A female corrections officer ushers three women into the county jail library. The female inmates are donning identical, two-piece black-striped shirts and pants.

The room is small but adequate for the gathering. Two walls contain bookshelves with an assortment of paperbacks and hardcover manuals. A long laminate-topped table contains enough plastic, stacking chairs to accommodate the group. Two more females arrive minutes later.

Incarcerated behind bars, Sue Roberts’ congregation has no pulpit, no choir and no fanfare, and no basket for collections, just a well-worn Bible with bookmarks that Roberts holds in her hands as she delivers her Christmas message Monday night. Each female has her own Bible. Of eight women incarcerated tonight in jail, five attend the Bible study.

“I love these women,” Roberts says before entering the room. She has been coming to the jail every week since the year after the facility was built in 1996.

“I promised you I’d bring you cookies and I brought you cookies,” she tells the five females.

The baked goods are still being inspected by the officers but Roberts promises them the sweets will be delivered before she leaves, then she begins her visit.

Christmas is too commercial she tells the group.

“We should have Christmas every day; it’s get, get, get and give, give, give,” Roberts says. “The stores are full of people buying stuff they don’t have the money to buy. They’ll wake up after Christmas trying to figure out how they’re going to pay for everything and get by.”

Joseph, the Virgin Mary’s spouse is the subject of this week’s Bible lesson. But she also slips in other messages for the ladies.

“When you get out, don’t do the same things,” she says. “I’m no different from you. I can’t go to the same places as you or run with the same crowd. If I did, I’d be in here, too.”

She opens her Bible to the book of Matthew.

“There’s something here that blows my mind,” Roberts says. “Joseph delivered the baby Jesus. Think about it. Somebody had to cut the umbilical cord, somebody had to help Mary. Here is God in Mary’s womb for nine months and at the same time, He’s running things. With God, impossible things are possible.”

She delivers her message in simple terms. Nobody has a problem understanding. That is part of the beauty. A man finds out his wife-to-be is pregnant in a time when unfaithful women are stoned for that sin. Several months later, Joseph is delivering his wife’s son.

“Joseph was a just man,” she says. “If the old biddies had found out she was pregnant, they’d have stoned her. So he married her privately and while he thought on these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him. There are no men like that now or at least not many.”

Roberts, a registered nurse at A.C. Jones and Thomas Jefferson schools in Beeville, nurses young bodies during the day and older souls at night.

“When you were raised like I was, it still blows my mind that the word of God has been instilled in me,” she says.”God has been my father.”

At four years of age, Sue remembers being left alone by her mother from early morning until late at night. She also remembers being so hungry, she tried to steal an apple from a fruit stand near her home. Sue’s mother even tried to give her away and her step-father called her names. Letting go of this hurt has been a long-time coming.

A loving grandmother took Sue in and her life began to change. More recently, she says the Rev. Keith Terrell, through his preaching at Grace Community Church, taught her how much God loves her.

“I was released from the bondage of how I was raised,” Roberts said. “I pray for forgiveness every night because I really screw up sometimes,” she tells the ladies.

Roberts tells them they are in her prayers as well.

“We like Mrs. Roberts because she gives us peace of mind,” one inmate says. Another says “she gives us hope.” Still another says “she doesn’t judge us.”

“God placed Christian people in my life,” Roberts tells them. “When you walk with the Lord, things will happen that were never meant for you but without going through them, you can never understand the hurt and the pain that other people go through.”

Roberts has been through a lot and shares her testimony regularly with them.

“I don’t judge anybody, that’s the Lord’s job,” she tells them.

Some of the women have been incarcerated for a short period of time, others stay longer, still others return time and time again. Roberts never gives up.

Tonight, after they study the Bible, the six ladies join hands for a final prayer. The cookies are brought in and the session ends with the Christmas treat.

Leaving the room, Roberts says, “This is my life, I love coming here.”