For nearly 50 years, South Carolina Baptists have cooperated to provide gifts for every inmate in the state’s prison system.
“If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like for 150-plus Christ-followers to get together and do something meaningful and impactful, you’re looking at it,” said Tony Wolfe, South Carolina Baptist Convention executive director-treasurer.
This year South Carolina Baptists, partnering with several other faith communities in South Carolina, processed 16,500 “Prisoner Packets” that will be distributed by chaplains to each inmate across the state.
More than meeting needs
Sharon Patterson, an employee of the South Carolina Department of Corrections for more than 33 years, said this was her first year directly working with the packaging process. “This is an awesome job that you all have put together for the inmates with SCDC.”
The packets contain personal hygiene products, writing pads and utensils, and candy, along with a devotional guide written by the SCBaptist staff. Patterson explained that some inmates do not receive any packages from home but that the packets “show them that someone cares about them. That makes such a big difference around this time of the year,” she said.
Jon Jamison, South Carolina Baptist Serve Team leader, says the Prisoner Packets are about more than simply meeting tangible needs. “We want to meet some tangible needs, but we also want to remind the inmates that we love them, that our churches love them, that God loves them, and remind them that hope is not lost,” Jamison said.
Distributing the packets
Each year, the packets are distributed to inmates by regional chaplains. “As a chaplain, I’ve seen the men and women who receive this gift countdown the days as if it were Christmas day when they receive this gift,” Steven Hendrix said. “It’s so important to see men and women who may have lost the hope that Christmas brings to us as Christ followers see that somebody from the outside world in a church somewhere remembered them at Christmastime,” he explained.
For Hendrix, this has been almost a lifelong endeavor. As a child, he remembers collecting the items with his mother. Now, after being a chaplain for 10 years, he looks forward to this time every year as he now gets to hand-deliver the packets.
Encouraging and Caring for Inmates
Alongside the 163 volunteers, 21 South Carolina Department of Corrections institutions, and 41 South Carolina Baptist associations, current and former inmates also worked to help process the packets. One current inmate said, “The holidays are a rough time for inmates, and, for some of us, this is the only gift we receive.”
He also explained how much he looked forward to receiving the devotional each year. “The holidays are a depressing time of the year, and those devotionals, it encourages you. It builds you up,” he said.
Wolfe said, “SC Baptists believe that every single person is created in the image of God and bears his likeness, and that means they are full of dignity and worthy of respect and our greatest efforts to do everything we can to reach them with the gospel, disciple them in the faith, and mobilize them to reach their neighbors and the nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Anna Gardner and originally published by Baptist Courier, newsjournal of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
