CoJo,
We needed a tough skin but peaceful heart...
True. I'm glad the Lord provides the peace for us. We get all types of responses from inmates. Most of them make us feel like all the trouble we go to in reaching them is worth the while and that what we are doing is definitely helping change the hearts and minds (actually, it's the Lord that is doing that, we are only the messengers) of people who turned to crime for one reason or the other.
However, (here is where we need a tough skin), there have been times that inmates have threatened us, cursed us, etc. and this does build up a tough skin. One inmate told us that if it wasn't for God protecting us, he would kill us if he got out (he was in prison for killing a minister's daughter).
But, you know what is really sad? The majority of responses we get from inmates and chaplains are nicer than those we get from emails from those on the outside. :'(
BTW - We assist the chaplains in the following prisons in Alabama -
Bullock Correctional Facility, Union Springs, AL (State - Men)
Easterling Correctional Facility, Clio, AL (State - Men)
Staton Correctional Facility, Elmore, AL (State - Men)
Tutwiler Prison for Women, Wetumpka, AL (State - Women)
Wm. E. Donaldson Corr. Facility, Bessemer, AL (State - Men)
Did you visit any of them?