Fan the Fire

    Alpha and OCDC                             Ottawa, Ontario

There’s a Holy-Spirit fire burning at the 550-inmate Maximum Security Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) in Ottawa.

In 1998, the Anglican Church Army introduced Alpha into the facility. Since 2002, Dave Atkins, Prison Alpha Ministry Advisor, has been coordinating teams to go in every Saturday and share Christ with the inmates of the 180-bed Minimum Security Male unit. With Alpha teams of eight to ten people, the members and other volunteers alternate going in to offer the rotating fifteen-week program.

Studies provided by Alpha and fellow volunteer programs are offered in each of the maximum and minimum-security areas of the prison in both the men’s and women’s units, each led by different teams.

These dedicated people are helping to make a difference in the hearts, minds, and actions of the men and women who have fallen into a lifestyle that results in their needing to spend time in the facility. The

volunteers are sharing the light of the gospel and igniting the fire of God with its power to transform lives.

            The Minimum Security Alpha Male Course meetings start with general information followed by the inmates enthusiastically singing music led by the team, jokes, and a video teaching segment. Then, they break into smaller groups, each with an experienced leader, to discuss issues of deep concern to the inmate guests and to answer their questions. Bibles, study materials, and testimonies of former offenders, like Ernie Holland, of Hebron Ministries, are shared and discussed.

With the emphasis on non-judgmental love and caring, and personal accountability, the volunteers interact with the inmates on many levels. Besides the voluntary attendance at the meetings, the dedicated volunteers and ministry partners offer a welcome visit for some who never have any other visitors, a reliable and compassionate person to talk to and trust, and a source of teaching not otherwise available at the facility.

These include conflict resolution, anger management, fathering, relationship building and value-based training.

Additional services offered to the residents include: ex-offender aftercare, drug and alcohol treatment, community reintegration, reconciliation with loved ones, and help finding a place to live, work, and attend church when they are released.

“Restorative Justice” is another way volunteers are helping the inmates to resolve issues and change their lives for the better. This involves forgiveness, acceptance of wrongdoing, accountability for their own actions, reparation for the harm they’ve done, and healing for themselves and the victims they’ve acted against.

The Ottawa Chief of Police has spoken on two occasions in the meetings about Restorative Justice and has been at the door, shaking hands and greeting the men.

He shares how he grew up in an economically challenged area of Cape Breton with his mother and how so many of his boyhood friends are either dead or in jail today because of the destructive lifestyle they adopted due to their rough upbringing. He tells the inmates that it was only because of the positive influence of his mother, coupled with an RCMP officer who took him under his wing to mentor and help him, that he was able to escape the same fate himself.

 In a place where the conditions of uncertainty, overcrowding, and despair are the over-riding keynotes, inmates participate in the program out of a whole spectrum of reasons, from curiosity to expressing that they need the program as a lifeline for their very existence. Those inmates in the most dire straits are the very ones who show the most intense interest. Survival is often the only focus of the day and the light offered by the visits, the opportunity to receive love, forgiveness, and a brand new way of thinking and living is an offer that many inmates are taking God up on.

 When the twenty, or so, Minimum Security Male Alpha participants return to their dorms, they always do so with plenty of literature, hope, and challenging thoughts to share with their roommates. In this way, up to 180 men (in six dorms of thirty beds) are hearing about Christ and his power to change lives every week. The flame of Christ is spreading and fanning out in an ever-widening circle.

One young fellow told them the story of how he had read a testimony book brought back to his dorm by a peer and how he felt he just had to ask Jesus into his heart afterwards. The only place he could think of to find privacy was in the empty shower room, so he went into a stall, knelt down, and prayed “the sinner’s prayer,” written in the book. He said, “The pain left me.”

Another inmate, who is in the Detention Center on an Immigration Order, holds a Bible study in his dorm every day, which twelve of the twenty-five men staying in his dorm attend.

One older fellow was so bitter and angry but just a short time after receiving Christ he became peaceful and calm. (His testimony appears at the end of this article.)

The residents are usually very transient because they are awaiting bail, hearings, sentencing, appeals, or transfers to long-term facilities. Because many of the residents are unable to attend more than one or two sessions, the volunteers try to give a salvation message every week. They also urge the participants to continue with the Alpha program at one of the forty-four other prisons that offer the program or at one of the twenty-five hundred different locations across Canada that run the program through a church when they’re released. In this way, the flames are being spread throughout the country.

