California Sunshine
05-14-2005, 02:25 PM
http://www.iolaregister.com/burgers.html
By BOB JOHNSON
Register City Editor
"Some of them are here for the burgers. Some of them are here for the Bible. Doesn't matter as long as they get something out of it."
That was Dave Stoffer's observation during a Freedom Ministries visit to the Topeka Correctional Facility, where all female inmates in Kansas are housed.
Stoffer grilled hamburgers and was one of 30 or so volunteers who spent Tuesday evening feeding the inmates' bodily and spiritual needs.
AMONG THE 400 inmates attending was a 29-year-old Chanute woman, mother of five girls who is serving time for a drug conviction. Also in the chow line were a Wichitan, in her 10th year of incarceration, who has embraced religion with both arms, and her roommate, a transplanted Californian with horns tattooed on either side of her forehead. They too are in prison because of drugs.
The three inmates have more in common than the nature of their crimes. They, and many others in the Topeka prison, have been touched by the message that Tom Bevard brings during Freedom Ministries evangelism meetings.
"The ministry has given me strength and I'm a better person today" because of her exposure to Christian teachings and principles, Carol Jackson, who admits only to being "in my 40s," said an hour before Bevard and his volunteers began unfolding their religious road show.
Jackson, from Wichita, was sentenced to 13.5 years for a second cocaine possession conviction. That came when sentences were more severe. Jackson figured today she would have received a third as many months.
"I was raised in the church but I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord until I got to prison," she said.
Jackson studies the Bible daily, takes theology courses by mail and is convinced that when she again is free she will "obey the laws of the country and the ultimate authority of God."
Freedom Ministries, she said, is an enormous blessing for inmates, at Topeka and throughout the Kansas penal system, because it "reaches so many who don't go to church," those who have had little or no exposure to the Bible and its teachings.
"The hamburgers get everyone to show up," she said. "And then, after they feed their bodies, Tom (Bevard) and the others lift up their souls with the word of God. Praise God for Freedom Ministries. It and the volunteers have fulfilled the Great Commission by spreading the word of God."
Christine Nichols grew up in Lodi, Calif., the town outside Stockton where Credence Clearwater Revival once spent a night and later sang about the experience. At age 35 she's a newcomer to the Christian faith, essentially all of her exposure having come since a drug conviction in Reno County early in 2004.
Nichols said her father was a rabid atheist who decorated the walls of their home with pictures of the devil. She left a life of prostitution and drug abuse on the West Coast, which several times put her in California prisons, to come to Kansas in 2002 to care for her ailing mother.
Her mother died 16 months ago, about the same time that charges for sale of methamphetamine and marijuana put Nichols in the county jail. She was convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison.
While in the county jail, another female inmate converted Nichols.
"I was saved, but I didn't know anything about the Bible or religion," other than what she learned from the religious sessions in the Hutchinson jail.
That changed in a big way when she arrived in Topeka and was assigned Jackson's roommate, a decision that didn't please Jackson at first blush.
"She sat down on the edge of her bed and started crying when they brought me into her room," Nichols said.
The pair of devil horns tattooed to either side of Nichols' forehead -- a concession to younger and crazier times -- probably had something to do with Jackson's reaction. The two meshed before long, though, as Jackson took on the role of missionary, determined to give Nichols a firm foundation in the gospel.
"I believe God put me in that room," knowing that if anyone was going to nurture Nichols as a Christian and "strengthen my walk with God" it would be Jackson.
"We talk about the Bible all the time and watch religious programs on television," Nichols said.
With 10 months of her sentence served, Nichols has been to just one Freedom Ministries event previous to this spring, but, as with other inmates, she found the experience both instructive and inspirational.
"This stuff is new to me and I'm grateful for Freedom Ministries and the other opportunities I'm having to learn the word of God," she said. "I feel like I've gotten a second chance at life and Freedom Ministries is keeping me on fire for the Lord."
NAIVETÉ GOT Chasity Reeves in trouble with the law, but, she says, it was the best thing that ever happened to her.
