Gung Hei Fat Choi Fellow Prisoners
Yesterday we celebrated Chinese New Year by eating and eating and eating just a little more…then when we thought that the food was done coming more came…and more….and more…..and…
The celebration meal began at 12:00 PM and was over at 3:00 PM. Did you notice that that is 3 hours of eating… 3 full hours of eating!
Along with this big celebration is conversation and information exchange…and stories and laughter and discussion… 3 hours filled with words and thinking.
Alida and I sat with Doug and Terry. There were two distinct worlds interacting at this Chinese New Year Celebration at our table. The stories flowed freely. We all opened up and were real with each other. And we laughed as if we were old friends…yet had just met.
To help you catch the full impact of the setting, we were in a meeting room at Warkworth Correctional Institute, Warkworth, Ontario. It is a Correctional Service of Canada prison that is one of the biggest in Canada.
The group we are celebrating with has a few Chinese people in it and whole bunch of guys that are interested in all things Oriental. The Oriental group is not as large as it has been in years past so this grouping joined those interested in and those practising the Buddhist and Taoism faiths. The room filled with not only laughter but also aromatic incense.
It may seem like an unusual place for a Christian Minister to be. I put aside by Christian Minister outfit and posture – and entered as a friend and volunteer at the meeting yesterday.
We had left Peterborough at 9:45 AM and arrived home at 5:00 PM. Alida looked at me and summed it up for the both of us…”That was a wonderful day!” Together we had celebrated the Chinese New Year with friends and had met many new friends on top of it all.
Some of the men will come out of Prison this year… they are frightened and needed to talk. They are unsure of what they face up ahead in life’s road. Others are looking a Parole Hearings and the realities that they may not get out. Others are frustrated by the ways that they have been treated by the system and need some one to talk to. Still other may never get out of Prison and just need some one to listen.
All of that happened yesterday in 3 hours of eating and mixing with my friends.
While I understand the reason for our correctional system and concept that we have grown to use..I am concerned about some major areas. That concern is the lack of knowledge that the citizens of Canada have and the many myths that have been kept alive about these men inside. I admit that I have concerns about other areas too but these are major ones that are in my community.
One thing that might help you as an outsider of the prison system in a very large way. Are you ready for this statement? These men are ordinary people just like you and me. They are human beings. If they had a change of clothing and were sitting in a restaurant with you on Saturday, you would not see any difference in them at all. They are like you and me. They are normal in everyway.
They are different in that they have a secret that you don’t know about. Some time the secret is pretty big and they don’t even want guys inside of prison to know about it. And NOT ONE is proud of what that secret is all about – NOT ONE.
But then if you and I met – we both have secrets too – don’t we? And I will bet my bottom dollar – we will never tell each other about all of our secrets either – because we are not proud of what we have done either.
Hey – that does make them just like us.
I can tell you one secret though. Yesterday a lot of men shared this secret with me. If there had not been Drugs and Alcohol mixed into many of their lives – there would not have been any secrets today. Many committed their crime when they were loaded or addicted.
Yesterday, my friends invited my wife and I to their banquet celebration. They each paid $16 for the meal. Their team of cooks and leaders ordered the food through local businesses in surrounding communities – paid real and good money out of their own pockets to have this celebration together. Then they invited people like us to share their happiness with them.
Correctional Service Canada didn’t pay for this day – they did.
One more thing you should know. The men are paid a daily amount for working at jobs throughout the prison. Their low salary is $5+ a day. The meal cost them about three days pay…and they paid their own way plus our way and for some other volunteers like us.
Yesterday I said “Gung Hei Fat Choi” to many of the men in my greetings. Today I say – I am delighted to be one of their friends.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
The celebration meal began at 12:00 PM and was over at 3:00 PM. Did you notice that that is 3 hours of eating… 3 full hours of eating!
Along with this big celebration is conversation and information exchange…and stories and laughter and discussion… 3 hours filled with words and thinking.
Alida and I sat with Doug and Terry. There were two distinct worlds interacting at this Chinese New Year Celebration at our table. The stories flowed freely. We all opened up and were real with each other. And we laughed as if we were old friends…yet had just met.
To help you catch the full impact of the setting, we were in a meeting room at Warkworth Correctional Institute, Warkworth, Ontario. It is a Correctional Service of Canada prison that is one of the biggest in Canada.The group we are celebrating with has a few Chinese people in it and whole bunch of guys that are interested in all things Oriental. The Oriental group is not as large as it has been in years past so this grouping joined those interested in and those practising the Buddhist and Taoism faiths. The room filled with not only laughter but also aromatic incense.
It may seem like an unusual place for a Christian Minister to be. I put aside by Christian Minister outfit and posture – and entered as a friend and volunteer at the meeting yesterday.
We had left Peterborough at 9:45 AM and arrived home at 5:00 PM. Alida looked at me and summed it up for the both of us…”That was a wonderful day!” Together we had celebrated the Chinese New Year with friends and had met many new friends on top of it all.
Some of the men will come out of Prison this year… they are frightened and needed to talk. They are unsure of what they face up ahead in life’s road. Others are looking a Parole Hearings and the realities that they may not get out. Others are frustrated by the ways that they have been treated by the system and need some one to talk to. Still other may never get out of Prison and just need some one to listen.
All of that happened yesterday in 3 hours of eating and mixing with my friends.
While I understand the reason for our correctional system and concept that we have grown to use..I am concerned about some major areas. That concern is the lack of knowledge that the citizens of Canada have and the many myths that have been kept alive about these men inside. I admit that I have concerns about other areas too but these are major ones that are in my community.
One thing that might help you as an outsider of the prison system in a very large way. Are you ready for this statement? These men are ordinary people just like you and me. They are human beings. If they had a change of clothing and were sitting in a restaurant with you on Saturday, you would not see any difference in them at all. They are like you and me. They are normal in everyway.They are different in that they have a secret that you don’t know about. Some time the secret is pretty big and they don’t even want guys inside of prison to know about it. And NOT ONE is proud of what that secret is all about – NOT ONE.
But then if you and I met – we both have secrets too – don’t we? And I will bet my bottom dollar – we will never tell each other about all of our secrets either – because we are not proud of what we have done either.
Hey – that does make them just like us.
I can tell you one secret though. Yesterday a lot of men shared this secret with me. If there had not been Drugs and Alcohol mixed into many of their lives – there would not have been any secrets today. Many committed their crime when they were loaded or addicted.
Yesterday, my friends invited my wife and I to their banquet celebration. They each paid $16 for the meal. Their team of cooks and leaders ordered the food through local businesses in surrounding communities – paid real and good money out of their own pockets to have this celebration together. Then they invited people like us to share their happiness with them.
Correctional Service Canada didn’t pay for this day – they did.
One more thing you should know. The men are paid a daily amount for working at jobs throughout the prison. Their low salary is $5+ a day. The meal cost them about three days pay…and they paid their own way plus our way and for some other volunteers like us.
Yesterday I said “Gung Hei Fat Choi” to many of the men in my greetings. Today I say – I am delighted to be one of their friends.
~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~
posted by Murray Lincoln at
Sunday, February 10, 2008
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