs a little by being loving and noticing when they get a good grade.

Anyway, about a month ago I was grading again and a lesson from Perry was in my stack!  I wrote a note to him and snuck it in his envelope, saying I was so glad to be his grader that day because I hadn't been able to get him out of my mind since the holidays and that I was still praying for him.  Then a couple weeks ago I got to grade one of his lessons and he never said anything about my note, and I just figured someone noticed it was on a post-it note (and prisons are cracking down on anything sticky so maybe they threw it away when they were censoring mail).  Oh-well, I tried.

So today I went to volunteer and there was a note on a piece of notebook paper with the words "For my Christian grader Debbie" on the outside, and it was a whole one-page letter from Perry!!!  He did get my note!  I thought it was really cool that he wrote that much back.