A Long Awaited Day

Thursday was the fulfillment of a day my family has been looking forward to for a long time. I guess in order for it to make sense I have to go back in time about 6 and a half years...
A pastor friend of ours was the chaplain for the Sheriffs department in a neighboring county. He also worked with our county jail. One day he called my dad and asked him to preach that coming Sunday because he couldn't do it. Dad said he would, though he had never preached in a jail before. That was Easter Sunday. Six men made professions of faith that day.
That week we got a letter from one of them. I don't remember what all it said, I just remember thinking to myself "I wonder how long this will last?" (referring to his profession). I guess you can just say I am cynical.
Dad started talking to him and one day he said that he thought he needed to confess to something. He had robbed a local bank. He did confess and started through the long road of court appearances.
I will skip through all those details.
Some where along in there we got another letter from him saying that he wanted to be like the Apostle Paul and change his name after his conversion. He was Bill before and now he wanted to be called William. That was easy for us because we didn't know him as Bill. We soon decided that William was too long and started calling him Will. So just like Saul to Paul - it was Bill to Will. :)
Will and Dad continued to write letters and Dad tried to go see him about once or twice a year. After a couple of years we got a letter from Will that I won't forget. I don't remember the specifics but I remember the basics very well. He wrote to Dad saying that the Chaplain at the prison where he was had preached a sermon and he didn't agree with it. He told my dad what this man had preached and asked him what he thought about it. But he didn't stop there! He went on to show from Scripture where this man had been wrong and what the truth was. That was so encouraging!
The years past as we all prayed for him, talked to him on the phone, and read his letters. We looked forward to the day we would finally be able to meet him! This Summer we finally heard his release date was October 8th. He was being released to a halfway house so there are still lots of restrictions. He can't just come and see us and we can't just go see him when ever we want. Will was able to get a two hour pass (we were really hoping for a four, but we took what we could get and were *very* thankful for it) to go to lunch with us. My parents, three of my sisters and I drove up there Thursday to meet him. We were to be there at 11. We got there about 10:45 to make sure we had plenty of time. Dad went in to make sure everything was in order and then he found out that that county is on Central Time and we are on Eastern! We were an hour early. At least that is better than being an hour late. :) That was a long hour. But as time always does it passed and we saw him come walking down the street.
We enjoyed our time so much. He told us some stories and talked about the deliverance of Christ. It was a wonderful time. It was such a blessing to finally get to meet him after waiting so long. We are looking forward to getting to know him better and watching him grow in Christ.