Merry Meet Again!

I know I have been silent for some time, but I have been busy dealing with 14 surgeries, getting a BS in Homeland Security and am currently working on a Masters in Criminal Justice with an emphasis on Law. While I am not 100%, I am slowly but surely coming back to full steam ahead Darla.

While I may have been silent, I haven't been completely inactive.

At all times I am always wanting to promote prison ministry and that will probably never change because I believe in this program more than most things in my life. There is truly a strong and overwhelming need for this service and we have far to few volunteers working within this field and even less paid individuals that are pagan and working within prison ministry within any DOC through out our country and one day, I hope this will change.

I recently joined a social network on Facebook called Behind the Wall Coalition. I hope this group will be active and we can get a lot accomplished. I am willing to do almost anything to get our pagan community interested in pagan prison ministry, so have offered her the moon to get us going, so please join up and give us your great ideas and tell us what you do in this field! http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/336762846354235/

There is also a documentary in the process that is about my work in prison ministry. I am very flattered and sincerely hope that this documentary will create an interest in pagan prison ministry.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't get mail in some form or another from an inmate, an inmate's family member or friend and without someone to help me there is no way in the world that I can keep up with all of the letters. so many go unanswered.

Its hard to figure out which is the most important issues to work on when you are working on limited time and energy, but as always I continue to work on what I can and am currently working on an issue in Kentucky, which the inmate really needs the assistance since he has taken them to court just for the right to practice his Wiccan faith and Kentucky adopted the federal prison manual as their own.

While they have conceded that he has the right to worship his religion, according to him and am working on finding out the facts for myself; they are being verbally insulted by the chaplain and others within the religious fields within the DOC and not allowed to have their items that they need to worship or any books. I will keep you informed on my progress with this project.

I am currently only going into one facility in North Carolina and none in South Carolina. I am going to my favorite facility and that is Foothills Correctional Institute in Morganton, NC. It is a beautiful drive, not that far and I have known Chaplain Turbeville sine 1999 and love working with him!

Chaplin Turbeville is a rare type of Southern Baptist, he actually believes in his religion and what it promotes; love, kindness and respect to others no matter what their religion. The Foothill's inmates are very lucky to have him there. We helped create the NC DOC religious guidelines for Wicca and we trained all the chaplains of NC DOC on how to meet the needs of the Wiccan inmates. Chaplain Turbeville and Foothills Correctional Institute have also been a part of the documentary currently being made on pagan prison ministry.

I hope that each of you take a moment and think about a way you can make a positive change within our society, your mundane community as well as the pagan community by getting involved in pagan prison ministry. You can become a pen pal and help an inmate learn their path to enlightenment. If you feel up to it, you could become a volunteer at a local facility and there is a need in every department of corrections; city, county, state and federal. You could donate books or religious items to a facility, you can do many things that will make a difference for an inmate.

As always I feel the need to reinforce the idea that if we truly want to make a positive change within our world, we have to start where the problems are at and where we can actively make a difference. For some it may be the environment, but to even save the environment we must educate and to help create a society that promotes a healthy individual and the people in prison are searching for something to help them create the individual that they know they can be, but they have to become emotionally and spiritually healthy to be a productive person within society. Many of these offenders are there for minor drug offenses and others are there for crimes unmentionable, but everyone has the ability to change if they truly desire it and have the tools to create self transformation. Don't be afraid to give someone the opportunity that you never had or maybe never needed, but be willing to practice what we all state is our law; in perfect love and trust do we meet.