One special servant

DIXON – The prisoners were long gone when Joel Shoemaker made one last visit Wednesday morning to the old Lee County Jail.

Shoemaker volunteered there a couple of hours each Tuesday evening for nearly 40 years, New King James Bible in hand, preaching the scripture to inmates from cell to cell in hopes of turning their lives around.

Changes at the new county jail on the edge of town forced Shoemaker to step aside, but the sheriff’s department wanted to give him one more message: “Thank you.”

Known to all at the jail as “Bible Joe,”­ Shoemaker received a plaque and letter from Jail Administrator Jack Skrogstad, Chaplain James Stroup and Sheriff John Simonton thanking him for his decades of service.

“It’s an honor,” Shoemaker said. “I’m a servant of the Lord, so that will reward me, but it’s nice to know that I was appreciated by the jail, by the sheriff and the warden [Skrogstad] here.”

Shoemaker has been “a student of the Bible” since 1971, when he was an underclassman at Oregon High School. He moved to Dixon a few years later and began volunteer work at the jail a few years after that.

It was Matthew 25:31-46 that inspired him: “For I was hungry, and you gave me food. For I was thirsty, and you gave me water. For I was naked and he clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison, and you visited me.”

“When we visit the inmates in jail, or visit somebody who is sick, it’s just like ministering to the Lord himself,” Shoemaker said. “It’s my pleasure to be a servant of the most high God.”

The setup at the new Lee County Jail no longer allows for volunteers to visit directly with inmates, but they still are provided with a worship service weekly by Stroup.

“Joel doesn’t want his rewards here on Earth, and he knows that, he does this voluntarily,” the chaplain said. “He knows that his rewards are in heaven. This award is not going to take away from his reward in heaven.”

Shoemaker, who also was a teaching aide, will continue preaching and being involved with church groups. Age also will not stop the 65-year-old, who plans to go back to college and study counseling.

The Lord only knows how many people he’s touched during his time, he said. He won’t find out until he enters the pearly gates.

“The Lord was with me and he would give me the words to say, and we ended up smoothing out the ruffled feathers,” he said. “I was not able to reach everybody, but was able to reach some.

“This window is closed, but you never retire from God’s service.”