Lauren Daigle visits largest maximum security prison in U.S., raises money for inmate calls, clothes
Christian singer Lauren Daigle recently visited Angola State Prison and raised $17,000 for the inmates to help them make phone calls and have new clothes for the holidays.
Daigle posted of her visit to Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the U.S., on social media over the weekend to celebrate the generosity of her supporters on Giving Tuesday.
The Grammy-winning singer visited the prison on December 11 and in the video clip she shared, Daigle is seen delivering the good news to the inmates during an intimate lunch. The Lafayette, Louisiana, native explained to everyone that the campaign raised $17,000 to help fund clothing and phone calls evenly distributed to the 6,300 prisoners of the Louisiana penitentiary this Christmas.
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"Your generosity will provide more than 70,000 minutes of connection to friends, family, and loved ones," Daigle likewise wrote in a caption accompanying the video of her visit.
The “You Say” songstress first made her petition on Giving Tuesday to her Facebook page. She shared that some are not as fortunate to call their loved ones this season and she wants to do something about it.
"These are luxuries to inmates and not every person can afford to call home for the holidays, connect with their families and hear the voice of a loved one," Daigle said.
Many of those incarcerated in the prison, which was once a plantation, are facing life sentences. While there, Daigle performed a concert and shared words of encouragement for several of the inmates.
“In the middle of the pain, in the middle of your problems, in the middle of you being the worst of who you are, He comes and He sits next to you in the process,” Daigle is heard saying in the video clip posted. “He doesn’t point the finger, He doesn’t give you shame, He sits with you. I think that’s why He’s called the Savior of the world.”
“He’s not the fixer of the world, He’s called the savior because He comes to save us and to set us free and rescue us from the things that would have us caught and ensnared and left in bondage he sets every captive heart free,” she added.
As the video came to close, Daigle belts out the lyrics to her song “How Can It Be” as the inmates soak up the worship.
“You say that we are free, how can it be?” she sang.
Daigle has visited multiple prisons this year which she said has really impacted her.
In a recent interview with The Christian Post, Daigle spoke about going outside the walls of the church to share the Gospel.
[My music] is having crossover appeal, but it doesn't mean that I'm leaving one for the other or that I'm going to be swept up by one thing or the other. For me, it's like, 'Oh, everything just got even more clear.' Everything just got clearer as to why it is that we go and love people who are outside of the walls of our church, outside of the walls that we're comfortable with," Daigle told CP in a recent interview.
Her album, Look Up Child debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart upon its release in September, beating out popular secular musicians such as Drake, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B that week, and continues to place on the charts.
