My Father's Gift (13 page)

She was scheduled to conduct a writing seminar, in May at one of the local churches to help inspire and promote others to put their thoughts onto paper in an attempt to stir up the gifts that were residing in the hearts and minds of members.  As far as her responsibilities at the church were concerned, there were also other ministers she could count on, if needed.

Not only did her pastor think it necessary to keep her busy, but Carlos did also. Once again, she was called upon by her son and his friends to support their athletic events in school.  So she spent countless hours, screaming in the stands helping the cheering squads during basketball season and standing in the rain during baseball season.  The fact that she was there, made it all worthwhile, especially when Carlos would blow her a kiss whenever he spotted her on the sidelines or in the stands.

Although her work at the Stradus Center was just as involved as ever, hiring an assistant director made it possible for her to have time to attend classes and have time to study without feeling guilty about missing in action at the center.  She made sure she spent at least twenty hours a week there and she was always available in case of an emergency.  The only other thing that really required her personal attention was the prison ministry.

There was no one else available to replace her at the prison.  If she missed a session, the inmates didn’t have service.  So she made it a practice to never miss a session with them.  This was the one area of ministry that gave her the greatest joy.  The men who attended her bible sessions came because they wanted to be there, not because they had to come.  Although she knew that some came thinking they would just get a chance to spend a couple of hours out of their cells, they always left with a better reason to return.  Whatever their reasons for coming, they came and participated in all the discussions, sometimes having multiple sheets of prepared questions for her.

Chaplain Davis, who was the director of the prison ministry, had given her a pretty free reign in how she conducted the services.  Having some latitude was a great help for this particular group of men, who were supposedly mentally unstable, which was an even greater challenge.  D’Cerner often thought they were no more unstable than any other human being, but she didn’t openly dispute their labeling.  She knew that it was something they would have to deal with at one time or another. 

When she first started teaching in the prison, very few inmates participated.  While the inmates were in the room, there was always someone from the staff present.  Even though D’Cerner felt that the presence of a staff member was somewhat inhibiting, she tried to ignore their presence.  After a while, when the inmates became used to her, more came to participate until she had quite a nice sized gathering on a weekly basis.  

Although there were usually twenty-five inmates in the classroom at one time, she had decided a few weeks ago, she didn’t really need any of the prison staff in the room with her.  She was comfortable with the guys and there were always the ever-present security cameras in the room.  The security cameras alone helped to make her feel perfectly safe with the inmates left in her care.

However, D’Cerner had noticed lately there was one young man who appeared to be extremely agitated.  Mr. Detson was only nineteen years old and had been sentenced to natural life for his involvement in a robbery that resulted in a couple being murdered.  During the time he had been awaiting his trial and sentencing at the county jail, both his parents were killed in a fire.  After the hearing the news about his parents’ death, he began to feel that there was no reason for him to live.  D’Cerner was called in on several occasions to minister to him personally, especially when he was in one his suicidal moods. 

Her visits always appeared to have a positive effect and usually within a few days, he was out of his slump and more apt to participate again.  For some unknown reason though, his mood swings seemed to last longer and longer.  He was more disruptive in the class and often walked out before they were finished.  D’Cerner had talked to Chaplain Davis about it, but his immediate reaction was to eliminate him from the list of eligible participants.  Since D’Cerner didn’t want him to lose his privileges and freedom to come to bible study, she didn’t push the issue, but she did start praying specifically for him.

The other inmates were real jewels and more like part of her extended family.  They often requested special prayer for family members, phone calls to girlfriends or other pastors.  New inmates were often surprised when confronted with a female minister since most were taught, “God didn’t call women to preach.”  She always loved the challenges new inmates brought with them and she had proven herself to be more than capable of handling the task at-hand.  In fact she had such a comfortable relationship with most of the inmates she was confident that if anything unorthodox should ever happen, she could count on them to do the right thing.  But then she didn’t really concern herself with that because after all, there were already in prison with little chance of escape, if anything should ever go wrong.  She decided, after musing over all the possible scenarios, she was safer with the inmates in prison than she was with some people on the streets. 

*****

Cal was just as busy for the next five months with Dexter House.  As an incentive for those who resided at Dexter House to stay out of trouble, he had started planning a prison visit for some of the boys.  His plan was to hopefully instill enough fear into them by letting them see firsthand what happens in a prison.  He wanted them to know that prison would be the last place they would want to end up in for any reason.  He had spent countless hours with Chaplain Davis, the commanding officer, and the warden at the prison arranging this visit.  In order to accommodate them, he had to arrange for each of the boys to submit a volunteer screening application, to be tested for drug use, and to obtain police clearance.  He had to make sure that none of the boys knew anyone currently housed in the prison or had any connection with anyone there.  He also had several training sessions with them at the home to get them ready to go through the screening process and for the interaction with the inmates themselves.  All of this took several months to accomplish, but finally they had scheduled a date and had gotten permission to invite other volunteer groups.  Cal supervised compiling the list of other nonprofit organizations they would invite.  After putting together a complete packet of instructions and applications for all of the various requirements, the invitations were soon in the mail. 

The Stradus Center, by deliberate design, received an invitation to join Dexter House, along with other nonprofit youth organizations to bring any of their participating youth to join in the volunteer prison visit to be held in July.

When D’Cerner found out about the Steering Clear prison visit, she spoke to the chaplain about the possibility of changing the date since the date that was scheduled coincided with the date she would normally be in the prison conducting her bible study.  The chaplain decided after reviewing the schedules, it would not present a problem for D’Cerner to be there at the same time as the other organizations.  Having made that decision, he refused to entertain D’Cerner’s suggestion to change the scheduling.  When she was told that there would be no change, D’Cerner accepted the decision without further comment.  However, she mentally took note of the alarms ringing in the back of her mind.

