We were scheduled to start our eight-session series at the women’s prison last Friday. Everything was ready to go and we were there almost on time, but for the second time this summer the Assistant Chaplain forgot and was late. This time we were so late getting down to the chapel that women had come and were long gone to other activities. The Assistant Chaplain tried to round them up again, but only two showed up. So we decided to cancel and start our Fall series in two weeks. Hopefully we haven’t lost the enthusiasm of the women. Time will tell.

We did have a back-up plan, devised in July when we thought we might not have class (but did). We went out for breakfast!

This Fall we will engage the stories from the first chapter of Mark at both the Montgomery County Jail and the Dayton Correctional Institution. The theme of the series is “Telling the Good News: Stories of Mark 1.” This will be the fifth year we have sown seeds of grace among incarcerated women through this series of stories.

Mark begins his gospel by telling its title: “The Beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The second time we went through this series I told the women about the “ichthus” sign which comes from Mark’s title and was used by early followers of Jesus as a secret symbol. The women readily recognized it as commonly seen on car bumpers, sometimes with a Darwinian twist.

The next year I gave more detail about the ichthus sign. The women were fascinated, so I developed an “About the Story” handout, which we read aloud, Greek and all:

Ichthus (ik-thoos) is the Greek word meaning “fish.” It was used by early followers of Jesus as a secret symbol because in Greek, each letter corresponds to a word from the title of Mark’s Gospel: “…Jesus Christ the Son of God.” The Greek spelling for ichthus is:  These are the first letters of the Greek words Iesous (Iota), Christos (Chi), Theou (Theta), Uios (Upsilon), and Sotor (Sigma). In English, the five Greek words are “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.”

Today you see the ichthus symbol on car bumpers, sometimes with a Darwinian twist (feet). These are the first letters of the Greek words Iesous (Iota), Christos (Chi), Theou (Theta), Uios (Upsilon), and Sotor (Sigma). In English, the five Geek words are “Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior.”

I have learned not to underestimate the quest for biblical knowledge inside the jail and prison. And that’s good news, too.

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19b)

Occasionally I ask the women attending Sacred Stories (our Circle of the Word at the county jail) to give feedback about the story we have learned. I also ask them to indicate on the form whether or not they grant their permission for me to share their feedback.

On the last Wednesday in March our story was from John 20:19-23. I usually call this story “Behind Locked Doors” because of the strong connection between the disciples being in a locked room and our circle happening in a locked room.

Other times I call it “Peace Be With You” to remind us that just as Jesus appeared to the disciples in their state of distress and offered them peace, so the Holy Spirit is present with us offering peace in the midst of whatever turmoil we experience.

Here are responses two women wrote to… Something the story says to me:

• That forgiveness is given to those that forgive. I believe that so many people want forgiveness and make judgments, however they’re not willing to forgive others.
• Let the Lord breathe the Holy Spirit into you and rejoice and receive it willingly.

Here is a sampling of responses to… What I would tell others about this class:

• It’s an experience of who Jesus Christ is and some of the stories in the Bible
• This is a very beautiful class that helps teach us more about the word of God
• It’s very nice and easy flowing. I like how it makes it simpler to understand
• It’s a good class. It teaches a lot about God. You take it step by step and I like that you break it down to understand.
• It opens your mind and heart to Jesus

There were other survey responses that highlighted the value of an approach to biblical knowledge that facilitated understanding. There was clearly a desire to understand the scriptures. There seems to be a relationship between “breaking down the stories” into parts and the perceived ability to understand.

There were also expressions of appreciation for those of us who come to lead the Circle: “I truly appreciate you coming and spending time with us today.”

One woman articulated her appreciation for the love and care that is shown them: “The love she shows and how she reminds me, myself, to keep moving, be positive, God is with us always!”

And then there was the woman who wrote in response to “Here is what I would tell others about Sacred Stories Circle: “Nothing but good.”

Feedback like this helps us grow our own faith and continue in ministry with people who are incarcerated.

[Note: The quotes in this post are exact except for a few changes to spelling and punctuation.]

Last fall I read that, while the incarceration rate for men has stabilized in recent years, women’s incarceration has skyrocketed. I also read about the impact on children when mothers are incarcerated—how it is much more drastic than with fathers (though both are devastating).

Put together those facts with the fact that my church has a team of women doing a Circle of the Word with women in the jail, and that we have a women’s prison right here in Dayton, suddenly it seemed like a no-brainer to explore starting a Circle there, at least that’s the message I heard when I asked God for guidance. So come January of this year I did.

