PRO Mentors
  • Newsletters
  • PRO Mentors
October 18, 2013

Dear Friends,

I’ve been meeting with Chris at East Mesa Reentry Facility  (EMRF) for several months now.  Chris is 23, and his most recent arrest was  this past January.  When he was put in jail this time, he began reading the  Bible for the first time.  Every time we would meet, he would bring new  questions about what he was reading.  About two months ago, Chris was  charged with more crimes, this time in Los Angeles County.  Nothing changed right away, primarily because there was a typo in the system regarding the  amount of his bail.  When the typo was corrected, however, San Diego County  officials had to move Chris to another, more secure facility.  I visited  him once downtown at the Central Jail, and then three times at the mysteriously  named “Facility 8”.

Two weeks ago, at Facility 8, he told me of a Bible study  he attended.  The topic was The Good Samaritan, and Chris told me that, for  the first time, he had begun to see himself as someone to give help, rather than  someone to be helped.  This was a major breakthrough for him.  The  unknowns of facing new charges in another county had been weighing on Chris  quite heavily. He was scheduled to be released from San Diego’s custody last  Friday (October 22), but he was “on hold”, waiting for LA to pick him up.   But he was still at Facility 8 when I visited him this past Saturday, even  though the county had prepped him for release the day before and left him in a  holding cell for most of the day.

This past Tuesday, as I leaving EMRF after  meeting with another inmate, a bus with “Sheriff Los Angeles County” on its side  was pulling out from Donovan State Prison, which is just down the road.  I  thought, “O my goodness—Chris is on that bus!”  But when I got home, the  Sheriff’s web site said he was back downtown at the Central Jail.  When I  checked later that night, he was no longer in San Diego custody.  My first  reaction was of gladness—that this next phase of Chris’s life was finally  underway.  And then I felt a sense of loss, because I didn’t know when I  would see Chris again.  Chris will eventually return to San Diego for
substance abuse treatment and supervision, and I can write to him (or even visit
him) in the LA jail, but we don’t know if that will be two weeks, two months, or
two years.

Last Thursday, I was able to meet one-on-one with Chris at the  Miramar Brig.  This Chris is 31, and has yet to be court-martialed.   The best deal he’s been offered so far is five years, which doesn’t make him very happy.  Chris has been coming to Bible study on Thursday nights since  he came to the brig—about a month now.  He always has questions after the  study, so I arranged to meet individually with him.  Chris never knew his  father, and his mother died when he was 18, just before he joined the  Army.  In the hour we had together, Chris started with having lots of  questions about why God might do this or why God hasn’t done that.  By the  end of the hour, he seemed to understand what God had done for him in Christ and what that meant for him and his life.  That he did understand was more  or less confirmed by his comments in our regular Thursday night Bible study in  Galatians.

Most Tuesdays, I meet with yet another Chris.  This Chris is  34, and six months into five years of parole after four years in a California  State prison.  Chris and I are also working our way through Galatians, but  very slowly.  Chris comes from a close family, and all of them are  Christians.  The only job Chris has been able to find is spinning a sign  for Cricket Wireless (a job somewhat unique to Southern California).  Chris  knows that God loves him—and can even make a list of very bold things that God  thinks of him.  But not finding a good job—and being prevented from going  to school because of his felony—makes Chris thinks that no one beyond God, his  family, and a few people at church cares at all about him.  Unlike God,  society will not cast our sins from us as far as the East is from the
West.

It is hard to believe that 2013 is nearing its end.  Please  prayerfully consider a donation to this ministry—either an end-of-the-year  donation, or a regular contribution for 2014.  Your faithfulness in prayer  and giving is a big encouragement to me, and keeps me available to meet with men  like Chris (and Chris, and Chris, too).


Sincerely in Christ,
Ben Conarroe


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Newsletters
  • PRO Mentors