Spiritually Charged

So I'm sitting here, cheering on my Chargers (and the Dolphins as well, of course) and listening to my roommates play a game together. It's been a good week and I'm really happy right now.

Saturday was an amazing day. I woke up bright and early (530 am!) and put a casserole in the oven. It was a breakfast casserole and at 7am, members of our over-18 band, Toolbox, came over for some coffee, breakfast and then an early departure. We left for a local prison and played a concert there. This was an amazing experience. The prison we went to is the reception center, so it's where all male prisoners go at the beginning of their sentence before they get placed in their permanent facility. It's a very interesting environment. First off, most of the men in there are probably not in a very good place mentally. They are either in jail for the first time and facing all the emotions that we could imagine, or they are having whatever self view of themselves being reinforced by yet another trip to custody. It's a rough mental environment. We even walked through a room with a mass of inmates, all not allowed to talk. It was a silent room. That was tough to see.

But when we got to our location and set up and the inmates started to come forward, it was amazing! The concert was great and so many of the inmates were appreciative. Many of them sat and listened to us even though they didn't need to at all. They were under no obligation to hear our message. There were even inmates from another recreation area all pressed against the fence into the section we were playing so they could hear our music.

Some of them said "God bless" and "thank you" to us when we finished. The looks on their faces were amazing and some of then danced and raised their hands to the music. How wonderful it was!

I've been on a spiritual high since then... how great it was. Church on Saturday night was again, wonderful. I loved it.

Then last night, my housemates and I had one of our classic dance parties, accompanied by home-baked treats and cheap champagne. It was pretty fun. :)

So things are pretty good around here right now. Tuesday, I go home to North Carolina for a week to celebrate Christmas. I get to see my parents, my brother, my cats and snow. Should be a great time and I'm very excited.

I hope all of you have a really wonderful Christmas. I'm so excited about the promise of our savior. Let's not forget Jesus this Christmas!

That's all for now... cheers!
Em