At first it seemed like it might not work out for lack of time and space in DCI to start another program. Plus, I got the impression the chaplain wasn’t so sure about what I was proposing. I understand the hesitancy. It’s her job to vet programs. Especially religious programs.

From what I’ve heard from other chaplains, church people coming into jails and prisons aren’t necessarily bringing something positive for the inmates. Sometimes they just inflict more punishment on folk who are already experiencing punishment. As the chaplain at our county jail said,

“A lot of times the leaders of a Bible study or worship service can come off as self righteous or judgmental and beat them over the head about their decision-making. You don’t have to tell an inmate that they’re wrong. They know they’re wrong, they’re in jail.”

But she did give me a green light. She also gave me a different perspective on team development, which I took to God in prayer. Instead of looking for team members from other churches in the District, I decided to see if I could recruit them from Grace United Methodist Church, where people are familiar with biblical storytelling and accepting of the notion of relating to people behind bars.

Grace is also my primary base of ministry so the task of teamwork would be easier. Since I’m going on faith that I can manage this new program when I already am struggling to keep up with everything, that was an important piece of the discernment.

I asked our pastor and a lay leader for recommendations. The top two on our list both said yes. Praise God! That was a good sign.

So by February the team was in place, and by March we had a time slot. At the chaplain’s request I created a flyer that could be posted around the DCI campus (pictured above). We filled out all the paperwork for applying to volunteer as required by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Then we waited. I had sent mine in first and its approval came within a couple of weeks. It was a couple of months before Elaine and Hope got theirs. Patience is one of the things you have to learn when ministering in a prison context, though I can’t say I succeeded. I have since learned that volunteer approval can take much longer. Big bureaucracy, understaffed.

We decided on a start date of June 9. In late May I called to see how many women had signed up to come, if any. The chaplain said twenty. Holy Cow! I’ve never done a circle with more than sixteen, and twelve is the max I put on it in the jail. Again, the chaplain gave me a new perspective, and I had to re-think things. I decided to cap it at twenty-four and have two Circles.

Our first series is called “Love Your Enemies.” The series starts with a teaching story from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, then continues with a story from each of the other three Gospels about Jesus practicing what he preaches: doing acts of love to people from enemy groups.

It’s the same series as we’re doing in the jail, but there we go every week for nine weeks so we spend two or three weeks on each story. In the prison we go every other week so we’ll do a different story each time. The stories we’re doing from Mark, Luke, and John are The Syro-Phoenecian Woman, The Centurion’s Slave, and The Samaritan Woman.

The week before our start date the chaplain said that twenty-four had signed up, and she had a waiting list. Holy COW! I’ll write about what happened another time.

Elaine, Hope, and I led the first Circle of the Word (COW) at the Dayton Correctional Institution (DCI) a week ago Friday. This week’s posts describe how that came about and a little bit about what happened. Last Wednesday I was telling my weekly coffee klatch friends about it and afterwards Pat said, “You should write another book.” She suggested I keep a journal about the experience.

I’m not sure that another book is in my future, but I thought her journaling suggestion was a good one. And I do have this blog. Confidentiality is essential, and would prevent the inclusion of personal details from Circle sessions, but probably there is much I could reflect on here without breaking the Circle promise to maintain confidentiality.

The launch of a Circle of the Word at DCI fulfilled a possibility I’ve envisioned for three years. I’ve been thinking about returning to a men’s prison because it was such a positive experience for all concerned back in 2014. That’s when I developed the COW model at a state men’s prison in southeast Ohio.

For various reasons the return of Circle of the Word to a prison context didn’t materialize. Until now. Apparently the Spirit had ideas other than mine about where the Circle would be and what it would look like. This week I’ll post the story of how it happened that we led a Circle here in Dayton with women incarcerated at a state prison. And I’ll write a bit about how it went last Friday, our first time together.

For sure I will benefit from recording a bit of what happens, but I’m hoping that writing it down will help others imagine themselves taking the initiative to bring Circle of the Word to a prison or jail in their community. It could also be an occasion to consider whether the Holy Spirit might be calling you to this work as well. Or maybe you’ll just enjoy sharing my adventure. That would be fine.