Actually, she was feeling increasingly uneasy about Mr. Detson and what he was thinking these days.  During bible study sessions, on several occasions, he had come close to being hostile, but checked himself before getting completely out of hand.  She decided she was probably overreacting and didn’t dwell on it, but she prayed even more fervently than she normally did.  She couldn’t allow herself to become too entangled with one person’s problems.  After all, she had other things that needed her attention.

She was soon tied up getting ready for the cruise in July and didn’t really have time to think about too many other things.  The volunteer prison visit wasn’t scheduled to occur until she returned from her cruise and she decided to worry about it then.   Her primary focus now, was getting ready for the upcoming conference and the calming effects of sailing on the ocean.

By the end of June, D’Cerner had completed all the preparations she needed for the cruise.  Stateroom confirmations and airline reservations had been made.  All of the printed material she needed for her part in the conference was packaged and ready for distribution.  It was a busy time for her, but she managed to keep her head above water, even though she felt like she was floundering in an ocean of activities. 

She thought if anyone deserved a break after all she was involved in, she was the one.  Before now, she hadn’t really thought about what it took to accomplish so many things in such a short time period.  There were some days she thought she actually needed the tentacles of an octopus to complete her tasks.  In one sense, she did have the tentacles of an octopus—in the person of her children, and others who pitched in to help where needed.  It was a rewarding experience, something she would always remember, but she was glad when things settled somewhat after Pastor Gibson returned and stayed in town. 

Chapter Eighteen

Just as she thought she couldn’t plan one more event, it was July.  Time to go on her long-awaited cruise.   D’Cerner was glad that Angela was going with her and they could share a stateroom.  Her role on the cruise consisted of conducting two sessions on the four-day cruise, but during her free time, she and Angela planned to have some fun.  Knowing that the cruise was for pastors and other church leaders was the only thing she had mentally noted.  Even though she didn’t know who else would be there, she was looking forward to the opportunity to meet new people.

On Wednesday afternoon, D’Cerner pulled out her itinerary to check their departure time. They were leaving for Miami at six in the morning and arriving at the shipping docks by one o’clock in time for the cruise ship’s buffet lunch.

****

Pastor Gibson sat in his office at the church reading a notice from the Ecumenical Council of Pastors regarding a potential appointment for D’Cerner.  Confident that she’ll get the appointment, he smiles and resigns himself to losing her.  “She deserves it.,” he mused aloud.  He sat at his desk for a moment leaning back in his chair, reflective in his pose. Sighing he turned on his computer and in a few moments the printer was churning out a glowing recommendation for D’Cerner.  After signing and sealing the letter, he left the office to send it overnight to make sure the Council would have it the next day.

****

Pastor Thomas ripped open the envelope from the Council with anticipation.  She sat dumbfounded staring at the contents.  Tapping her fingers on the desk, thoughts gamboled through her mind going from one extreme to the other.  “Now what?” She lamented aloud.  She was leaving for a cruise the next day, so she didn’t have time to effectively contemplate her next move.  Not knowing exactly what she’d do, she knew she had to do something.  Something to keep her from losing.

****

Preparing for the trip, Angela and D’Cerner both had spent some quality time shopping for this excursion, enjoying every minute of it.  When D’Cerner picked Angela up to go to the airport, she laughed when she saw all of the luggage and shook her head as she wondered how they were going to get it all to fit in her car.  She teased Angela all the way to the airport about how she must have thought they were going to be gone longer than the four days.  Angela just smiled and lay back in the passenger seat to take a quick nap on the way to Metropolitan Airport.  D’Cerner turned the radio down so Angela wouldn’t be disturbed and wasted no time in driving the almost deserted freeway.  Thirty minutes later, they were unloading the car in the long-term parking lot.  They had decided that since they had to leave so early and would get back rather late that this was the most expedient way to handle the trip.  After D’Cerner parked the car and noted on the back of the ticket where it was parked, they took the shuttle back to their departure gate where they waited with the crowd to get through the screening process.  After passing through the metal detectors, they had a few minutes to spare so they went to the ladies room to check themselves out before boarding the plane and then it was time to go.

When they arrived in Miami, there was no time to think about much of anything.  They became part of the hustle and bustle to get to the right bus that would take them to the right port.  There were drivers carrying signs, calling out names of parties everywhere.  Total bedlam!  They were moving so quickly they almost left one of Angela’s bags, which would have been a complete disaster, according to Angela.  Once they were on the right bus and on the right road to the docks, they had time to take a deep breath and relax for a short time.  There were a number of people on the bus, many with children who were excited about their first cruises.  The decibel level of the surrounding conversations made it almost impossible to hear oneself think, let alone attempt to carry on a conversation with others, so they just sat back and enjoyed the ride and the view.

Miami was, as they had discovered before when they were there last year, a beautiful city.  There were tantalizing palm trees, exotic plants and flowers everywhere.  Almost every street seemed to be lined with a specific type flower or plant and nowhere did any seem to appear twice.  The residents of the city were extremely flamboyant in their manner of dressing which added to the festive attitude that pervaded their surroundings.  It only took them twenty minutes to reach the docks.  Then, they had to locate a steward to make sure their luggage was carried to the right deck, get their expense cards and go through customs.  The wait in line seemed interminable, but finally they were walking up the gangplank, boarding the
Royal Majesty.