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Hi again everyone!

I am FINALLY out of jail. It has been one HUMONGO experience. I now have a new passion for prison ministry. Let's just say I have a new awareness of the life inmates lead ... and the need there is to evangelize and comfort them.

It will take a long, long time to write about all the experiences. From my therapy with the wonderful Benedictine Sisters to being put in jail the VERY DAY I returned... I am thinking of writing a book. The upside of it all is that there was NO LATIN in jail. Not one word of Latin was uttered the entire time.

The next good news is that I am clear and free of any charges. I was blessed with the most wonderful womyn judge. When she found out my background is in IT, she asked me if I would be willing to do some community service instead of continued jail time. I jumped at the chance. She assigned me to set up the network for a wonderful family - planning center. The womyn there were so kind and loving, even if they were a little rude when I asked questions about what went on in some of the rooms I cabled. Some of the place I could go into any room at any time. But there were some rooms, in the back, that were off limits during business hours, even though I saw clients coming and going into those rooms with staff. When I cabled those rooms after hours, they were like Doctor’s clinic examining rooms… but there were no doctors on staff. That really confused me, but no one would answer my questions. I was also confused when some of the clients were young teen age girls ... why do they need family-planning? And some of the womyn were already pregnant ... what good does family planning do when you're already pregnant? And so often the womyn came out of those rooms in clear emotional distress. Why should family-planning make womyn cry? It was made very clear that speaking to the clients was off-limits, and the staff watched me like a hawk! I really wanted to console some of them, but couldn't say a word. WIERD. I reminded myself it was NOT a Christian-based ministry, so it makes sense they would be wary of me. Anyway, I’m glad that job was able to substitute for my remaining jail time.

Now, I can sign up for prison ministry. There is so much hunger among the inmates for someone from the outside to bring them consolation and love. I’ve promised some of the inmates I would do everything I can to bring them comfort. And in prison, little things bring a person comfort. The poor womyn have almost all their femininity taken away from them. They’re not allowed metal clips for their hair, makeup or jewelry. It’s hard to feel good about yourself when you aren’t allowed to make your external appearance special. So I’ve promised to do what I can to help them… I’m not sure how, yet, but I’ll figure something out!

It’s good to be back!