Reeves, 29, was living with boyfriend Jason Sabine in Chanute a few years ago, raising five daughters and thinking they would marry. She also was slipping ever more into the grip of methamphetamine, without hardly even knowing it, Reeves said.
"It was fun" to get high and party, she said. "I really didn't realize the seriousness of it."
She learned quickly one day when police officers raided the house where she and Sabine lived. They were arrested and charged with manufacturing meth.
"I wasn't 'cooking,'" involved in manufacture of the drug, Reeves said, "but since it was in our house I was charged."
Now, two years into a six-year prison sentence, Reeves is eager for the day when she can "be an advocate against meth."
"I'm an example of how fast it can mess you up," she said. "I was a short-term user, but it still got me into a lot more trouble than I ever dreamed it could."
Tuesday evening she was eager for the Freedom Ministries program to start, so she could participate and demonstrate for others her enduring relationship with God.
"I've developed a strong walk with God," Reeves said, and is eager to tell anyone who will listen.
She gives much of the credit for her spiritual awakening and 180-degree turn in attitude to Freedom Ministries and Bevard.
"He (Bevard) lets us know how important we are as people," Reeves said. "I didn't know God before and I look forward so much to the Freedom Ministries' visits now. We get to worship the Lord under the sky He created.
"You can see the fire Tom has for the Lord and his great love for people."
Reeves said her time in prison had been a life-changing experience she needed to have, and that she found nothing negative in it.
As a minimum-risk inmate, Reeves is allowed to work a 40-hour-a-week job for a Topeka manufacturer. She also can see her daughters, ages 11, 10, 8, 5 and 4, most weekends. She's fortunate that her brood lives in Independence with her parents, not a difficult weekend drive away.
She spends some time on weekends with her children in Bible study and in frequent letters to Sabine -- they plan to marry when they're released from prison -- she writes about the importance of making God the central figure in their lives, now and in the future.
"We want to lead our kids down the right path," Reeves said. "God has given me a new outlook on life and shown me the things that need to be fixed.
"Things can only get better for me."
By BOB JOHNSON
Register City Editor
"Some of them are here for the burgers. Some of them are here for the Bible. Doesn't matter as long as they get something out of it."
That was Dave Stoffer's observation during a Freedom Ministries visit to the Topeka Correctional Facility, where all female inmates in Kansas are housed.
Stoffer grilled hamburgers and was one of 30 or so volunteers who spent Tuesday evening feeding the inmates' bodily and spiritual needs.
AMONG THE 400 inmates attending was a 29-year-old Chanute woman, mother of five girls who is serving time for a drug conviction. Also in the chow line were a Wichitan, in her 10th year of incarceration, who has embraced religion with both arms, and her roommate, a transplanted Californian with horns tattooed on either side of her forehead. They too are in prison because of drugs.
The three inmates have more in common than the nature of their crimes. They, and many others in the Topeka prison, have been touched by the message that Tom Bevard brings during Freedom Ministries evangelism meetings.
"The ministry has given me strength and I'm a better person today" because of her exposure to Christian teachings and principles, Carol Jackson, who admits only to being "in my 40s," said an hour before Bevard and his volunteers began unfolding their religious road show.
Jackson, from Wichita, was sentenced to 13.5 years for a second cocaine possession conviction. That came when sentences were more severe. Jackson figured today she would have received a third as many months.
"I was raised in the church but I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord until I got to prison," she said.
Jackson studies the Bible daily, takes theology courses by mail and is convinced that when she again is free she will "obey the laws of the country and the ultimate authority of God."
Freedom Ministries, she said, is an enormous blessing for inmates, at Topeka and throughout the Kansas penal system, because it "reaches so many who don't go to church," those who have had little or no exposure to the Bible and its teachings.
"The hamburgers get everyone to show up," she said. "And then, after they feed their bodies, Tom (Bevard) and the others lift up their souls with the word of God. Praise God for Freedom Ministries. It and the volunteers have fulfilled the Great Commission by spreading the word of God."
