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July-September, 2014

Striking Spiritual Goal at Wakulla C.I.

by Rev. Jo Williams

Who knew I’d find such an incredible outpouring of wisdom and love in such an unlikely place! At least, unlikely as far as the average un-incarcerated person is concerned. Wakulla C.I. in Crawfordville, Florida has recently become, for me, a stairway to Heaven. Actually, more like an express elevator to my function on earth — to give and receive God’s Love.

For some reason I can’t explain, I’ve felt drawn for many years to do some sort of prison ministry. I completed the necessary requirements to volunteer in prisons in Florida in 2011, but the chaplain of the facility I wanted to serve rejected my proposed program as “inflammatory.” Based on A Course in Miracles, I wanted to teach that everyone, behind bars or outside of them, has the Kingdom of God within him and the God-given power to take dominion over his life.

Disappointed that my first attempt failed so abruptly, I asked Spirit for guidance on how I might still accomplish my goal. Shortly thereafter, I ran across an organization called Spirit Light Outreach (SLO) on the Internet. The purpose of the organization is to provide spiritual/inspirational materials to prisoners. One of the primary books SLO sends out is A Course in Miracles. Having been a student/facilitator of the Course for 20 years, lights and sirens went off for me. This definitely showed Spirit’s hand! No doubt in my mind. I immediately called the founder/director, Joe Wolfe and left him a message. Within the hour, Joe — a former inmate himself — called me back. Before I knew it, we were making plans for him to come and speak in my church in Tampa.

After meeting Joe in person two years ago, it became clear to me why I was so driven to reach out to my brothers and sisters behind bars. Joe “made flesh” the gnawing truth inside me: We are all the same! Here was this “gangsta” from Chicago suddenly sitting on my back porch like a giant teddy bear — the humility, Love and Light he exuded, unmistakable proof.

I thought about my brother Jimmy, now deceased. One night when he was a little boy, he accidentally knocked over a glass of tea at dinner, and our dad became furious. Dad snatched him up from the table and walloped his behind. It was the first time I recall thinking: “He didn’t mean to be bad. It was an accident, a mistake.” No one means to be bad. Yet we all fall short of the glory God created us to be. My brother, God bless him, had a lot of “accidents.” And no one ever told him that it was okay to make mistakes. So, one of the dearest, most loving beings I ever knew lived his entire life believing he was a screw up.

I recently shared a secret about my own seemingly perfect life for the first time ever, with an inmate in Amarillo. I once shoplifted some articles from a department store. I had the money to buy them, but I didn’t. I’m sure there were probably security cameras even way back then. But for some reason, I escaped the fate many shoplifters ultimately endure — time behind bars.

When I shared my secret with this inmate, he could not believe the fine Rev. Jo Williams had done such a thing. Instantly, the bond between us deepened. I was no longer a holier-than-thou untouchable. My cup had a crack in it, just like his. Just like everyone’s.

When Joe Wolfe emailed me his list of hundreds of inmates who wanted to correspond with someone about spirituality, specifically about A Course in Miracles (ACIM), I asked Spirit to guide me in selecting the first name. That name turned out to be WH at Wakulla C.I.

I wrote to W immediately, enclosing materials about ACIM and received an immediate and touchingly appreciative response. I sent W a copy of my book, Miracles: Take the Freeway and, less than a week later, received a letter brimming with questions about spirituality and the principles of ACIM. Hitting it off like a couple of long lost friends, our correspondence has been animated and regular ever since. As W began to share the amazing, transformative principles of the Course with friends at Wakulla, my P.O. box began to fill with letters. The letters, without exception, have been filled with probing, intelligent questions and comments — and deeply moving gratitude.

Besides W, one of the most intensely “hungry” and wise inmates I’ve encountered at Wakulla is HDW. Each week now, I receive at least two letters from D, usually written in the quiet hours of the early morning. Once wasting away in the lonely darkness of his cell, D lit up like the Big Apple Christmas tree. From my perspective, he literally soared from a man withdrawn in hopeless resignation to a role model and a leader. He got a job in one of the canteens there and uses his position there to learn the fine art of forgiveness and to dispense God’s Love and Light.

I started my letter-writing ministry thinking I would bring a little Light and sense of worth and hope into the darkness of a few steel and concrete cages designed to separate the holy Son of God from his brothers and sisters. Yet it was I who was the recipient of the outpouring of Love and Light unlike any I have before encountered.

What I have learned from my brothers at Wakulla is that the Christ Light in us cannot be extinguished. It may dim, but it instantly resurrects and flourishes where two join their hearts and minds in the giving and receiving of God’s Love. What I learned is that, as ACIM tells us, we are not bodies but eternal spirits, perfect and whole. Through letter writing, I learned that bodies are not needed or required to join, to heal, and to share the love and abundance that is our joint heritage — the Kingdom of God within us all.

To all my friends at Wakulla C.I. — and to Joe Wolfe, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you have given me and all you have taught me.

© 2014, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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