Working with young people in trouble

Robert N. Peaslee

I met a man in Florida in charge of providing religious services and spiritual counsel in the prisons. He asked me if I would be interested in working with young men between the ages of thirteen and eighteen at the stockade. I can remember so vividly my first day there. I had no idea what to do. But I read from the Bible to these men. One of the first things I read was, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty" (Ps. 91:1). This young man looked at me and said, "You know, Mr. Bob, I don't even know what it means to dwell."

It was then apparent to me how important it was for these young men to know that each one was a child of God and that they all dwell in His love. As we started to work together, I realized it would be wise for me to make a lesson for each one of them every week from the Bible. It had to be extremely simple. Some of them could not read very well, but they all could understand. We started right off with the fact that God made man in His own image and likeness and that God gave man dominion (see Gen. 1:26, 27).

It was important for these young men to realize that nothing evil had dominion over them or controlled them. Most of them had been under the influence of drugs, so our work was to know that drugs could not control their lives.

I will never forget a young man there who was extremely simple. I don't think he had had anything in his life. They told me that he had come with practically nothing and that they had given him a pair of sandals. He couldn't read, couldn't write. The first few times I talked to him I said, "You know, you are a perfect, complete child of God, and God loves you." That was the only thing he could comprehend at that time. Later, I would stop at his cell, and he would look at me and say, "You know, Mr. Bob, I am a complete, perfect child of God, and God loves me."

Here are some of the things the boys have written:

"God is the breath of life, and he waketh me up in the morning to have my daily bread. The Lord always forgives me for one thing after another. The Lord has watched not only over my family but everybody else's family." Another writes: "The person who prays and prays is always paid." Isn't that the truth? It is a simple way of putting it, but we do get paid, don't we?—we are blessed for every single prayer we have.

It is such a wonderful experience to see the progress that comes. We each have a part to play in realizing that children such as these are protected, that they are all under God's protection.

Robert N. Peaslee
Jupiter, Florida

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