Christine Nichols grew up in Lodi, Calif., the town outside Stockton where Credence Clearwater Revival once spent a night and later sang about the experience. At age 35 she's a newcomer to the Christian faith, essentially all of her exposure having come since a drug conviction in Reno County early in 2004.
Nichols said her father was a rabid atheist who decorated the walls of their home with pictures of the devil. She left a life of prostitution and drug abuse on the West Coast, which several times put her in California prisons, to come to Kansas in 2002 to care for her ailing mother.
Her mother died 16 months ago, about the same time that charges for sale of methamphetamine and marijuana put Nichols in the county jail. She was convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison.
While in the county jail, another female inmate converted Nichols.
"I was saved, but I didn't know anything about the Bible or religion," other than what she learned from the religious sessions in the Hutchinson jail.
That changed in a big way when she arrived in Topeka and was assigned Jackson's roommate, a decision that didn't please Jackson at first blush.
"She sat down on the edge of her bed and started crying when they brought me into her room," Nichols said.
The pair of devil horns tattooed to either side of Nichols' forehead -- a concession to younger and crazier times -- probably had something to do with Jackson's reaction. The two meshed before long, though, as Jackson took on the role of missionary, determined to give Nichols a firm foundation in the gospel.
"I believe God put me in that room," knowing that if anyone was going to nurture Nichols as a Christian and "strengthen my walk with God" it would be Jackson.
"We talk about the Bible all the time and watch religious programs on television," Nichols said.
With 10 months of her sentence served, Nichols has been to just one Freedom Ministries event previous to this spring, but, as with other inmates, she found the experience both instructive and inspirational.
"This stuff is new to me and I'm grateful for Freedom Ministries and the other opportunities I'm having to learn the word of God," she said. "I feel like I've gotten a second chance at life and Freedom Ministries is keeping me on fire for the Lord."
NAIVETÉ GOT Chasity Reeves in trouble with the law, but, she says, it was the best thing that ever happened to her.
Reeves, 29, was living with boyfriend Jason Sabine in Chanute a few years ago, raising five daughters and thinking they would marry. She also was slipping ever more into the grip of methamphetamine, without hardly even knowing it, Reeves said.
"It was fun" to get high and party, she said. "I really didn't realize the seriousness of it."
She learned quickly one day when police officers raided the house where she and Sabine lived. They were arrested and charged with manufacturing meth.
"I wasn't 'cooking,'" involved in manufacture of the drug, Reeves said, "but since it was in our house I was charged."
Now, two years into a six-year prison sentence, Reeves is eager for the day when she can "be an advocate against meth."
"I'm an example of how fast it can mess you up," she said. "I was a short-term user, but it still got me into a lot more trouble than I ever dreamed it could."
Tuesday evening she was eager for the Freedom Ministries program to start, so she could participate and demonstrate for others her enduring relationship with God.
"I've developed a strong walk with God," Reeves said, and is eager to tell anyone who will listen.
She gives much of the credit for her spiritual awakening and 180-degree turn in attitude to Freedom Ministries and Bevard.
"He (Bevard) lets us know how important we are as people," Reeves said. "I didn't know God before and I look forward so much to the Freedom Ministries' visits now. We get to worship the Lord under the sky He created.
"You can see the fire Tom has for the Lord and his great love for people."
Reeves said her time in prison had been a life-changing experience she needed to have, and that she found nothing negative in it.
As a minimum-risk inmate, Reeves is allowed to work a 40-hour-a-week job for a Topeka manufacturer. She also can see her daughters, ages 11, 10, 8, 5 and 4, most weekends. She's fortunate that her brood lives in Independence with her parents, not a difficult weekend drive away.
She spends some time on weekends with her children in Bible study and in frequent letters to Sabine -- they plan to marry when they're released from prison -- she writes about the importance of making God the central figure in their lives, now and in the future.
"We want to lead our kids down the right path," Reeves said. "God has given me a new outlook on life and shown me the things that need to be fixed.
"Things can only get better for me."