I recently participated in a TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) graduation at Norco Prison in California. The mentors, TUMI staff, and family members gathered on one side of the aisle. Fifty inmates, all with jeans and blue shirts walked in and sat on the other side. Later we found out these were the new TUMI students. Soon they would begin their biblical training.
Prior to the service I saw the graduates in the back, in cap and gown, waiting to enter. For some, this was the most significant achievement of their lifetime. A very small tape recorder played Pomp and Circumstance as they walked in, with all of us smiling. Family members and some of the graduates were in tears. The first to walk in was the one selected by the others to carry the cross. The next was carrying a Bible. The worship band, including a few of the graduates led us in songs of praise. Awards were given, challenges shared, but the highlight was the testimonies.
One of those was a man with a long gray beard, tattoos covering his head, neck, and arms. He shared a moving testimony. I might add he looked like he could walk through a wall. Not the kind of person you would want to get in an argument with. This is my summary of his words:
“Nine years ago I was an evil man, no, I mean I was really an evil man. You don’t want to know that man. My parents drove here from Missouri to be part of this graduation and they know what that man was like.” His mother was dabbing tears. “I found Christ and I became a new man, nothing like that old man.
“Two weeks ago I broke up a fight. One of the guys said you are just trying to be a goody-good guy. I came back to my TUMI brothers and said for the first time in my life I was called a goody-good guy.” He looked down at the podium and then raised his eyes and with a smile said, “I guess that is ok.” The rest of us smiled.
Where will the Lord take these men? That is up to Him. Some will be released; others will remain in prison and minister to the new group of TUMI students and others that have yet to know Christ. The evidence of the hundreds of previous TUMI graduates is that they are future leaders in business, pastors, church planters, lay leaders. All new creations. What a work force for the Kingdom of God.
