ANGOLA, LA (November 7, 2007) \u2013 The executive pastor of Hillside Covenant Church in Walnut Creek, California, hopes a recent trip by seven church members to the notorious Angola Prison will help foster growth of the congregation\u2019s ministry to prisoners in their own region near San Francisco. <\/p>\n
Seven members of the church traveled to Angola, also known as \u201cThe Farm,\u201d from October 30 to November 3. The penitentiary is the largest in the country, housing more than 5,000 maximum security inmates, a majority of whom are serving lengthy sentences or are awaiting execution on Death Row. It has been estimated that only one in six of the inmates who enter the prison ever leave.<\/p>\n
Once called the \u201cthe worst prison in America,\u201d the Louisiana state penitentiary has undergone a revival in recent years. That revival has attracted the attention of people from across the country.<\/p>\n
Hillside pastor Mae Elisa Cannon says she first learned of the prison in 2005, when she was leading the prison ministry as a pastor at Willow Creek Community Church. \u201dI read the book Cain’s Redemption and didn’t believe that the things that I read were true.\u201d<\/p>\n
The truth is that horrid conditions began to change after Warden Burl Cain arrived in 1995. An evangelical Christian, Cain pursued policies to increase attendance at chapels and allow participation in religious groups.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Good News Magazine, Cain said, \u201cI can teach skills and a trade, but if I don\u2019t have a moral component I\u2019ve just made a smarter criminal. People who are converted and love the Lord are moral people, and you don\u2019t have problems with them being predators in your prison anymore. Not only do they love the Lord, they\u2019re non-violent. They\u2019re going to live out the Christian life in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
His methods seem to be working. In less than 10 years, assaults in the prison have dropped by more than two-thirds.<\/p>\n
Cain and others credit the spiritual changes. Today more than 2,000 inmates have committed their lives to Christ, six evangelical churches operate inside the prison, and an extension of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary trains inmates for ministry and has graduated more than 120 people.<\/p>\n
Some of the men act as missionaries to other prisons and are transferred so they can minister there, says Debbie Blue, who accompanied the group and serves as executive minister of the Department of Compassion, Mercy and Justice for the Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/p>\n
Blue, who is African American, says a meeting she had with one of the Anglo inmates was emblematic of the transformation taking place among the prisoners. After she had shared with the prisoner her experience with racism, he rolled up his shirtsleeve to show her two of the tattoos on his arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne was of a swastika and other one was of Hitler,\u201d Blue says. \u201cHe used to be a member of the Aryan brotherhood.\u201d The inmate told her, \u201cThis is who I was; I\u2019m not that anymore.\u201d He added that he had never physically killed anyone, \u201cbut I\u2019ve killed people through racism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Someone took a picture of Blue and the inmate standing side by side. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to get it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Cannon became Hillside\u2019s executive pastor in January and was excited to see the congregation\u2019s commitment to serving prisoners. \u201cWe are exploring options for what it might mean for us to bring some of the reforms that have been put into place in Angola to the California prison system and are exploring options with San Quentin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cannon, who had visited Angola in 2006, says Hillside members made the recent trip \u201cto support the ministry of our brothers in Christ who are serving time in Angola\u201d and see how powerfully God can work in the most unexpected of places.<\/p>\n
During the trip, members engaged in several types of ministry. They met one-on-one with inmates, many of whom are confined to their cells 23 hours a day. \u201cThis is about the ministry of presence – sharing the love of Christ by spending a few minutes talking to the men, who have few visitors and few encounters with the outside world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group also led chapel service and spent time with inmates who are seminary students. \u201cI preached in the main prison chapel and our team led worship and shared testimonies,\u201d Cannon says.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery member of our team says that their lives have been changed,\u201d Cannon says. \u201cWe are committed to staying in relationship with the men of Angola as they are now a part of our spiritual family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of Hillside hope to continue the relationships they started and send a team at least once a year.<\/p>\n
Cannon says she hopes other churches will consider ministries to prisoners. \u201cIn June 2006, there were over 2.2 million men and women in federal or state prisons and jails in the United States,\u201d she notes. \u201cThousands of men and women are released every day into hostile social environments where they are not equipped to succeed and to make choices that will keep them out of returning to prison. It is the church’s responsibility to get involved and to show the love of Christ, extend compassion, and advocate for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n