Dr. "O" - An Unsung Hero

Today I received a very rich blessing!  I was invited to come out to Broad River Correctional Center and hear the BRCC Band Concert under the direction of Dr. Dave Osterlund.  Dr. "O" as he is called by the inmates, has done an amazing thing that not many people even know about.  17 months ago Dr. Osterlund started the first and only prison band in SC, and as far as we know, the only prison band in the nation.  All of the band members were required to learn to read music and play in a recorder choir for 15 weeks.  After that, they could choose an instrument to play.  Enough instruments were donated to comprise a 16-piece band covering brass, woodwinds and percussion.  Lexington Baptist gave a trombone, a baritone and a clarinet. 

Yes, they may have sounded a bit like the Mayberry Band, but most of these men have only been playing their instrument for 3,4, or 5 months!  And several of them were actually quite good.  I was just so amazed by what I was witnessing that I had to write about it.  Music adds so much to our human existence, and it is incalculable what this prison band will do in the lives of these men whose lives have been so broken by failure.

I told several of the men that a band is like one big puzzle.  Each individual has a piece of that puzzle that by itself may not be very meaningful until all of these parts come together in unity.  We all need to be a part of something that is bigger than ourselves.  That is the context in which God chooses to move and work in our lives.  We have got to learn how we fit in to the larger group.  Thank you, Dr. "O"  for having such a vision for this prison ministry and for sharing your personal witness for the Lord Jesus Christ!