Menno Notes-April 2007

When a boy dreams of becoming a fireman, he thinks of the excitement, the speeding red trucks, the flashing lights, and the sirens. He thinks of how brave he will be as he rushes into a burning building to rescue helpless victims. There are dreams of praise and honor and gratitude for what he does. What he doesn’t realize, however, are the days spent in training, the hours spent washing hoses and preparing equipment for the next run, and the periods of waiting between those brief times of excitement that will be so much a part of his life. Sometimes we, like that child, tend to idealize the job of a missionary chaplain. Surely such an environment where he works and the challenges of his job will provide a continuing source of excitement. Not so.

Before I moved south in the spring of 1980 for my first term of service with We Care, then known as New Life Foundation, Chaplain Martin Weber gave me some advice that has stayed with me and served me well, not only that year but also in this second term in prison work some twenty-five years later. He said, “Don’t come into prison ministry unless you are sure that God has called you into it-for some days the knowledge that God has called you here will be all that will keep you going in your work.” Wise words from a man who I’m sure has experienced exactly that.

I am currently serving as chaplain at the Atmore Community Work Center, a minimum security prison located just north of town. The Work Center is part of a series of four prisons located in the Atmore area. This prison is a place for men nearing the completion of their sentence, or within two years of parole date—short timers. There are approximately 250 men incarcerated there, living together in one large room. The majority of the men are assigned to day jobs outside the prison facility, mostly working for the surrounding towns and counties, while the ones who remain in the camp during the day have assignments involving the operation and care of the prison facility. While the larger prisons in Alabama have fulltime state chaplains, the smaller prisons, such as the Atmore Work Center, rely on volunteer chaplains—volunteer defined here as not paid by the state.

It is one of the missions of We Care to provide such chaplains. Because of the small number of men who remain in the camp during the day, I work there part time, mostly in the afternoons and evenings when the men have returned from their jobs. The remainder of my working hours are spent in various other duties within the We Care organization, including building and grounds, maintenance, and service with Doris as Mom and Dad for the young adults who come to We Care to serve in a variety of ways.

There is a quiet satisfaction that comes with this job, a satisfaction I don’t think is unique to this ministry but I believe is a gift God gives to all those who have a place in His family, those who live and operate in His will. I find this satisfaction in sharing with John, who just found out he needs an operation that may prove fatal. I find it in praying with Wayne, a friend concerned because his thirteen year old daughter Brittany is getting sassy and failing in school, and he feels helpless, being in prison and not there to be a father to her. It is there in having Norris say that during the New Year service he laid his tobacco on the altar and hasn’t picked it up since. Satisfaction comes from having a grizzly old fellow with a tooth here and a tooth there give me a bear hug after a Bible study and thank me for ministering to him. It comes when a man of another faith accuses me of messing up people’s minds because I’m teaching the gospel of God’s grace to his fellow inmates.

Frustrating times include being told by the inmate leaders in my camp that since I took over a certain ministry, the Holy Spirit has left those services. Frustration comes because I am afraid of a crusty old inmate who defends his lifestyle of drug sales before he was incarcerated as harming no one, and states that if marijuana were legalized, it would cause no problems. I know what he needs to hear and have even prepared my speech for him but have not found the courage to deliver it.

Frustration comes from a certain inmate who tries so smoothly and insistently to extract that extra favor from me. . .and another. . .and another. . .and another. It comes on those days when the hours drag on and on and nothing seems to be happening; when a visit I thought consumed at least a half hour only lasted five minutes.

Being a missionary chaplain with We Care is only a small part of the team that makes this type of service possible. There are daily reminders of the support of so many folks who free us to serve in this way: letters of encouragement, prayers, people who earn their living by hard work and have chosen to make this ministry a part of their giving. There is always in the back of our minds the realization that we are stewards of others’ labors and have an ongoing responsibility to be good stewards of that trust and the resources invested in us. And we realize that God has entrusted us with the greatest gift of all, His solution to our sin problem and an open way back to Him, and the privilege we have to be called the children of God. The work of a missionary chaplain is a trust, a challenge, and a privilege.

Ed Ranck, Chaplain Atmore Work Center

Talk given at We Care Crusade, January 20, 2007