On Sunday morning, Oct. 26, Andrews University students, faculty, staff and community members packed 8,200 care bags with Christian books, letters and snacks for prisoners at the Christmas Behind Bars event. This annual event supports Christmas Behind Bars, a ministry that delivers gift packages and Bibles to prisons and jails throughout the year, and offers an opportunity for the Andrews community members to participate in a ministry serving and helping people in prison.
The event was organized by the Center for Faith and Engagement (CFE) and the Pioneer Memorial Church (PMC). Pastor Lemuel Vega, the president of The Christmas Behind Bars ministry, also helped obtain the product for the bags and arranged for the trailer trucks to deliver them. Students who volunteered received cocurricular credit. Pastor Esther Knott, the associate director of the North American Division Ministerial Department and the director of the Inministry Center, was the organizer from PMC; she worked with Rebecca Fanai, the Student Mission and Service director of CFE.
The event took place at the Johnson Gym, where the doors were open from 8:45 a.m. to noon. Around 380 volunteers found a table with self-adhesive label stickers and black Sharpies to write their names, so everyone could see the name of each other and call them by their names. Volunteers and organizers set up four lines to pack the bags on Thursday, Oct. 23 and Friday, Oct. 24. Next to each line, on the left and right sides and in the middle of the gym, they accommodated columns of boxes, one above the other, full of materials and products for the inmates.
The goal for the event was to pack 7,000 bags. However, on the day of the event, Knott realized they had enough materials to make 8,000 bags. “I was concerned that we wouldn’t have enough people to help and that it would take us a long time,” Knott said. “But, people showed up and we were done in record time.” Volunteers packed 8,200 bags in 190 minutes, from 9 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. These packages will be distributed on Nov. 13 to inmates at the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, Indiana.
Knott explained the purpose of this event was not only to bring hope and show Jesus’s love to those in need, but also to provide a space for the campus community to serve, a space where young and adults could work together and “build community, because when we work together on a project, we build friendship.” The event also has a biblical base. “In Matthew 25, Jesus says we should minister to those who are in prisons, we should give water to the thirsty, food to the hungry,” Knott said.
Sophomore Macy Dodds participated because she thinks that “it is important to give prisoners back some of their humanity that prison life takes away.” For Emmanuela Voter Moren, a senior, who had participated in years before, it was about supporting “the work that is being done, bringing Jesus and His hope to jails.” For Paulo Silas, a graduate student, the event was a way of “receiving the blessing of God” because you are working on the mission.
While some students went because of cocurricular credit or because their clubs or departments signed up to go, they soon realized that being there was worthwhile and a good way of serving. Sophomore Eliora Bade explained. “While I was there at first,” she said, “I was overwhelmed because it looked like a lot of work, but as it started, I was enjoying it and I realized that I was going to be helping someone in the long run … that also motivated me to stay the whole time instead of leaving halfway like I had planned to.”
The volunteers had opportunities to participate in different roles. They could be a conveyor belt, the ones who moved the bags down the different lines or bag fillers, the ones who placed the product inside the paper bags. Others worked as suppliers, making sure that the bag fillers had enough product to fill the bags. Other volunteers also worked as tapers; they closed and covered the bags with tape at the end of the lines. Remaining tasks included loading the trailer and breaking down the cardboard boxes.
This is an event where everyone can help in some way and minister even from a distance. Members of PMC and Berrien Springs Hispanic Church participated, as well as Adventurer and Pathfinder groups, and other community families and friends who met at Johnson Gym to contribute to the mission. People in prisons are often forgotten, and this event helps people to think about them and encourages them to do something. This is a way of participating in the mission and sharing God’s love with others. The students who weren’t able to participate this year will have a new opportunity next year.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.