By Steve Weatherbe

THE evangelical equivalent of taking coals to Newcastle is probably doing foreign mission work in the United States – which, for a century, has been the powerhouse for fulfilling the Great Commission worldwide.

But lately, two groups of Vancouver Islanders have been missionizing in Washington State – one to migrant workers, and the second to prison inmates.

Suzanne Wilkinson provided the push at Woodgrove Christian Community Church in Lantzville, to get parishioners Sylvia Williams and Jan Butterfield to join her in putting on a week-long summer Bible school for the children of Mexican migrant workers in Skagit County.

A fast-talking Mississippian whose husband Steve has been Woodgrove’s pastor for a year, Suzanne worked with the children in the migrant camps for several years while youth pastor at a Washington church.

That church folded; but the youth group continues with the summer Bible camps, and Suzanne goes back to help.

“There’s a lot of poverty, a lot of violence, people living in pitiful poverty, 12 people to a room without hot water or a bathroom,” she said. The children may have a “smattering of Catholicism,” but are essentially unschooled in the gospels.

They are also so lacking in the barest frills – such as toys, backpacks or water bottles – that when her crew bring them along to distribute, they have been mobbed as if by a gang of thieves.

“‘God is a giving God,’ I told them,” said Suzanne. “He wants you to be givers too, and not takers.”

After an impromptu lesson on the Ten Commandments, the older children who had grabbed all the stuff gradually brought it back.

She and her youth group started taking the children to fast food outlets, movies and swimming pools once they realized that they lived in isolation from the culture around them.

They have also formed lasting relationships with some families that return every year or stay year-round.

“They learn to trust in God, to believe he cares for them, to pray.”

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While Woodgrove members have been helping Mexican children, 16 men from several denominations and congregations from all over Vancouver Island have been visiting inmates of Clallem Bay Correctional Institute about 50 miles west of Port Angeles.

Barry Smith leads a contingent of five or six  from Glad Tidings Pentecostal Church in Victoria over to Washington several times a year.

It takes a group of at least 60 men (most from within Washington) to sustain the monthly visits, said Smith, which closely follow a program laid out by Kairos Prison Ministries International, and which was itself inspired by the Cursillo Movement.

Both are aimed at changing people’s lives through Jesus Christ, and follow a format of alternating talks and meditations over the course of a single weekend.

In the prison version, there are 11 talks, with outlines prescribed by Kairos but personalized by the 11 individual speakers.

The first talk is called Choices, said Smith. “It says that everyone got where they are today by making choices. And they can make new choices today. Then the speaker gives examples from his own life.”

Weekends vary from four-day to two-day and Kairos volunteers also make weekly visits.

“The aim is to get the prisoners to form their own ongoing groups,” said Smith, though his work is made a bit more difficult because the prison administration insists outside volunteers be present.

The reactions of prisoners vary, he added, but sometimes lives are transformed in astonishing ways. The toughest men in the prison have been converted; sworn enemies have been reconciled.

“It brings tears to my eyes just to talk about it.”

December 2010