A Heartwarming Letter

Some friends of mine go to our county jail every two weeks to meet with inmates. For about an hour, they sing songs and read encouraging words from the Bible. One of the men shared a handwritten letter which included his thoughts on them, on himself and on life. I found his words quite touching and most heartwarming; I asked for permission to share it with you. Here it is:
To my new friends,
I feel so lucky that yous came into my life. There is not one of yous that is more important than the other in the Bible study group yous all do something the best – minister, sing, play guitar, tell stories etc. When I started coming to your meetings here at the jail a year ago it was just to get away from my housing unit. Then I met a bunch of great people that went there because it was making them truly happy to be there, even if it was short-lived, until we went back to our (reality) units.
I have my usual unhappy walk through the door at the Bible study, and then instantly felt happiness. I did see the faces of man that wanted nothing more than to make a difference in our lives. At times I leave Bible study on top of the world and get back to my unit and see such ugly people. I see people that didn’t mind being here, enjoyed tormenting others, had hate in their hearts and made me realize that I screwed up BIG and would NEVER do it again and end up back here. I am no saint but I never want to hurt another person again. I was always skeptical of God like many others but I’m trying. I was not brought up in a religious family. But I know that even if there isn’t a god, as long as you believe it will make you live a better life.
I used to think there was once Jesus on earth but he has no influence on this world today. Maybe he’s like the book “The Shack.” The Jesus in there didn’t want to interfere, he wanted us to make our own decisions even if they were horrible and resulted in hurting others, ourselves, death, sin, etc. I’ve been in this county jail for over 13 months now and thankfully I’m out of here within the week. I’ll truly miss this caring community meeting every other Tuesday night. Each and every one of yous are very appreciated. It takes a bunch of different ingredients to make a cake, and it also takes a bunch of personalities/ ingredients to make a perfect Bible study and yous guys are the perfect mix. Yous kick butt. I want to thank yous so much. God bless yous.
Now let me close this week’s Bible study with my words. Get out of this place. Stay clean, stay healthy and happy, love one another. Be a better son/dad/husband/brother/person. You only get one life. Make the most of it. Don’t ever regret not doing enough because today you can change for the better. There’s nothing more important than family. Make sure you always make sure they know how much you love them. Thank you. Amen