Surprise Funding for the Prison Ministry

Over and over, when all seems lost, support appears

I doubted that anyone would support the prison ministry, yet, over and over, support came from unexpected sources.

Back in 2001, I was new to Amma’s organization. Amma is a humanitarian woman from Kerala in South India. The press calls her the “hugging saint” because she hugs everyone who comes to see her, sometimes around the clock, with no breaks.

People in Amma’s group were active in humanitarian programs around the world. I took part in the Circle of Love, which offered practical and emotional support for seriously ill people. My group worked on creating cards and letters for them. Our cards kept the people’s spirits up between visits of the practical support team members. Our personalized handmade cards were the emotional sustenance. Soon I took over leadership of the letter-writing component.

I looked for new people we could shower with hand-painted pieces of mail art; potential volunteers said we should be writing to people in prison. Not just one person suggested this. When the third person presented the idea, I looked into how we could do it so that inmates and letter writers would benefit. The first wave of my prison ministry began with recruitment, creating a flyer, and guidelines. We called it the Circle of Love Inside.

The inmate letter-writing program is part of Embracing the World, Amma’s worldwide organization. Most countries make it easier for family and friends to visit prison inmates than does the U.S. The states send inmates far from their families, so they are isolated and lonely.

The Circle of Love Inside program is spiritual, but we do not convert inmates to another religion or spiritual practice. We show love, encouragement, and emotional support, but not romance. Letter writers are often married with children.

Our first inmate pen pals were folks known and loved by the man who helped me get started. Alas, they were not writers, so I had to look for other incarcerated people who were able and eager to write to someone.

Our first inmate correspondents loved our letters so much that they told buddies in their facility about us. Each week between 5 and 10 requests for letters came to our P.O.Box. By the end of a year, we were writing to inmates in 22 states. Circle of Love Inside continues as an active program today.

The second wave began in 2008 at the request of the late Revered Virginia DeBow, a minister in Sacramento. She asked me to take some of the inmates she had been serving. When I agreed, she asked if I would send them a monthly educational package. That’s how Freedom Anywhere, the inmate newsletter, began.

For letter writing, inmates and volunteers bought their stationary, envelopes, and stamps, but this newsletter? How would we pay for it? In those days, very few inmates had access to the internet. It had to be a paper publication, in an envelope with a stamp on it.

Local church support and a grant from Home Office.

I had started attending church, something that puzzled my Amma friends. “How can you leave Amma? She is so wonderful,” one friend said.

There was something about Science of Mind that I thought would help me discover what was good about myself and remain steady in it.

Amma is a small, dark woman from South India who comforts everyone and wipes away their tears. She calls us all her children, and so she is called “Mother.” That’s what Amma means. She is a living example of loving everyone always, with no “if’s.” Such love is all-inclusive. It feels like our nature as well as what Amma demonstrates for us. How could you leave her? It would mean leaving yourself.

Oakland Center for Spiritual Living had a prison ministry, and I participated in it. At the same time, I earned my practitioner’s license, the leader of that ministry moved to Texas. When she left, I became the leader.

Rev. Joan Steadman, the minister, supported the prison ministry and Freedom Anywhere newsletter. She permitted the newsletter to be printed on the church’s copy machine and allowed us to use the postage meter, effectively paying the postage. Half a dozen members of the congregation helped get it ready to go in the mail — folding it, stamping the envelopes with a return address, putting it in envelopes, and adding inmate address labels. One was a nurse who had served in a nearby state prison. Another had a dad in prison. Over time I would learn their connection to prison life.

With other practitioners, I took a class in abundance and prosperity. I prayed for support from unexpected sources. I didn’t think I knew any potential donors.

Shortly afterward, I received a letter from our denomination’s Home Office in Golden, Colorado. Usually, the Home Office does not write to me. The letter explained that, just as our local church gave 10% of their monthly collection to a worthy project, Home Office also tithed. They decided to send 10% of the monthly donations to the entire denomination to my prison ministry and newsletter. A week later, I. received a check for over $6,000. Wow!

That was my first experience of support from unexpected sources, but it would not be the last. I tithed 10% of the home office gift to the church. The rest bought paper, envelopes, and stamps.

New funds from a former inmate and reader

I moved my membership to another local church. I would not have moved if that church did not support the idea of a prison ministry and agree to pay for the newsletter.

I put the newsletter together every month, writing for it, laying it out, calling in volunteers to help with mailing, as well as writing to many inmates. Most of the people we served were men. A practitioner in another state referred Michelle Jones to me. She was an inmate in Indiana Women’s Prison. We exchanged letters for several years. I sent her the newsletter and spiritual books. She had almost completed the years she was sentenced to serve.

Michelle said the newsletter came just in time every time. One or another crisis would be looming. She’d lose her focus. The newsletter would arrive and root her in her truth again.

Michelle worked hard to get her B.A. in prison from Ball State University. I did not realize this so, when she told me she wanted to go to a top university to get her doctorate, I was surprised.

We prayed her through preparing for and taking her GRE’s. More prayers were raised as she applied to top schools. Yes, Harvard was on the list. We prayed Her through the funding applications. We had moved a mountain, right? Then, we were not sure she would be released in time to start the Fall semester. Blessedly, the state of Indiana let her go.

She had a fully paid ride to her doctorate, concentrating in the impact of mass incarceration on women. One of her grants required that she give a percentage of the money to an organization working to improve inmate literacy. She gave $7,500 to the newsletter.

Takeaway

Now I have money for only two more issues. In January 2020, I had a mini-stroke. Now that I’m okay, the novel coronavirus hit and completley changed the world we live in.

The universe is always bringing forth more and more good, no matter what it looks like. If you are participating in some aspect of that good, what you are working on and hold dear will be supported. My experience with prison ministry proves that to me. It doesn’t have to make sense or be practical. It just needs to be committed to bringing forth more good than anybody thinks is possible. It will be consistently supported.

I’m back to letter writing. A list of names and addresses lifted from the newsletter mailing list will help me connect with some of the first inmates we reached back in 2001. I know both inmates and staff are scared now. A letter can say I didn’t forget them.