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Liberian fellowship prepares prisoners for society

Jan. 25, 2006

NOTE: Photos and a related video are available at http://umns.umc.org.

By Linda Green*

MONROVIA, Liberia (UMNS) - She was arrested, served prison time and was
placed under house arrest after her release - all for a crime her
husband allegedly committed.

That experience compelled a Liberian United Methodist to found a
ministry to help meet the needs of prisoners in her country.

"I started this ministry because I went to prison myself for the crime I
did not commit in 1980," said Comfort T. Nimineh-Logan.

Along with a group of ecumenical Christians, she created the Prison
Fellowship of Liberia in 1986. The evangelistic mission ministers to
eight prisons, prisoners and their families, ex-prisoners and crime
victims in Liberia.

"I was accused about my husband's indebtedness to the government," she
said. "He ran away and they thought they would get to him through me,
but I knew nothing about his whereabouts."

Nimineh-Logan spent four years either in prison or under house arrest.
When she was released - with help from the denomination's Liberia Annual
Conference and staff of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
- other prisoners asked that she not forget them or their stories.

"That worked round and round in my ear until 1985," she said. While
attending a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, as a United Methodist
representative, she discovered her calling for prison ministry.

"You have to have faith to do prison ministry," she said. Faith, she
said, carried her through all of the suffering she endured, including
mistreatment and robbery.

The interdenominational ministry, housed in the Liberia Conference
office compound and the recipient of United Methodist funds, seeks to
help create a violence-free society through evangelism and discipleship,
reconciliation and counseling, training and rehabilitation, feeding
ministry, adult literacy and empowerment.

Other denominations involved in the fellowship are Baptist, Pentecostal,
Episcopalian, African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal
Zion, Lutheran and Presbyterian.

"We speak for the destitute, and we speak for the voiceless,"
Nimineh-Logan said. "We have to learn to forgive. ... If you cannot
forgive, the country cannot move forward."

Her vision is for a self-sufficient and self-reliant fellowship in its
own facilities, with an agriculture base that would provide food to the
prison. The fellowship is also affiliated with Prison Fellowship
International, the ministry founded by Charles Colson, who served prison
time for his role in the Watergate scandal.

Nimineh-Logan also seeks ways to get girls and children off the streets,
empower them to be responsible and help keep them from prison in the
future.

Held without trial

The population at the Monrovia Central Prison comprises men who have
committed armed robbery, rape, murder and theft of property, and women
who have misappropriated property or otherwise engaged in theft, said
the Rev. Joseph Sunday, a retired United Methodist pastor and prison
chaplain.

A news team from United Methodist News Service visited the Monrovia
Central Prison late last summer. The prison lacks adequate ventilation,
and the odor of unwashed bodies, illness and inadequate sanitation
permeates the buildings. Bare floors, darkness, overcrowding, leaking
ceilings, lack of food and lack of medicine are part of daily life for
the prisoners. In some cells, prisoners stepped over their cellmates,
who laid on thin mattresses or the bare floor, overcome with sickness.

Most of the 200 inmates don't know how long they will be at the prison
because they have never had a trial; they cannot afford a lawyer or
court costs, said the Rev. Francis S. Kollie, executive director of the
prison fellowship. "In Liberia, it is a bit difficult to hire lawyers
because they want huge amounts of money now."

"We are suffering here," said inmate Alfonso Williams. A female inmate -
one of seven women in the prison at the time - said she was in jail
because she owed someone the equivalent of U.S.$250.

During the news team's visit, Sunday spoke to the prisoners about the
importance of spiritual freedom.

"Through spiritual freedom, you become a new person, you have a new
outlook," he told them. "You will be changed and take your rightful
places in society. Therefore, you must always think about spiritual
freedom. Realize your insufficiencies before God, realize that you are a
sinner, realize that it is only Jesus Christ that can save you, and
confess your sins to him while you are here. Admit what you have done
through your personal prayer, and then you will be free."

Children in prison

As chaplain, Sunday assists the fellowship in preparing "the inmates for
useful citizenship." His interest in prison ministry began in 1990 after
realizing "that most young people were behind bars. I said, 'Well, I
have to change my direction of ministry. Let me reach out to the young
people and counsel them.'"

At the Monrovia prison, small juvenile cells house eight to 15 children
each. The news team saw 10 children there during its visit.

For 15 years, Sunday has worked in the prison system, often counseling
10 to15 inmates at a time.

"I counsel them on emotional stability because most of them are
traumatized (from the civil war)," he explained. "And those who seem to
be worried, I counsel them that they shouldn't be worried, that they
should trust God."

While the material benefit is small, Sunday finds pleasure in prison
ministry. "In fact, prison ministry is a criteria for going to heaven,"
he declared, citing Jesus' admonition: "'I was sick, and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you visited me.'"

The inmates "are citizens of this country, and they need to be taken
care of while in prison so that upon their release they can take their
rightful place in society."

Pressing needs

According to Nimineh-Logan, the fellowship is in dire need of basic
resources as it attempts to provide health and welfare to the Monrovia
Central Prison. The prison - like much of the city since the end of the
civil war in 2003 - needs assistance with communications, electricity
and water/sewage, as well as food and toiletry items for both men and
women.

One of the prison's biggest needs is repair of the chapel. "This is the
Lord's temple," she said. The leaks and structural damage are "a
disgrace to us and to the house of God."

Repairs to the chapel and numerous areas of the prison would lift
spirits and change lives, both Sunday and Nimineh-Logan say. They seek
assistance from churches in the United States to accomplish this task.

Sunday also would like to institute training programs for inmates.

"They steal," he said of the inmates who could not find employment. "If
they are trained, then when they get out, they will be self-sufficient,"
he said.

The Prison Fellowship, Nimineh-Logan said, seeks to be "our brother's
keeper."

*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in
Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org