As Iron Sharpens Iron

He said, this ain’t my camp I am on a layover, but I am here to tell you, if you don’t go on down this line, you ain’t gonna be nuthin at this camp. You will be branded and you will never have the respect of these cons. You are going to make a statement by whatever you choose. I looked at him, bowed my head and said you are right my brother. I knew that if I left and went back downstairs, my “block” time would be meaningless. So with that, I bid him goodnight and turned to go on down the range. Each cell that I encountered was with some of the most mean spirited and mind game playing individuals I had ever seen! And every cell that I stopped was worse than the previous one. With each cell I passed, I got closer and closer to cell 11, the Devil! He was the one that was going off on me! I kept praying that I would finish my time before I encountered him. But, that was not to happen. Finally, we meet face to face. He looked me square in the eyes and said, “I hate you, I hate what you stand for, and if you would come close to this cell, I will show you what I am about. Then he began to talk hate, death, murder and every vile thing one could think.

I looked at him visibly shaken and said, I see you don’t want to talk to me so I will move on down the line. He screamed in my face and said, “Talk to me preacher man, ain’t that whatcha wantin to do?” When he said that, I paused and said, yes, that is what I want to do. However, the next 40 minutes I was mesmerized by this mean spirited individual. He talked about his hatred for people, the double murder he committed to having no family and being locked down since he was 15 for the murders he committed. I was unable to say anything I was in shock. Finally, the night was over. I said goodnight and headed downstairs. An officer met me coming off the range and said he couldn’t tell me who to speak to, but to be very cautious with the inmate in cell 11. He said he is a dangerous high max, who has a life with no parole and he doesn’t mind killing. He said, that since he had been at their prison, he has already had multiple assault charges with two attempted murder charges. I looked at the officer and said, don’t worry, I have no desire to visit him again. I did find it odd that as I stood with this inmate at cell 11, the scopes stayed on me by the other inmates. I could tell that this was no ordinary Joe.

I met up with my partner Dave and said, don’t ever tell me to go to “Ad Seg” again. Those men don’t want us there and besides I had met the Devil himself and that even an officer advised me against visiting him. As we exited the prison, it was a cold winter night and I was shaking from the cold almost uncontrollably. Part of it was the cold, but the other part was the last inmate I encountered in cell 11. He truly had gotten to me. I had never been face to face with anyone that was bent on killing just for the killing of it. He truly was the Devil.

We got to the parking lot and I got my keys to get in the car. I open the door, got in and you will never guess who was sitting there? It was Jesus…he said you gonna go back and see that man. I said to myself, there isn’t anyway in this world that I am going to go back and see that inmate again. So, I ignored the Holy Spirit, cranked my stereo up real loud and tried to drown out the Holy Spirit as I drove home. I could not get cell 11 out of my mind. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, at every turn was the Holy Spirit urging me to visit him again. Finally, days later I relented. I said, God I know that you want me there and if you want me to see that man again, I will. No sooner than I said that a peace came over me and I knew I would see him again.