Tuesday November 19, 2024 and I am up and out of bed early. I see Counselor Cornavaca is in his office, time for me to get dressed and ready in case he will be doing “Admission and Orientation” today. All dressed up in my Class A uniform, I head up to his office, knock on his door and begin the conversation.
“Good morning good sir, I didn’t see anyone on callout for orientation, was it postponed?”
“Yes, we will do it next week, I was not able to have what I need for today”, he tells me.
“Ok no worries, I will have the chapel clean for next week, take care, and have a good day” I tell him as I head out of his office and back to my room. I take advantage of the free time to eat some cereal and milk, then grab my daily devotionals and Bible. My favorite came from the “Jesus First for Men” devotional book.
“God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.”
[2 Corinthians 9:8]
This word for today including the reflection that went with it, touches my heart. With God in my heart and in my life, I know I will never need anything in my life, and his grace will always keep me doing good work, helping and putting others before me. What an excellent Word to help me start my day off on a positive note.
I stack my books nicely by my bed, and go prepare a small cup of coffee to “get the blood flowing”. The compound gets closed, so there is no move at 8am. Nearing 9am I am standing ready to see if they call a move, so I could wake up Mr. Gibson because he has a callout in psychology at that time. Looking out the windows I see several guys leaving the unit.
“Mr. Gibson…Mr. Gibson…” I say to him from the entrance of his room.
He turns over in bed, and I see in his look that he is wondering what is going on.
“It’s 9am, remember you have your callout at with psychology, try and hurry so we can make the move, I will walk with you there but then I need to come back” I tell him.
“Oh, oh, yea, thank you, I forgot.” He replies.
Then his roommate Mr. Bergmann tells me he will go with him. Mr. Bergmann is new to the institution and is still feeling his way around, but he tells me, “Eddie, let me help him. I see you helping so many others, let me handle Mr. Gibson, I know what he is going through, because I cared for someone with his same conditions.”
“Thank you Mr. Bergmann, if you need anything from me, please don’t hesitate; see you guys later”, I tell him.
It’s almost lunch time. Mr. Rivero came to my room to make sure I was ready to go. He likes to prove to me he is still quick at his 89 years of age and shows up to my room dressed and ready to go before I get to his room to get him. I head over to his room now to get his wheelchair, his I.D. and some napkins (toilet paper) he likes to have on hand, especially since we don’t get napkins at the dining room.
Today we were served a breaded chicken patty, two tomato slices, hamburger buns, with a side of white rice with black beans, and some apple sauce. It was not too bad, but my chicken patty was stiff.
Heading back to the unit, I drop off Mr. Rivero, grab my water bottle from my room and a 2nd small cup of coffee, and head to the chapel. Once in the chapel, Mr. Frank arrives in his wheelchair to see a movie, so I set him up, then I go clean the restroom. I turn on the lights in the main chapel, sweep and get it ready for the 2pm class taught by Chaplain Hostler. Using the remote control, I point it at the projector screen and press the “down” button so it could roll down the wall, and I turn on the projector with the course DVD in the player, and ready to play the video for the final class, Session 10.
As the class ends, the chaplain checks our booklets one at a time, and as he does he provides us our certificates of completion for the FSA course “Faith-Based Conflict Management”. Tonight is “The Chosen” Season 1, Episode 6, I can’t wait. I leave the screen down, lock everything up and head back to my unit for count. Mr. Campos is preparing meals for us tonight. He tells me I have a choice between two different ways he prepared the meat, then add the white rice and black beans, plus a small side salad.
Count clears, I head to the chapel. I play some music on low volume, and place the DVD in the player so the menu is showing on the big screen. It’s almost 6pm, I head back to my unit and am able to get my bowl of food from Mr. Campos then scoot back over to the chapel. Dinner and a movie for me tonight!
At the 6pm move, we have the Nation of Islam study in the small chapel getting setup, and the Christian Bible study group coming in to the main chapel area. After everyone arrives, Chaplain Hostler leads us all in a prayer, and I press “PLAY”.
Jesus of Nazareth heals a man with leprosy and a paralytic in this episode. Both parts were very sentimental to me, mostly because I know the power God has. Back in 2015 when I was diagnosed with cancer, there was no loss of hope, and always left my life in God’s hands, and here I am, able to say that without Him, I would not be around, and He continues to show me all He does in our lives.
We all head back to our units, it has been such a nice day today, around many positive people. I spoke to my parents today, everyone is doing good, everyone is healthy. Tomorrow is a new day, with new challenges; we always need to be ready for what may come our way, and have God as our guide.
Father God, thank you for today. Thank you for my family, friends and loved ones. Thank you for the good people you have put around me, and for constantly moving things in ways that are best for me. Please help me be more and more humble each and every day, and get me to where I need to be in this life. In your name Jesus, I say again, thank you Lord. Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
November 19, 2024
23:16
