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What
is Prison Healing Works?
Prison Healing Works aims to assist people in
prison with rehabilitation and those coming out of prison
with re-integration into our communities.
It is founded on a
belief
that there is hope for everyone. Such hope is especially
needed in prisons where men and women often lie in limbo and
with little
hope of a better future.
Our desire is to set prisoners free from internal oppression by meeting their
spiritual, mental and emotional needs. Prisoners can be empowered to make
choices that will provide them with a better quality of life.
The project also seeks to support prison chaplains in their mission, and
work alongside other prison ministries. The ongoing direction of the project
is dependent on the guidance and support of prisoners, post-prisoners, prison
chaplains and the New Zealand Department of Corrections.
How can I help?
The Prison Healing Works Trust was incorporated
under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957 on May 12, 2004. You
can contribute to its ongoing support through prayer, buying
the
CD (all sales royalties will further the project - see CDs page), or make general donations into the account "Prison
Healing Works" at any Westpac Bank in New Zealand.
Future Developments
We intend this website to provide contacts, networks
and resources for prisoners who have been released, prison chaplains,
and the wider community to see what is happening, and see how
they can help. Initially website referrals will be available
for the Wellington region.
Prisoners and post-prisoners' needs can include:
- How to involve the Heavenly Father more in their lives;
- Guidance in problem areas, eg management of anger; communications
skills; parenting skills;
- Searching for cultural identity eg whakapapa;
- Furthering education;
- Everyday basics like food, clothing, furniture and/ or
accommodation.
This website is under development. Keep coming
back to it. More information will be uploaded as it comes to hand.
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How
did it develop?
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Prison Healing Works is the vision of Lower Hutt musician and
lay Catholic Trudy Stead, and represents the outcome of five years
volunteer prison ministry coupled with song-writing based around
that ministry.
Says Trudy: I became involved in prison ministry
in 1999 when an elderly woman approached me after hearing me
singing in the church music group one Sunday.
"How would you like to come up to Rimutaka Prison with me love, and do
some ministry work. I think that you might like it," said the woman, Maisie
Jackson.
I hesitated at first but then considered that these men could be my father,
brother, or my own son, and I accepted the challenge graciously.
Since then, I have worked in volunteer prison ministry in Rimutaka Prison,
Wellington Men's Prison, Arohata Women's Prison, and Hawkes Bay Regional
Prison, alongside prison chaplains, and through the International Catholic
Programme of Evangelisation.
I made the decision to use all of my God-given talents to further the teachings
of Jesus Christ. These include performing and writing musical compositions;
the ability to actively listen to my fellow men and women; the ability to
apply action to compassion; and the ability to articulate as an advocate
for and to empower those who are less fortunate than myself.
An important component of Prison Healing Works is the music ministry, both
directly with inmates, and now through a CD of music I have written over
the years working in prisons:
I wrote my first song, "The Herb", in 1997. It likens Marijuana
to a man or woman with fatal attraction and relates the pull of drugs and
drug-related crime: ". .. the lamb was recruited, morally slaughtered,
another link in the chain, the herb courted". It also offers hope: "Open
your eyes, the Saviour, you can find".
However, it was during my first year of prison ministry that I developed
a deeper relationship with our Heavenly Father and was able to respond positively
to inmates' spiritual and internal needs.
You can read about the huge support from many people over the years.
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