October, 2012
Dear Ministry Partners:
I am so glad to report to you that our Lord showered
blessings on the RJMN this past year. We are so very blessed to finally have
churches which contribute to this ministry on a regular basis. This is a
ministry of the Church and we try to be responsible to the congregations
which see fit to support this ministry.
We have a fine Board of Directors:
1) Dr Ed Davis is a retired professor from Sam Houston State University and
former teacher of Restorative Justice at that school. He furnishes us
excellent guidance. Ed is also the Restorative Justice Ministry Coordinator
for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.
2) Roger Hollar is a Baptist Minister in Fort Worth and is leader of the
Mercy Heart Ministry in Northeast Fort Worth. Mercy Heart is a ministry to
the families of prisoners and former prisoners. He is also active in
establishing Mercy Heart Chapels all around Texas. Roger truly has a
merciful heart.
3)Mark Hollis is employed by Texas Baptist Men to lead their Restorative
Justice Ministry effort. Mark is also the Executive Director of the Inmate
Discipler Fellowship. He assists many other ministries with Discipleship
Training Curricula.
4)Richard Lopez is the Director of Chaplaincy Support at the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice. He gives oversight to religious volunteers
in the prisons and also oversees and encourages the development of Faith
Based Dorms in each state prison in Texas.
5)Mark Pickett is the Associate Minister at the First United Methodist
Church in Huntsville. Before his current ministry, Mark was a correctional
chaplain and then a Regional Chaplain within TDCJ. He is also the
Coordinator of Restorative Justice Ministry for the Texas Annual Conference
of the United Methodist Church,
All of these men are under the leadership of our Lord. They are giving
inspired leadership to this organization.
Our Staff:
1) Anita Parrish is a Ministry Assistant. The Lord sent her to volunteer
here way back in 1994 when this organization was less than 6 months old. It
was not long before she became an employee. She has been the glue which
holds things together around here for almost 19 years. Anita’s husband, Jim
Parrish, is Pastor of the Burning Hope Baptist Church in Trinity TX. Her
great heart for ministry has led her to be engaged both here and there.
2) Bill Kleiber is a Ministry Assistant. Soon after his last incarceration,
Bill came to live with Anita & Jim in their home. Bill began to volunteer
here. He did such a great job counseling the men who were being released
from the prison at the bus station that he soon became the second employee.
Bill has developed into a truly great minister whom God is using mightily.
He is very energetic and leads several ministry efforts around town as well
as giving leadership to the daily ministry to ex-offenders and their
families here in Huntsville. He also directs such ministry at release points
around the state.
3) Ronny Goodwin is not an employee, but functions in a similar role. He is
the In House Ministry Leader at the Recovery Center in Huntsville. Ronny is
an excellent teacher and has the courage to hold the men who have been
recently released from prison accountable for their behavior. He models good
decision making for them and encourages them to progress in a positive
direction.
4) Our 20 regular volunteers and many more occasional volunteers are God’s
hands and feet. We praise Him for guiding and empowering them in this
ministry. Without them, little would be achieved.
5) Emmett Solomon was one of the founders of this organization and have been
Executive Director for 19 years now. Previously he spent 20 years as a
correctional chaplain and 10 years as the Director of Chaplains. It was his
hope to develop an active network to assist ministry in the justice arena.
Presently there are 89,000 addresses in our data base. Most of these people
have done ministry within prisons or with victims of crime, law enforcement
employees or their families.
If you have read this report this far, you will probably be willing to read
the following numbers which describe the truly amazing scale of this
ministry.
Last year the Lord enabled us:
1) To lead and participate in 3 Restorative Justice Ministry Conferences in
Houston, Fort Worth and Waco.
2) organize and manage our first Ex-Offender Faith Based Celebration, held
at the Prison Museum in Huntsville. It was well attended by ex-offenders,
their mentors and their Chaplains. The program was planned and managed by
formerly incarcerated persons who were impacted by the Faith Based programs
inside the prisons.
3) minister to more than 15,000 releasees. We provided contact information
to receiving churches; information about social services and, if they gave
us their destination contact information, we sent that information to
someone in our network near to where they live and asked them to “Welcome
them Back.” The outcome of this activity was to educate many of our pastors
about the fact that they had ex-offender and prisoner families near their
churches. We estimate that one in three un-churched Texans can be reached
through this mission.
4) make available to releasing prisoners a free cell phone. There are very
few pay phones left. These cell phones enable our returning citizens to have
a way to communicate in our current environment.
In cooperation with the Covenant Fellowship Church and TDCJ, the Front Door
Ministry was developed. This network receives family contact information
from willing prisoners who are just entering prison. This year we have
emailed some 6,000 messages to people in our network regarding prisoner
families living in their neighborhoods.
It is doubtful that we could have accomplished all of this without the First
Baptist Church in Huntsville so generously providing us free offices in
their facilities. We sit only one block from the Walls Unit (Huntsville
Unit) where most of this ministry takes place. First Baptist also furnishes
many of the volunteers who carry this ministry forward.
We thank each of you whom God has led to provide support for RJMN. Of
course, we need continued support. We see no indication that the ministry
will be diminished during the coming year. The Lord has grown RJMN from a
fledgling to a thriving efficient ministry to people all around Texas and
beyond.
Our websites are: www.rjmn.net or
www.rjmntexas.net or
www.rjweek.com or
www.restorativejusticenews.net. These sites will provide you
additional information about the ministry.
Grace and Peace,