Debbie's motivation of why she takes on the emotional work of Prison Ministry

So many people ask me why I work in prison and how I could want to work with criminals. this says so much about how angry our community is with crime – not as a theoretical concept, but because so many people have personal experiences of crime - loss of goods, loss of a feeling of safety and security, and enormous loss of life and loved ones. Of course our community is angry and hurting – we are really all angry and hurting about crime.

And, so it is really quite difficult to formulate a strong logical argument for being there, but, I do know that is where I need and want to be at the moment. I guess it started when I went into the women’s prison and my first encounter was with women who were in prison for killing abusive husbands. I heard their stories of abuse and pain, I saw the scars on their bodies and the devastation to them as people. I have always cared deeply about abuse issues around women and children, and this was to be true in prison too.

Debbie Jones
Prison Ministry  

As I got involved and got to meet and know more women, I began to see how like me they really are. They are mothers who are weeping because they have children at home who they cannot parent. They are children, girls and women who have mothers who never thought their daughters would go to prison and their guilt over the suffering caused to their ageing parents is debilitating. Some are young, young enough to be my daughters, and the mothering part of my heart aches for them. Some are so broken from a lifelong experience of one kind of abuse following another, that they look like shadows of people and I wonder what the opportunities are for their recovery – it is hard for me to have any hope for some of these women. Others, however, are capable, beautiful women who have made a mistake and are paying a price so dear. These women and girls embrace any opportunities for growth and change and work hard on the opportunities offered to them. When they come out, they continue to strive for better lives – lives of integrity and responsibility. It is a wonderful thing to see.

So, working in prison became easier, because I got to know the faces, and then hearts and spirits of so many of these people and they stopped being an anonymous group who I could just vent anger and bitterness at. They became Anna with HIV and a real experience of Jesus as her close friend and saviour before she died; Christinah who is such a motivational speaker now, she is influencing so many people to be strong in society; and there’s Sue whose father has never forgiven her for being in prison and for getting involved in crime – and her broken heart as years pass and she does not see or speak to him, and she sends messages asking him to forgive her, but cannot even ask him in person.

Eventually these ‘criminals’ become women who are broken, hurting, alone, frightened and often feeling very hopeless. I have known some of those places in my life. I have know something of what it feels like to have no value, to be depressed and to feel unloved – I think all of us do. I know how much Jesus has done for me to heal that brokenness, and I think it is a privilege to be a part of him doing that for others. It is challenging, heart-breaking sometimes, but always very exciting and encouraging to watch people turn their lives around and not only explore other options for their lives, but live them.

Love,
Debbie