By Cass Rains
It all began about six years ago when a young boy from the church got into some trouble.
After trying to visit and not being allowed, family only, Randon Miller and others from the Faith Center Fellowship formed a Bible study group, which still visits the Garfield County Juvenile Detention Center at least once a week.
“We wanted to go out there and talk with him,” Miller, a youth pastor said. “The only way was going out there and talking with a bunch of them.”
Miller, and his wife, Kristi, and other church members Joy Wolfe and Micky and Brenda Botts have kept going every week since.
Miller said with the groups’ personal schedules changing throughout those six years, keeping the Bible study going has been “a teamwork thing,” filling in for one another.
“They put in as much time as I do,” Miller said.
He said they try to go in as pairs, but on certain occasions one may go solo, but the purpose is always the same.
“It’s an opportunity to reach those kids where they’re being affected,” he said, “to give them some spiritual food.”
Housing juvenile defendants, Miller said most of the time he or the others that do the Bible study don’t know why the kids are there, unless they tell them.
“Sometimes they do,” he said. “It just depends whether they want to warm up to us or not. I think after they figure out what we’re about, they begin trusting us.”
Participation in the Bible study is voluntary and begins with a structured plan, but often changes to what some of the kids want to discuss, Miller said.
“We talk about what affects them or how things could have been done differently,” he said. “We talk about their lives and how things could change.”
Throughout those six years, Miller said there was one 17-year-old from Oklahoma City who stood out from the group. Troubles that stemmed from involvement in gang activity landed the boy at the detention center.
“He was there several months,” Miller recalled. “It changed his life.”
Unapproachable at first, Miller said, the boy seemed to be looked up to by the other boys in the detention center.
“At first he stayed away,” he said, “but after a while he began joining in and telling the others to listen to what we were saying.
“It was just nice to see a change in his personality, to see some hope,” he said. “I still remember his face to this day.”
Miller said he and the other visitors to the center have received a few letters from former bible study students, some who have visited the Faith Center Fellowship.
”When you’re 16 years old, you’ve got tons of time to change.”
Miller said he and the others will keep spending their time out at the detention center, trying to reach the kids that come through.
“It’s God’s ministry,” he said. “We’re just trying to get something done for Him.”