Over 1,500 inmates have participated in the Alpha program since its introduction. Since June of 2007, when the first big breakthrough for God occurred and the first inmates requested baptism, 101 inmates have been baptized in the large, wheeled laundry carts in use at the prison. That is not accounting for the many others who have made decisions for Christ but have not had the opportunity to be baptized as well.

 “Yes, my prison is in revival!” says Rev. Carl Wake, the Coordinating Chaplain at the facility.

Dave Atkins was also excited to share all that God is doing in the lives of these people that he has such a heart for.

With an average of thirty to forty property crimes committed by each person with drug addictions before they are caught and returned to the facility, it is estimated that 95% of property crimes are done by 5% of the prison population.

With such a large response to the life-changing power of God in their lives, property crime in the Ottawa area has dropped 6%-7% in the last two years. There has been no other obvious factor that would be able to explain this figure, as nothing else discernable has changed, except for the incredible increase in the number of released offenders who no longer follow a path of stealing and dealing to support their previously destructive lifestyle.

Dave Atkins writes, “The combination of Alpha and other volunteer prison ministries on the ‘inside,’ together with MAP and other aftercare ministries on the ‘outside,’ seem to be one way God is starting to reverse the tragic 60% to 80% recividism rate (rate of offenders that will return to prison on same charges within a year).”

 At present, many ministries work together to reduce this high percentage by supporting and helping the ex-offenders cope upon their release.

 Together, this cooperation has resulted in an approximate 80% success rate at keeping these newborn-Christian ex-offenders from returning to a life of crime and prison.

 As a result, these orange flickers of God’s fire and love, lit by the Holy Spirit and his many helpers, are igniting this part of the country and are impacting and changing a nation for Christ.

If you would like to know more about how you can be involved in the highly rewarding area of Prison Ministry, please feel free to contact David Atkins, Alpha Prison Advisor for Ottawa at em738@ncf.ca, or his fellow Prison Advisor, Tony Copple at tonyc@ncf.ca.

The condensed testimony that follows was given by a man in his fifties to the Alpha volunteers and his fellow prisoners on the last day of his Alpha program before his transfer to a long-term facility.

By AJ K (December 19, 2009)

I would like you all to know that you (Alpha volunteers) sure made me feel human and loved and you all have been a very vital part of my new life.

The words I share are also about hope, contentment, and more importantly, about feeling free like I have never imagined or ever experienced. My whole and entire life I felt unloved, unwanted, and empty. I felt I never had a purpose, meaning, or any faith. As far as I can remember, I was always in trouble. I lied, cheated, and was so full of denial. I was given chances and I blew them all. I couldn’t tell a lie from the truth.

 At about thirteen or fourteen, I was thrown out of the house because I got into so much trouble. I just felt and believed the world owed me a living. Reform school, psychiatric wards, and incarceration were quite common for me. No one knew what to do with me. I was so self-centred, selfish, stubborn, and full of self-pity. Yes, I was physically, sexually, and mentally abused.

I must say, there were those who did try to reach out and love me, all to no avail. I firmly believed God was out to punish me. In my many periods of incarceration, I felt I came to a dead end. I was so insecure, lonely, afraid, and felt like a total failure. Many times I just wanted to die, but I never had what it took to end it.

Then, to my surprise, an immense thought occurred to me. I realized I had fallen far enough. I wanted to lift myself up but I didn’t know how, and knowing I didn’t have the courage to end it, why not sincerely ask God for help? I had nowhere left to turn. I was totally broken in all areas–mentally, spiritually, and emotionally bankrupt.

I started with daily devotional readings. Somehow, I began to realize and see it was me who had failed and not God. God was there all the time carrying me through every trial and tribulation simply waiting for me to surrender.

I simply can’t begin to tell you what I feel like inside. I know some of you may never believe or understand what a relationship with God, through his son, Jesus, has done for me, but I can’t help wondering where I have been all this time. What took me so long? I owe God everything!

I feel so free and content, like never before!

For me, where I have been is no longer as important as where I am going. For those who may feel lost, open your heart and let God in. For those who have not yet surrendered to God, give God a chance. You won’t be sorry. My prayers will surely be with you all. I mean it!

Again, thank you to everyone on the Alpha team. You do make a difference!

         In closing, I sincerely thank you, as this is my last day at Alpha (at OCDC). I have made an agreement for a four-year sentence. I would very much like to thank you for being there for me and my fellow inmates.

If we, who are in prison, feel like we are walking through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, our despair need not conquer us. When we trust in God, our lives can become joyful despite our circumstances. God is all-powerful. He will comfort and care for us.