Saturday, August 23, 1997

Ministering to the least of these

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

They sleep in their cars or on top of picnic tables. They may go a day or more with nothing to eat.

They are mainly young women with small children who have traveled far, usually by bus, to Abilene to visit a husband or other relative at one of the two prison units located north of town.

They are as much a victim of their loved one's crime as the person harmed. Just last Sunday an assistant warden found a woman and her baby stranded on the road in the heat trying to make it to the French Robertson Unit.

"She didn't have a penny even to eat," said unit Chaplain Stanley Wilson. "How much less can you have?"

Before long, much of that problem will be solved with the construction of Hospitality House, a 40-bed facility with cooking and laundry facilities, across the road from the Robertson and Middleton units.

"It will be a beautiful ministry," Wilson said.

nd it will be free to relatives visiting inmates at the two local units as well as those in surrounding communities.

he main purpose of the facility, which is sponsored by the Abilene Baptist Association, is to give people a free place to stay, cook food provided by donors, do laundry and congregate in a commons area. But Hospitality House will serve a dual purpose.

THE INVISIBLE VICTIMS

Everyone involved in it refers to it as a ministry. Wilson noted that many people shun relatives of inmates, believing they're part of the problem. But Wilson said that once people get to know the families "they realize they're just people like us. The families need our ministry."

Site work is expected to begin within two to three weeks for the 8,500 square-foot building, said Tim McClarty, architect, and a member of First Baptist Church.

Once the septic system is in, site work completed and the foundation built, volunteers with the Texas Baptist Men will do much of the remaining work, donating 40 percent of the cost in labor.

The volunteers, all retired men with construction experience, will come to Abilene Nov. 1 to start framing, wiring, sheetrock, plumbing and cabinet work. They did the same job at a similar facility in Huntsville in 48 hours.

When completed, the facility will be the second of its kind in Texas. The one at Huntsville opened eight years ago and McClarty visited it a couple of years ago. He was so impressed he wanted to be a part of the team building the one in Abilene.

Although there is no "brow beating or witnessing" to the families, their spiritual needs are ministered to if they request, McClarty said.

"Last year they had over 350 conversions to Christ at that facility," he said.

Even though the facilities are Baptist-sponsored, all churches, organizations and individuals are encouraged to contribute. Dr. Phil Christopher, pastor of First Baptist Church, serves as president of the Hospitality House board of directors.

"We're just trying really to provide for the least of these," he said. "They (families) are the invisible victims."

BREAKING THE CYCLE

Christopher, too, sees the immense opportunity for ministry through Hospitality House.

"We're hoping it's a way of breaking the cycle of crime," he said.

Eventually, a chapel will be built near the facility, but even before then, spiritual leaders will be available to counsel, listen, and work with children and adults, Christopher said.

"This is one thing I really just have a passion for," he said, "the emphasis on trying to minister to the marginalized of the world."

Planning for Hospitality House began two years ago, and the project is so large that David Bartley, owner of Abilene Lawn and Fencing, was named development director to help raise funds.

A member of South Side Baptist Church, Bartley has a personal interest in the facility.

"My whole family came to know God because I had an uncle who was saved in prison 21 years ago," Bartley said.

Bartley already was doing prison ministry, so the job was a natural for him. But, like others, he added, "I look at it more as a ministry than a job."

Bartley talks to various groups seeking donations to complement the large gifts from foundations. Total cost of the project is expected to be about $700,000.

Once the facility is open, churches will be asked to contribute toward the on-going operating expense. Commitments already have been received from several agencies, including the Food Bank of Abilene.

When people leave the facility on Sunday after their visit, they will be allowed to take donated food with them.

"It ministers to people not only with a place to stay but also a car load of food," said McClarty, the architect who designed the facility.

Chaplain Wilson hopes he will no longer see women and children sleeping on picnic tables outside the prison gates, praying that someone will take mercy and bring some peace to their troubled lives.

"There is a human need, a spiritual need to this house," he said. (For information on how to contribute to the project, call David Bartley at 691-9706.)