What Does a Prison Have to Do with Mother’s Day?
Woodmen helped the guys in Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility celebrate the mothers in their lives.
“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” Hebrews 13:3
For many of us, holidays are something to look forward to. Usually spent with friends and family, they allow for time spent in community. But for those in prison, holidays lead to feeling even more disconnected from their loved ones in the outside world.
Disconnection rings especially loud on holidays like Mother’s Day for inmates within state prisons - incredibly so for inmates at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility. Most inmates who end up there either have a critical illness or have undergone surgery and need to stay in the affirmatory. Unable to return to their home prison for extended amounts of time, it’s common for these individuals to feel even more disconnected. Being temporarily removed from the regular programs that often create a landscape of experiences to look forward to, they are not only disconnected from the outside world but from their usual routines.
As Chaplain Paul Nielsen, a Woodmen Heights attender, makes his rounds in this 151-year-old prison infirmary located on the west end of Canon City Colorado, he encounters one of the guys he baptized last fall in Woodmen’s Ark Valley Campus. The man explained to Paul that he was feeling depressed at the thought of being stuck in the infirmary for several weeks.
Much of Paul’s time at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility is spent visiting with guys from various prisons, encouraging them, and supplying them with resources to use during their stay. During his day-to-day as Chaplain, Paul observes that a primary concern for the guys in prison is connection to their family members. In his faithful pursuit to minister to the guys at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, Paul Nielsen seeks to cultivate communities where relationships can flourish both inside and outside the prison walls.
With Mother’s Day on the horizon, Paul knew that many of the guys had mothers in their lives they wouldn’t be able to celebrate with. That’s when he had the idea to team up with the people of Woodmen.
A box labeled “Territorial Mother’s Day Cards”, was placed at Woodmen’s Heights Campus, and a call was sent out on social media and during the service for people to donate Mother Day cards for the inmates to give to the moms in their lives. A total of 306 Mother’s Day cards were collected and given out at Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility to ensure every inmate desiring to send a card for this Mother’s Day would be able to do so.
“The guys were ecstatic,” Paul shared.
The longing for connection is not foreign to any of us. Yet, what seems to connect us all is the experience of God’s love poured out and extended as an offering, even more in our moments of need. Woodmen invites you to join in the work God is doing in our church, neighborhoods, and city in making that connection. Even a seemingly small effort can have a lasting impact.
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