Posts tagged “Newsletter”

AUGUST NEWSLETTER

CHILREN IN PRISON

“I met you when I was 13 years old!” a prisoner said after a chapel service last week.

Where I had met this 30 year old man who was now dressed in orange?

Several times I have met prisoners who knew me because I had sung at their home church. Once I met a prisoner in Pennsylvania who said, “I saw you when you did a USO program for us while I was in the Army in Mannheim, Germany.” Another time in a prison chapel I met a high school classmate! And I have actually seen former neighbors in prison!

But where had I met this young man when he was just 13 and who was now in prison? So I asked him. “Where have we met?”

“At Indian River!” he said, with the excitement of a boy seeing an old friend.

Indian River! That is a youth facility (prison) near Massillon. This boy was in prison at age 13! I smiled and let him know how good it was to see him, but inside I wanted to cry. A thirteen year old child in prison! What in the world would an eighth grader do to end up in prison? He should be in school.

When a 13 year old boy is in prison, something is terribly wrong. The system, his family and our society have failed somewhere along the line. I asked him if he had been in prison since he was 13.

“No,” he replied. “I got out a couple of times, but it never lasted long. I couldn’t stay out of trouble. I’m back.” Just matter of fact. That’s life. He knows no other way. Seems he has accepted his ‘lot’ in life.

As I was thinking of the plague of prisons on our nation, and the fact that everyone of them is over crowded, and now this reminder that even children are not exempt, I thought of Prov. 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” The NIV Student Bible has this note: “An individual proverb should not be read as either an invariable rule or a binding promise from God… but this verse reinforces the importance of early training in forming a person’s lifelong character. The general rule is this: good parents raise good children.”

Although “spare the rod and spoil the child” may be the best known verse about discipline, I think Prov. 29:15 may explain our current national situation better: “The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother” (!) (and ends up in prison!). Since our society and many parents can’t distinguish the difference between loving discipline and child abuse (there is a difference), let me share The Student Bible’s notes on the subject (pg.587): “The overwhelming emphasis of Proverbs is on verbal encouragement and teaching. The whole book is framed as a father’s words to his son, teaching him those ‘facts of life’ that have nothing to do with biology. Again and again he pleads, ‘Listen, my son…’ Mother has equally important words. The parent-child conversation is a warm one, and Proverbs 17:6 bears out what the whole book implies: parents and children are not meant to be adversaries, but allies in life who are proud of each other.”

I am thankful for loving parents who spared neither the rod (belt) nor the encouraging words. Many times my temptation to do wrong was checked by fear of dad’s belt, but also by my fear of disappointing him. My version of the 23rd Psalm might read: “Thy belt and thy encouraging words, they comfort me…” (and kept me out of prison).

I doubt that my inmate friend who met me at Indian River 17 years ago has ever been disciplined or encouraged by loving parents. But at least he came to chapel! The silver lining is that many men have had it worse that he has and they have done well. God can “…restore the years the locust have eaten.” Joel 2:25 That is my prayer. That is why we have the audacity to go to prisons and proclaim the Hope of Christ.

August 20, 2011 | Categories: Common Ground Ministries, John Schmid, Newsletter | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

July Newsletter

Prison Cell

GIVE ‘EM HOPE 

When I started this singing/prison ministry in 1990, Glendon Bender’s (Gospel Echoes) advise was short and simple: “Give ’em hope.”

As we entered London Correctional this month for at least the 50th time (three times a year x 21 years of ministry, minus a cancelation or two over the years = at least 50 times) I glanced up, as I always do, at the words written on the outside wall above the main entrance to the prison:

“HE WHO ENTERS HERE LEAVES NOT HOPE BEHIND.”

We arrived early, so while we waited in the lobby, I wandered over to the huge bronze plaque on the lobby wall that I had passed at least a hundred times (50 times coming in and 50 times going out) in the last twenty one years.  As I was reading it carefully Chaplain Cahill came out.  He saw me reading it and told me the following story:

In Venice, Italy, the prison sits just across the river from the judgement house (courthouse).  When a man is sentenced to prison, he is shipped (literally) across the river to the prison.  As he enters the prison he passes under the following words above the door: “HE WHO ENTERS HERE LEAVES HOPE BEHIND.” That was the European pessimism of the 19th and 20th century.  A man doesn’t change.  Once a criminal, always a criminal.  There is no redemption.  No reform.  Lock ’em up and throw the key away.

In direct response to this European pessimism, London (Ohio) Correctional was built in an era of American optimism.  The Reformation based Christianity that helped found this nation held the optimistic Christian belief that anyone can change.  In fact, prisons were not called prisons.  They were called ‘reformatories;’ ‘penitentiaries;’ from the word ‘penance,’ or ‘pensive;’ “to reform,” “to think.”  Prisons were actually what we would call today, a “time out.”  Go think about what you did.  Repent.  Rethink.  It was an alternative to the whippings and beatings of criminals, which began to be looked on as cruel and unusual punishment.

Here is what the huge eight foot by four foot bronze plaque in the London lobby says:

THIS BUILDING WAS COMPLETED IN NINETEEN HUNDRED TWENTY FOUR UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF GOV. DONAHEY. IT IS THE NUCLEUS AROUND WHICH WE SHALL BUILD A GREAT INSTITUTION FOR THE SALVAGE OF MEN.  ALWAYS LET THOSE WHO SHALL BE THE MERCIFUL ADMINISTRATORS OF THE GREAT TRUST THAT WE HAVE HERE REMEMBER: THAT THIS IS A PLACE OF FIRM BUT KIND RESTRAINT FOR THOSE WHOSE UNDEVELOPED MORAL FACULTIES HAVE LED INTO EVIL WAYS; THAT THE HIGH PURPOSE OF THIS HUMANE INSTITUTION IS A DETERRANT ONE; THAT IT SHALL BE THE WARNING LIGHTHOUSE OF THE BODY POLITIC BUILDED FOR THOSE WHOSE LIFE BARKS DRIFT TOWARD CRIMINAL SHOALS; THAT REFORM, EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION AS OBJECTIVES SHALL BE THE DOMINANT THOUGHT AND THE COMMAND TO ALL OF THOSE TO WHOM WE SHALL COMMIT THE KEEPING. AND WHEN THESE PURPOSES ARE ATTAINED AND THE CONDITIONS MET, LET US SAY TO THE OFFENDERS IN THE LANGUAGE OF ONE WHO LOVED ALL MEN, ‘GO AND SIN NO MORE.’

I can’t imagine this kind of plaque being put in a prison lobby today.  Imagine, quoting Jesus Christ in a state institution!  But they had it right in 1924.  A man can change!  And if the change is to be real, it can only happen through the One who said, “I came to give you life, and to give it more abundantly.”  Although our news media does not have an optimistic bone in its sick body, I believe the average American is still optimistic.  I am optimistic enough to keep proclaiming Christ through song, sermon and hopefully through my life.  If I didn’t believe a man can change, I would be pretty stupid to go into prisons and waste my time singing nice songs and telling Bible stories.  Especially when the weather is beautiful like it was when we walked into London Prison.  And the offering usually averages right close to zero!

But, I am optimistic!  Read the last chapter!  We win!  Jesus is Lord!  A man can change!  “Blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord.” (Jer. 17:7)  We have reason to ‘not leave hope behind!’

July 7, 2011 | Categories: Common Ground Ministries, John Schmid, Newsletter | Tags: , , | Leave a comment