For 18 years, Columbia-area Baptists have spent Christmas Eve with juvenile offenders.
Tim Brown received a letter after Christmas thanking him and other Baptist volunteers for a Christmas Eve visit to Columbia’s state juvenile detention center.
“My own family won’t even write me, let alone visit on a regular day,” the letter writer said. “But you came here on Christmas Eve. That makes me realize that the world is not only filled with evil and sinful people, it’s also filled with loving and caring Christians.”
The letter goes on to acknowledge Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind’s sins.
For 18 years, Tim Brown and 20 or so volunteers have gone out to the juvenile detention center early on Christmas Eve morning. They divide into teams and visit each dormitory, bringing Christmas cheer to 100-125 teenagers on the campus.
Bert Holland, who, like Brown, is a member of Riverland Hills Baptist Church, dresses as Santa Claus and communicates that the joy of Santa doesn’t compare to the joy found in a relationship with Jesus.
Mark Powers, director of worship and music for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, brings his guitar to lead Christmas singing.
“The expressions on the faces of the students each year are suspicious at first,” Powers said, “but as soon as we start singing and handing out prisoner packets and Christmas cards with candy canes, they warm up to us.
“Surely the love of Christ lovingly expressed through smiles and gifts is the power that breaks through the hard shell of a lonely teen in a prison cell. I’ve seen it personally time and again each Christmas Eve.”
Volunteers give each teenager one of the state convention’s prisoner packets, a Christmas card, and a folded copy of the “Christmas Cane Story,” which tells the Gospel through the colors and curves of the traditional Christmas cane.
“It’s been a real blessing for me,” Brown said. It was made even more special this year as two of his grandsons were among the volunteers. The thank-you letters are an added blessing.
A letter from a teenage girl read: “You all showed me that God is real. I will be leaving soon and try to be better at prayer and Bible study. When I go home, I want to push myself to go to church every Sunday.”
Brown hopes the volunteers’ efforts are “planting seeds that will germinate in young lives.”
“Many of these teenagers have never experienced love in their homes,” Brown said. “It gets their attention when you give up time, including Christmas Eve, to go visit with them.”
The Department of Juvenile Justice needs more mentoring volunteers, Brown said. “I just always encourage the teenagers that this is a point in their lives, and it’s not the end for them. There is hope.”
Matthew Morrison, South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice volunteer coordinator, applauds the beyond-the-walls volunteerism shown by groups like Riverland Hills.
“Volunteer commitment of groups such as Riverland Hills Baptist Church positively touches the lives of the youth that we serve,” Morrison said. “By offering these moments of happiness and care, we bring hope of brighter futures to our youth and the citizens of South Carolina.”