Like many Christmas times before, I went to Jail on Christmas Eve.

I've went to jail a lot of times in my life, often on holidays.

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For most of my adult life, I was a drug addict and a thief. Lie, Cheat, and Steal were the only laws I obeyed. I lived a very destructive lifestyle and make that lifestyle look enticing to others.

THIS GUY WAS BAD NEWS!

When I met @mama-pepper, I was deep into a lot of wicked stuff. She was young and naive, and didn't know what she was getting into. One day I wound up in someone's kitchen getting her name tattooed across my chest. When we returned to my truck afterwards, I asked her if she wanted to be my wife.

In those days, I never wanted a wife or children. I wanted to be loud, reckless, and party it up until death, and I hoped that death would come quickly. However, for some reason, meeting @mama-pepper began to change some of that.

Of course it would have been the biggest mistake of her life to get married to the man that I was, but it seems that Someone had a different plan.

As we began the process of getting married, we both wound up becoming believers in Jesus Christ. Since then, He has been changing me.

A friend of mine in Wisconsin has spent some decades in the Jail Ministry, and eventually asked me if I wanted to go some years back.

It was strange, because I never wanted to go their, ever, but had lived a life where I could wind up there at any given moment. I was always drunk and high, often driving and carrying, and was engaged in many illegal activities besides that. Thankfully, I never wound up really getting caught and never had to serve any time.

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I know who I had become on the streets, and I would hate to think who I would have become if I had went to prison.

Now, though, when my friend asked me if I wanted to go to jail, the Lord had taken all those illegal activities and addictions from me, so there was no charge that could be laid against me any more.

Only one thing has even changed my life, and to be given the opportunity to head into Jail to share that with others was an incredible opportunity. I had found freedom, and man could no longer touch me.

I spent several years heading down to the Jail every week, and sometimes multiple days in a week. My heart really went out to those people, trapped in tiny cages with very little contact with family and friends.

One of the best things that we are able to do is to give the inmates Christmas bags each years. These are filled with homemade cookies, various sweets, oranges, apples, peanuts, and a gospel tract. You should see the faces of the men and women when the jailer opens the door to their cell and @papa-pepper and @mama-pepper are standing their with gifts for them. Yesterday, one woman even started crying.

I'm getting emotional just thinking about it.

I have never be locked in a cell at Christmas or on any other holiday. I get to spend my time with my family. However, these people just don't have that choice.

I am so blessed to be able to have that opportunity to share with others, and to reach out to the inmates year round, but especially at Christmas, to show them that they have not been forgotten. God has not forgotten about them either.

This is why I seem to end up in Jail every Christmas. It's just one way that I can enjoy my freedom, and, unfortunately, get to visit some old friends too.

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To all of you out there with your family and friends, do your best to make the most of it.

Remember, not everyone has that opportunity.

Also, if you get the chance, try to make a difference in the lives of others this Christmas!

If you like my new Christmas bling, check out my post on it here.

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FOLLOW

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Awesome Handcrafted @papa-pepper logo kindly donated by @vlad - Thank you!!

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OPERATION TRANSLATION logo provided by @oecp85.

(click link above for more info on Operation Translation)