What does it mean to be the loving body of Christ? As Christians, we are called to love everyone - both inside the church and outside of it.
But what does it mean to be the loving body of Christ to someone who has caused serious harm in the community?
Or to another person?
Is the answer to that question different than the first?
These are the questions that Reverend Debbie began asking herself as she started her role as a Prison Reintegration Advocate with The Mustard Seed.
“I believe that God is a Redeemer. But did I believe that God can also redeem the story of someone who has caused significant harm?” Debbie asks.
“The answer is yes of course, but this role has made me stretch and test my own faith, to really think about what that means for the women I work with,” says Debbie.
As a reintegration advocate, Debbie works with women who have been federally incarcerated and helps them to prepare for their release. She works with the Federal Prison for Women in Edmonton, which is one of the five women’s facilities in Canada - meaning that women are sentenced to this prison from Saskatchewan, Manitoba, parts of NWT, and Alberta.
In Canada there are two streams of prisons, Provincial and Federal. Provincial prisons are for any sentence under two years while Federal Prisons are for any sentence over two years. Generally, the Federal prisons deal with more severe crimes that warrant a longer sentence. Debbie works with women that have been federally incarcerated, serving anywhere from two years to life.
Debbie explains that the process of reintegration begins as soon as a woman starts their sentence. An intake interview is their first step where a correctional plan is created. Here they determine what programs will help with the specific issues that brought them to prison.
“This process of self-reflection and honestly looking at their life and finding insight on how they ended up in that situation and ended up in prison is so important,” says Rev. Debbie.
“Where I enter someone's story is through referrals, which can look different to different people.”
Rev. Debbie runs a support group in the community for women who are in prison and working on reintegration. She explains that she will typically begin working with women as members of her support group. Women will share about the group with each other, or a parole officer might recommend that someone connects with Debbie and joins the group. Then from the initial support group, Debbie’s role has evolved into helping women more one on one, preparing for their parole in different ways.
“I recently took a woman to a registry so she could get her ID and then to a bank so she could open a bank account,” explains Debbie.
“Just some of those important things that we have in life that come naturally, you don't realize they're so important.”
Debbie will also help women go to the grocery store, supporting them as they navigate places they aren't used to anymore.
“People just out of the prison system often say the grocery store is one of the hardest places to go. There are so many people there and so many choices, they feel like everyone can just take one look at them and know that they just got out of prison,” says Debbie.
Debbie works with a lot of different women from different walks of life. She shared one story about a woman getting new clothes for the first time in a while. She had opened up to Debbie about how she had one black shirt that she didn’t like but had to wear a lot because that’s all she had. She then said she had been praying to God that she could get some new clothes
“Do you think this was an answer to prayer?” the woman had asked Debbie after she had picked out some new clothes from The Mustard Seed.
“I was so impacted by her question,” says Debbie.
“I replied, ‘you know, maybe it is.’”
To many, the simple act of buying new clothes is a mundane task, to women reintegrating after prison, it’s a huge step.
“Clothing is a pretty basic need, but when you get out of prison, it’s really hard to focus on your healing when you’re wearing the same pair of leggings every day, or a black t-shirt that you hate,” says Debbie.
Debbie works at being the loving body of Christ every day in her job and her life. She wants to show that Jesus is a redeemer to all, not only to the people she goes to church with, but to everyone – including the women she supports through The Mustard Seed.
“Because if it's not true for the women that I serve, then how can it really be true?” asks Debbie.
