One Parish One Prisoner

Our church has been a part of a wonderful ministry called One Parish One Prisoner for the last few years. 

Their mission is as follows: 

UNDERGROUND MINISTRIES OPENS NEW RELATIONSHIPS OF EMBRACE AND TRUST BETWEEN THE INCARCERATED AND THE COMMUNITIES TO WHICH THEY RETURN—FOR OUR MUTUAL TRANSFORMATION AND RESURRECTION

I joined the third team at Union to come alongside someone, and we were assigned to a wonderful woman named Jessica. We have been writing her letters and texts through an app the prison system has set up, and last Sunday, Renee Sundberg and I got to go to Gig Harbor to the Women's Correctional Facility to meet Jessica. 

And what a gift it was to spend a few hours together. The conversation ranged across the board from lighthearted to more serious topics, but overall, it was just a sweet time of connection. Perhaps my favorite story was when she told us about a time she was getting into organic food for her kids and she got a live turkey that her family was going to have for Thanksgiving dinner. One thing led to another, and this turkey (whom they named Turk Turk) found its way into all of their hearts and became their favorite pet they've ever had. Needless to say, Turk Turk never was put on the table for Thanksgiving dinner. 

They took pictures for us and gave all of us prints before we left (as we are not allowed to have phones in the place or bring anything into the room). The picture they took of us is below.  

I am so grateful for this chance to grow alongside Jessica in the coming year and beyond. She is such a gem of a human.... 

VISION:

“Practice resurrection.”

-Wendell Berry

We serve those at the bottom of the American system: prisoners, gang members, those most feared, locked away in solitary confinement, and deemed dead to society. 

We build relationships, incarnating the kind of love we see in Jesus, friend of sinners and outcasts, who wept over Lazarus in the tomb before he raised him from the dead.

We are inspired by how Jesus not only spoke life into the underground, but then called a larger community closer—to help roll away the massive stone barrier between the living and the dead. So the beloved could join the land of the living.

And so we build relationships with employers, churches, lawyers, families, correctional facilities and neighbors. Why? So we can, together, creatively move through prison walls, roll away prisoner debt, and open new opportunities.

As we open these new relationships of embrace and trust, the change is mutual. Formerly incarcerated men and women are learning a new way, for sure. But so are business owners, churches, parents, and landlords. These new relationships turn us ("on the outs") into the kinds of people, and communities, God has called us to be. As we both risk shedding our defenses—mainstream and underground alike—we discover our purpose together, the life of the world to come.