Following Christmas is another big splashy holiday — New Year’s Eve. The annual time of celebration bookends “out with the old and in with the new.” For the men serving time at Louisiana’s State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, there is more reason to celebrate every day as if it were New Year’s Day. Also a time of celebrating accomplishment, Dec. 11 was graduation for 35 men receiving diplomas from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary at Angola. Freedom takes on new meaning as a disciple of Christ. A New Chapter P.U.S.H. and pastors from the Iberia Christian Ministerial Federation sponsored a dinner for the men whose lives have been changed, surrendered to foundations of faith found in the Holy Bible.

The leader of the group traveling more than six hours round trip to minister in the maximum security prison was the Rev. Wilford Johnson, pastor of Little Zorah Baptist Church in Olivier. He spent 20 years behind the gates at Angola as an inmate and knows what the men will face when, or if, their sentences allow them to return to a life outside the protection of Angola. A founder of A New Chapter P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens), Johnson initiated the movement “Partnering for Change” in the Teche Area to help identify employers willing to hire formerly incarcerated, locate transitional housing, educational opportunities and other necessities for men and women being released back into society. Anyone who has visited the prison has seen the green pastures, the produce farms contrasting the long road into the complex, the double fences and razor sharp spirals that keep the incarcerated contained. Prison life for some, becomes routine and compared to the struggles they will face outside the disciplined society, is easy. It will take great faith and determination to become a model citizen when they return to society reformed by grace, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Three stories emerged from the visit exemplifying the common core values being taught in the institution, a place where nightly worship services ease the loneliness of incarceration and where joy and freedom in Christ is more evident than in many traditional churches outside the walls of Angola. This is their story — representative of others — and hope for the new year, their new lives to come. The names have been changed to respect their privacy.

Finding Faith

For Richard the leap of faith in Christ was made weeks before he was arrested. After 14 years, his hopes are high for parole in 2020. He was a hard-working laborer with his own business before landing the sentence at Angola. The first impression of this giant of a man was his gentleness, something he admits was not always present. Polite and eager to assist a stranger in his church pew, Richard did not hesitate to say he needed to be in Angola to become the man he is today and the minister he hopes to be back in his home state of Alabama — if the new legislation and a parole board sees fit to grant him freedom in 2020. For now, and the past 14 years, he has found peace studying and living the life of Christ described in the scriptures. As a tradesman before prison, he is now a trainer for others to learn skills they can put to use once they are released. Welding and plumbing are two of the skillsets he’s training men to use in order to have a future and hope after incarceration. Those same skills will be used by Richard to establish a new life with his soulmate, the love of his life, the woman who has stood by him throughout the years at Angola. Proper training in an industry that can employ former inmates gives Richard affirmation now as he helps prepare men who formerly were unskilled, to have the confidence to re-enter society. While faith has carried him through the years of isolation, his hope is to help family and strangers meet his Savior, Jesus Christ so they, too, can find the “freedom” he has had at Angola. Serving as a pastor is the calling he hopes to realize upon release. His trades will allow him to care for his family in order to fulfill his mission.

Flourishing with the Arts

Larry has an enthusiastic outlook on life even after 40 years at Angola. The reality of his circumstances for imprisonment, if as he claims is true, would probably not be substantiated in a court of law today with forensic evidence absent from the conviction. Having studied music at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now UL Lafayette) this creative man is active with the drama club established in the prison. Music, drama and the arts are part of the creative expressions that are nurtured in the confinement of Angola. Gifts and talents are innate from the Great Creator and not limited to law abiding citizens. As often witnessed by the scriptures, music, dance and storytelling are a part of the Christian walk that can lead lost souls to eternal life. For men and women confined by incarceration, the arts are tools that can set them free to not only express their own emotions, play out scenarios to learn better coping skills, but also can set them up to utilize those talents once they are back in society, a way of normalizing life outside the prison walls.

Learning to be leaders

George was seated late at the front table as his first duty was to make sure all the guests at the banquet were served — properly. The cafeteria workers serving approximately 100 inmates, family and visitors were courteous, efficient, gracious and quick to respond as they anticipated desires for additional beverages or second helpings of delicious food prepared by the inmates. For a maximum-security prison housing more than 6,300 inmates, 85 percent violent offenders, it was hard to tell who were guests and who were inmates, except for the clergy who wore black threads and white collars. Kindness, attitudes of service, respect for women and leadership, are all character traits exhibited by the men who were part of the seminary program. Plus joy and peace were present during the worship service Dec. 11, a nightly opportunity for those inmates interested in attending.

Songs and preaching were presented by the inmate worship team as well as the visiting musicians from the New Iberia churches. The Rev. Donald Wright shared a word of encouragement. Wright’s acronym TLAH represented four scriptures each of the men has come to know as truth. T-rust with all your heart, L-ean not on your own understanding, A-cknowledge Him and H-e will give you the desires of your heart. Translated from Indoneian to English as “is already” might describe the condition of the men’s hearts as they accepted the call to preach. Repeated as a word to remember, TLAH were lessons each attendee could apply to their lives as a never-ending reminder — although still incarcerated, the men who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior are “already” walking in freedom. Bondage comes in many forms, not just prison.

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness. I say to myself,

‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’ ”

Lamentations 3:22-24 New International Version