On May 31 our circle at the jail engaged the story of “The Centurion’s Slave” (Luke 7:1-10). I took a photo of our circle setup, I think because all the “Word I Heard” cards had been arranged so neatly. This is a photo of the tablecloth we use to create the circle. It doesn’t look so wrinkly in real life! The talking piece that day was the Dachshund beanbag doll. The story has that important reference to dogs, which actually was more complex than I thought until I did some research on the story. We did a connection round about our feelings on dogs. The brown envelope holds our prayer cards.

One of the reasons I enjoy teaching stories in jail is because we almost always experience new perspectives on them. Sometimes the tellings are particularly creative as women interpret the stories in ways that make sense to them.

They may use an image that is a “dynamic equivalent” to the biblical image—different words reflecting our contemporary context, but preserving the meaning of the original context. Learning about how people who first heard the story would have understood it is a dimension of what we do in Circle of the Word.

The theme this May-June is “Love Your Enemies.” We are learning stories from all four Gospels, starting with Jesus teaching his disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-48). After that we will engage three stories about Jesus practicing what he preaches, where he demonstrates love for his enemies.

At the end of the Circle when the women learned Jesus’ teaching from Matthew, I encouraged them to continue working on it as homework. The second week they were invited to tell it to the group. It was a week that Roberta Longfellow, Sharlyn Radcliffe, and Ellen Patton led the class. They told me about one particular telling that included a poignant example of using a dynamic equivalent.

In the third part of the Matthew teaching-story Jesus says, “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?” One woman told this part of the story this way:

If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Don’t even the drug dealers do the same?

What a powerful connection this woman made with Jesus’ teaching. Her telling reflected understanding of the story in its original context and meaningful interpretation of it now.

I visited a woman in jail who had been on trial for a serious crime. She had just accepted a plea bargain. She’d been in jail since last summer and attending my biblical storytelling “Circle of the Word” since December, including seven weeks of stories from Jesus’ passion and death. She had missed class when we engaged the resurrection story because of being on trial.

I knew she needed that resurrection story and asked her if she wanted to hear it. She said, “Oh yes” as her eyes filled with tears. So I told it to her. She listened with head bowed, eyes closed, like the words were washing over her. Then I talked through the story, adding some information about it as I had done in Circle with the “About the Story” handout.

This is a woman who grew up in the church and knows the stories well. But she needed a reminder of what God has done for her so she would know she was loved no matter what. Hearing the words of the story “live” from another person helped her to experience that love. For me it was also an experience of the power of the Gospel (“good story”) of Jesus to convey divine presence and love.

Evangelism happens whenever we tell another person about grace—God’s unconditional love for them. Sometimes a person has never heard about God’s unconditional love. Sometimes a person never heard that message, even if they have attended church. And all of us need regular reminders.

They Saw a Young Man Dressed in a White Robe

In the language of computer-speak, RAM stands for Random Access Memory. In Circle of the Word, that meaning is relevant because RAM has to do with memory, but the initials stand for the oldest pedagogical method known to man (and woman): Repeat-After-Me. In Circle of the Word, RAM is a step to getting the story into short-term memory.

I usually include the Repeat-After-Me activity somewhere up front when teaching a biblical story. But not with the stories of Jesus’ passion and death. It just doesn’t seem appropriate, I suppose because the exaggerated gestures and vocalizations often are a little on the silly side which almost always leads to laughter. The stories of Jesus’ passion and death are just too somber for that.

But this week we made it to the resurrection story (Mark 16:1-8) so after we did the Word I Heard activity I instructed everyone to stand up and put all their things down on their chairs. Next I told them what we were about to do–to go through the story again, this time with them repeating my words and my gestures.

Usually a few of the women will join me in telling the story, one line at a time, and follow my gestures, but this time almost all of them did. I could see out of the corner of my eye, the short woman on my left opting out of repeating my words, much less my motions. She watched somewhat in amazement I think, feeling perhaps a bit like the women in the story when they saw the young man in the tomb.

Because the others were energetically telling the story, following my lead with increasing gusto. We became one body, immersed in the story until we all sadly, but sympathetically proclaimed, “for they were afraid.” Smiles all around. “That was fun,” one woman exclaimed. Indeed it was. It was a joyful bonding experience, as communal participation in the resurrection ought to be. I would venture to say it was downright sacramental.

Last Wednesday we engaged the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and death, with the focus on his death. Each story is harder than the last. This storyboard captured the darkness along with key details in each episode.

Good questions were asked. One woman remembered that Jesus told one of those crucified with him that he would be in paradise with him. I explained how the four Gospels had four tellings of the story, each somewhat different. She asked, “Which one is true?” I said they all were. How would you answer?