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Ministry update: What is a community?
Have you ever stopped to think of the make-up of your community?
A community is made up of families, friends, workplaces, churches, sports
activities, and many more things.
Pitches Detention Center
But we often forget that prisoners in our society are part of our community
too. They are the undesirables and yet they are connected to our communities
by their families and friends. When they are released from the jail system
they come and live in our communities.
A prisoner and the Bible
During this past month there have been outbreaks of racial riots in the Los
Angeles County jail system. I and 44 other volunteer clergy were personally
asked by Sheriff Lee Baca to help squelch the rioting by talking with the
inmates.
It was an eye-opening experience for me. As we rode in the Sheriff’s inmate
bus to the Pitches prison, I was struck by the thought that many of the men
we were going to talk with had experienced this ride with a different view
then mine. Theirs was a hopeless view of the future.
As I talked with the inmates and looked into their eyes, God gave me an
unconditional love for these men. I was reminded of the passage of the words
of Jesus. Matthew 25:3-46 The sheep and the goats.
Listen to the prisoners
Verse 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in
prison, and you came to Me.'
Verse 40 "The King will answer and say to them, `Truly I say to you, to the
extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of
them, you did it to Me.'
Clergy at work
As we minister in this urban setting of Los Angeles, we are committed just
like you to advance the Gospel of Jesus and His kingdom into the nations
through spiritual generations of laborers living and discipling among the
lost.
Thank you for your prayers and financial support. Together we can make a
difference with Christ to fulfill our calling in this ministry.
In Christ,
Alex Mata
P.S. Check out my ministry video featuring the sheriff
clergy which includes an interview I gave both in English and Spanish.
Here is a recent article that explains the
situation:
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- The entire jail system in the Los Angeles
area was on lockdown Saturday night after a riot that left one man dead and
46 others injured at a prison, local police said.
The riot began at 3:20 p.m. in a maximum security facility at Wayside Prison
in Castaic, about 60 kilometers north of Los Angeles, according to a
statement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The statement said that at least 1,800 to 2,000 inmates housed at the
facility fought and failed to immediately respond to orders to disperse, and
as a result one inmate died, 20 had serious injuries and 26 were treated for
minor injuries.
"The preliminary investigation revealed that inmates separated along racial
lines, blacks and Hispanics, and fought," the statement said.
The department reported that the most violent fighting involved about 200
inmates, and that the most serious injuries were apparently caused when bunk
beds and other objects were tossed from the second-floor tier down onto the
brawlers below.
The violence was rumored to be in retaliation for an assault that occurred
in the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, according to the
department.
The riot, which lasted approximately one hour, was quelled when authorities
deployed less than lethal weapons, including tear gas and sting balls, the
statement said.
Los Angles County Sheriff Lee Baca said at a news conference outside the
prison that housing a large number of African-American inmates with an even
larger number of Latinos created conditions for such riots.
All other jail facilities in the Los Angeles County were being monitored and
placed on alert, the department reported.
Some 100 inmates were injured a decade ago in another riot at the Wayside
Prison that was sparked by tensions between black and Hispanic inmates, a
local television channel said.
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