Pastor Paula and Paula White Ministries recently helped bring the spirit of Christmas to several hundred incarcerated women, their children, and their families, at Coleman Federal Correctional facility, Coleman, FL. The "CHRISTMAS AT COLEMAN" celebration, held Sunday, December 10th at FCC Coleman's Training Center, was a rousing, joyous, inspirational afternoon and evening of gratitude for Christ's birth.

Pastor Paula was joined by special guest singer Shirley Murdock, WWIC praise and worship director Dr. Mark Payne with members of the WWIC Sanctuary Choir, Pastor Ken Scrubbs and the First Baptist Church of Leesburg, Florida, and staff and friends of PWM, to bring the joy of the Lord to Coleman in a BIG way...proving that, as Shirley Murdock and the entire audience chanted out later, "There ain't no party like a Holy Ghost Party, 'cause a Holy Ghost Party don't stop!"

The opening highlight of the event was the much anticipated toy-give away for the inmates' children. As Warden Carlyle Holder shared later, "I remember when we got the call that Pastor Paula wanted to do something for the inmates. I said, I didn't know if we could do anything for the inmates, but we could definitely do something for their children – and before we knew it, the plan was in place!" The Paula White Ministries staff had wrapped 300 presents the Wednesday evening prior in preparation for the event, and had been looking forward to joining Pastor Paula on the trip to Coleman.

A group of Coleman inmates nicknamed "Women on a Mission" had decorated the huge pavilion with wreaths, balloons and bows; a brightly painted "North Pole" scene hung behind a large wooden sled-and-reindeer, ornament-adorned Christmas tree, and "Hot Seat" for Pastor Paula! Hymns and Christmas tunes blared from the sound system, setting off the mood of loving reverence for Jesus Christ that was to be sustained throughout the rest of the day's events.

The inmates and their families were already gathered under the pavilion, having finished a catered meal supplied specially for the occasion. Women in their prison greens were simply loving, grateful mothers that day, as they held armfuls of laughing children and napping babies, alongside grandmas, aunts, and nieces. Fathers, brothers, uncles, and grandpas rounded out the male presence in the house. Chaplain Yolanda Garcia was busy helping the children rehearse a group "thank-you" to Pastor Paula for the mounds of gaily wrapped toys "Road to Recovery's" Fred Thomas and "Operation Explosion's" Brock Henderson were directing PWM team members to stack around the tree.

The program opened with songs performed by the camp choir. An inmate named Sue, who would share her testimony throughout the day's events, led the camp choir in praise and worship; she got us all in the head for giving praise where praise was due, declaring, "This did not just happen by chance. We are blessed. We are blessed women of God. Even though we go through stuff we can still lift him up, because Jesus is the reason for the season. Y'all need to give him some Glory in this praise!" The praise team went on to sing, "I praise You through the good and bad...I praise You whether happy or sad...I praise You in all I go through...because praise is what I do...And I owe it all to You."

As the camp choir continued to worship through song, suddenly a ripple of excitement went through the rows. Children began pointing up into the sky: there, a few miles off, the tiny black spot that was circling around the camp was materializing into a helicopter. As the praise team sang on, in a scene as dramatically moving as anything I'd ever witnessed in any movie or play, the helicopter that carried Pastor Paula and her co-laborers for the Lord approached us with a roaring wind...like a winged bird bringing His own chosen vessel, with the special Christmas message He had appointed her to bring.

 "Santa Claus is coming with Pastor Paula White...do you think we should hide from her? Or is too much to hide from her?" Chaplain Garcia called over the helicopter's engines to the excited children. "And don't forget to say 'Thank you, Pastor Paula!' at the top of your lungs!" It was hard to tell who was more excited – the children, their families, Coleman staff, or the PWM team.

Soon Pastor Paula, flanked by Shirley Murdock and a be-speckled brown-skinned, white-bearded Santa in full garb, arrived on stage. The children stood up and gave their thanks perfectly -- to Pastor Paula, and to the man who had supported the entire effort – Warden Holder, a true man of God who was clearly invested in improving the lives of the women in his care.

"This is not Coleman Correctional Facility," Warden Holder announced, before handing things over to Pastor Paula. "This is Coleman Holy Ground...because God is doing some awesome things here!" The woman cheered, whistled, and nodded "amen" in agreement.

