Each year Westville Correctional Facility hosts a Christmas party for the inmates. During the Christmas season various Christian-based prison ministries and their local churches are asked to help provide cookies for the inmates’ Christmas party. In 2011 the Full Gospel Church of Michigan City, Indiana supplied 300 dozen cookies. Keith Blacksten, a Prison Fellowship Ministry volunteer and a member of the Full Gospel Church, delivered 300 cookies. The gift was received with great appreciation and thankfulness.
In 2012 Dick Brooks, the director of Prison Fellowship Ministry at the Westville Correctional Facility, asked Full Gospel Church if they could once again help supply cookies. Not wanting to let them down, the Full Gospel Church members stepped up to the plate and made 365 dozen cookies. (That’s a lot of dough!)
Rev. Dennis Pickens, pastor of Full Gospel Church and an ordained minister of the Pentecostal Church of God, preaches at the prison on Monday nights. During one of the services, Pastor Pickens recalls a testimony of one of the offenders, who said, “It’s not just the tasty treats, but there are a lot of guys in here that never have any family communications; and to know that there are people who are thinking of us really means a lot, especially at Christmas time.”
Pastor Pickens was inspired by a writing on the wall at the prison chapel that said, “I was in prison and you came unto me,” a reference made by Jesus in Matthew 25. He is thankful to be blessed with members who are willing to fulfill the teachings of the Master and demonstrate real Christmas spirit.
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