Connections

 Every second Wednesday I go into Drakenstein Maximum Correctional Centre to facilitate groups of guitar and ocarina learners. This music initiative stems from the prayers of one of the inmates a couple of years ago who asked God to send someone to help him read music. He attends the Tuesday Bible study and was surprised when it turned out that I knew enough about reading music to be able to help him. Since then we have been bringing music into the lives of many of the other inmates and frequently being reminded of how God takes an interest.

On Sunday we had "Lord we lift your name on high" at the church I attend. As we sang, I felt it would be a good song to take into Maximum for the guitar group.

Experience has taught me it's a good idea to act upon such feelings.

When he saw the sheets I'd brought, the inmate said that again God knows. He wanted to use the song for church in Maximum on Easter Sunday and was going to ask if I had the music.

Coincidence, or God making connections?

Not against flesh and blood

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

We're beginning to suspect that something/one is working against the Restoration course. People turn up at the introduction and sign up enthusiastically but then most fall away. Others are interested when Ashley talks to them on the streets but won't change their interest to action. Even the lady who turned up for session one was suffering from flu and had to go back home to lie down. It's as if everything is being done to prevent us completing a first course of six sessions as, if that happens, the doorway to real life and community change will be opened. If you need darkness to do your deeds then you'll do everything possible to thwart any sign of light.

The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5)

Last week we held the introductory session for women and five arrived, most with a history of problems with drugs. They left feeling hopeful that what we were offering would make a big change in their lives. Some were already working out who they wanted to reconcile with and would invite to the final session. One even said she'd definitely be at the next meeting, even if no one else was: later in the week her husband replied to a reminder Whatsapp by saying she would not be attending any more.

Then there are the men who were given first chance and said it was a great idea. They're still hanging around the streets, interested when Ashley talks to them but not brave enough to sign up to face themselves and change.

 

We'll keep turning up until we feel it's time to shake the dust from our heels and move on to a different area (Matthew 10:14) but it is sad to see opportunities lost.

Introduction Take 2

It is much easier to run a course when the participants have few other pulls on their time and no means of escape.

Our original two group members both now have jobs or occupations that mean their afternoons are no longer free. It's great that they're working. A job is hard to find under good circumstances, it's harder still if you have a criminal record, so I'm very pleased for them but it does leave our Restoration course without an essential ingredient - available participants.

Time for option two.

When Ashley first mentioned our plans at the support group for recovering addicts which he attends and he said the first course was just open to men, there was a bit of dissatisfaction from the women. They could see the benefit in what we were offering but we thought a mixed sex group would add an unnecessary layer of complication to the proceedings. Now, as the men came, said how interested they were, then couldn't fulfil their commitment, it's the turn of the ladies.

As I went along to the support group to talk about Restoration, it struck me that perhaps the women will be the key to change in the community. Who is the backbone? Who communicates most? Who has contact with children and the different layers of society? We talk about the ripple effect of crime. Let's hope that the women who come to learn about restoration will be at the start of a ripple effect of healing and change.

Restoration

 It's easy to pray, "Lord bring the right people to the meeting," but then to mumble, "Shouldn't there be more?"

Why do we often have the tendency to think that more is better? That things aren't worthwhile unless the numbers taking part are huge?

Jesus looks on the crowd as individuals, not on the individuals as just a crowd.

Two men braved the 40 degree (104F) heat to take part in the first day of our restoration course. One of them hadn't even been to the introductory meeting last week. He was the one who thanked Ashley and me so wholeheartedly at the end of the session for giving up our time to show him things he hadn't thought of before; and being willing to listen. He was the one who, after we'd played Elvis Presley singing In the ghetto to illustrate the cycle of crime through the generations, said, that was his life. He wants to break the cycle of drug abuse, crime and prison; to give his children a better role model to follow; to learn how to be that role model.

Music is a great key for unlocking feelings and understanding. During the introductory meeting we played Gungor's Beautiful Things, acknowledging the pain that's all around but declaring our faith in the fact that God can grow beautiful things from wasteland. He sees beyond what we are to who we could be, who we were created to be. He can make it happen.

I thank God for the two men, the right men for this time, that he sent.

Pray for them, their commitment and growing understanding.

Fish and chip shop by the church
where we meet - good positioning!

Introduction

 It's a privilege to be involved in the Restorative Justice process within prisons. Lives are changed, attitudes challenged and relationships restored. However, it would be far better to reach people before they were incarcerated, before so many lives were broken. Many inmates, some of whom have been in and out of prison since a young age, have said, "If only someone had told me these things years ago, my life would have been very different."

On Monday I joined my friend Ashley (once an effective gang recruiter and drug dealer, now living a completely changed life for Jesus, often in prison but this time as a spiritual worker, not inmate) and we met gang members in his community to invite them to join us in six sessions of encounter (with self, others and truths), repair (of relationships) and transformation (of thinking and behaviour).

Our vision is to hold these gatherings one by one in the different gang territories around Wellington, exposing as many people as possible to the idea that there is a different way to live, a better way to think, and a chance to lead a life not determined by violence, fear and destruction. That's the long term aim - Monday was the first step.

I was a little perturbed in the morning to see heavy rain and thunder forecast for the time we hoped men would be walking to the church hall where we'd be meeting. What could be done? Pray that God would reschedule the rain slightly so that possible participants wouldn't be put off. 

Whilst I waited at the hall that afternoon, watching heavy dark clouds move slowly across the mountains as they advanced over the town, I couldn't help thinking of the darkness that imprisons so many of those who live there. There wasn't a opening in the cloud so a cliched beam of sunlight shone down to spot-light the hall but there was a sense of God's power moving and lightening the darkness. Later I was listening to O Gracious Light a track on Resound Worship's album Downcast Souls, Expectant Hearts. The line that stood out was "Even this darkness is not too dark for you." That's what I felt.

The rain didn't fall until all the men were safely inside the hall. Then it came down with a vengeance.

Five teenagers took shelter in the doorway. Ashley called them in and invited them to join the group. When I questioned the wisdom of mixing these youngsters with the eight older men, he told me the boys were already gang members. They needed to hear what we had to say just as much as the adults did. 

Earlier, as I waited outside before the meeting started, I watched the schoolchildren on their way home. An 11 year old girl came up to chat to me.

 "Why are you here?" she asked. 

"I've come with Oom (uncle) Ashley to talk to people."

"People here aren't lekker [nice/right]," she answered, looking concerned at my choosing to be in her neighbourhood when I could have been somewhere else.

Pray for God's blessing upon this venture as a contribution towards change in the community so that 11 year olds aren't worried for adults who visit their neighbourhood and adults aren't concerned that 11 year olds think their best prospects lie in joining gangs.