Then Pastor Paula came up to start off the toy-give away. "I was in Kentucky, and doing all these things, but I was like a race horse, saying, 'I can't wait 'til Sunday, I can't wait 'til Sunday'...'cause I just wanted to get here! This is a special day that God set up. Paula White Ministries was just privileged to carry it out."

Then Pastor Paula introduced Shirley Murdock. "She don't party for the devil no more – but she still parties, she parties for Jesus!" Shirley Murdock was clearly ready to 'set it off'. "I understand this is Holy Ground. So if this is Holy Ground, you know anything is possible! You can get your healing, you can get your needs met, on Holy Ground!" In giving praise to Jesus, Murdock reminded us: "[For us] He took off His glory suit, and put on His dirt suit." After Shirley shared an uplifting rendition of "A Night Divine," Pastor Paula primed the children and their families for what they were really about to experience.

"Here's the significance of this night to you. We're about to give you gifts, and they're nice gifts. But a year from now they're going to break, get old. The greatest gift was given to you when Christ was born. God wanted a relationship with you so much, that He sent His Son to be born in a manger. But that wasn't the most significant part." Pastor Paula went on to share the Gospel of Christ's 'gift' of eternal life. "If you want a real gift this Christmas, you'll receive His Son, Jesus Christ." As Pastor Paula asked who wanted to receive Jesus that night, almost every hand was raised; inmates, their children, and their families, prayed along with Pastor Paula and the rest of us, as we received, or re-received, Christ at that moment.

And then it was time! As Santa and his helpers (PWM staff in elf hats!) passed the gifts to Pastor Paula, she received each child and their family member, praying over them, hugging, kissing and showering them with God's love and blessings. As children carried off gifts -- some as big as they were -- their expressions ran the gamut: from straight up grins of joy, to stunned silence at their fortune, to shy, quiet pleasure that the jolly brown Santa, and petite blonde woman beside him, would be so unbelievably generous to them...for no reason, except for the love of God.

When every child had received their gift, the women bade goodbye to their loved ones, wearing their children's joy like a warm blanket. And filled with the awesome peace of the presence of God in that place, they now looked forward to the personal message Pastor Paula would bring to them, along with more praise and worship from her special guests, in the second part of the "Christmas at Coleman" celebration.

And they were not to be disappointed. We had now moved inside the brightly lit and festively decorated training center's auditorium, and for the next half-hour the audience was brought to its feet repeatedly – first by the camp choir leader Sue, who sang a personal song for Pastor Paula, "Mary's Alabaster Box"...then by 14 year old singing sensation Jamarien Moore.

And when Pastor Paula handed the stage over to her "covenant sister" Shirley Murdock once again, we were on our feet for the next twenty or so minutes, singing, chanting, waving arms and shaking heads (and other parts of the body!) as we grooved in the spirit to Sister Shirley's latest r&b gospel rhythms, her infectious sassiness, and soul-searing voice.

Then it was time for Pastor Paula's message. Aware of the special emotional and spiritual challenges the women at Coleman would be experiencing during this up-coming holiday season, she was armed with a message to deepen their commitment to an unswerving faith in God, while encouraging them to go deep inside themselves to confront any issues keeping them from doing so. She also shared a word on discovering real love, beginning with the message in 1 John 4 to illuminate the true meaning of 'perfect,' unconditional love; she reminded them that, like herself, they might have been victimized, violated and abused by those they trusted, but in God they would find their true protector, one who would 'govern, guide, and guard' them, freeing them from their own self-punishment. She also shared Jesus' teaching to the woman at the well who'd searched fruitlessly for love in many different men in John 4, and continued with the encouraging words found in Ephesians 3:17:

 "May Christ through your faith make his permanent home in your heart...May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love...that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp...what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]. ...that you may come to know practically, through experience for yourselves, the love of Christ...and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself (AMP)."

"I dare you to say, 'God, make love to me...come into the intimate chambers of my life'," Paula declared, as women all around us verbalized the emotions being stirred within them.

The final moments included a call from Pastor Paula for the women who felt most in need to come forward for a prayer of restoration. As all present ministry members and visiting church teams stepped up into the crowd of women of every age, race, and hue to assist her in prayer, we all experienced the same, awesome manifestation of God's mercy and grace. And as we stood, some weeping, others hugging -- all moved by the testimonies of crippling pasts and empowered by the message of self-respect found through self-knowledge in Christ – there was a palpable sense that once again, God's work had been done, as Pastor Paula fulfilled her own assignment from Him, at Coleman: to transform lives, heal hearts, and win souls.