Update: 2020
While we all sit in this period of unknown and waiting in quarantine- we are holding our friends and students still incarcerated close in our hearts. We are experiencing a new way to remember them as lockdown, isolation, and unanswered future questions have affected us all.
Below we have included some of the stories that have defined us on our journey hosting programs over the last four years. Thank you for being a part of this with us.
Quarantine Update
As of mid-March, we have not been able to go in to volunteer out of protection for those in the facility we work in. We dearly miss our classes and connections but completely honor the priority of safety for all of those experiencing incarceration.
The quarantine caused us to miss our last semester's graduation by one day, but our group of nine graduates still completed all their course work and we were able to mail in their diplomas. This group worked so hard and deserve to be celebrated once we are able to do so.
This semester we added a 'self-portrait' class where the students planned and executed portraits of themselves to put aspects of who they are on display. Our photography educator did an incredible job of adding this new creative facet of our program. Look at this beautiful glimpse of what they created together:
We continued to offer our holistic mind, body, spirit focused classes in the Academy which include Pilates, Yoga, Story of the Bible, Alternatives to Violence Workshop, Floral Arrangement, Fitness and Nutrition, Financial Peace, Creative Writing, Know Your Story, Song Writing, Fine Art, Wake the Woman (Enneagram Study), and Finding Father all thanks to the indomitable work of our volunteer educator team.
As we continue in the unknown of Covid-19 precautions, we remain in close contact with graduates and former students who reach out to the program. Many of them have made courageous steps to get into programs and detox centers during this quarantine we continue to have the privilege of walking with them on their journeys and partner programs after The Academy.
One beautiful thing that has come from this hard season is an online Wild Ones of the Bible class:
What started as a prayer meeting for our volunteers on Zoom, slowly became a sweet place to reunite with many graduates and friends who have been released. The first few weeks we dug into studies on the parables, testimonies, live music, and prayer sessions for anyone that joins in.
Yesterday we finished a TWENTY-ONE week study of the book of John, going chapter by chapter every week with those who could join on Zoom. We had music, testimonies, hard questions, tears, laughter, prayers for healing or broken hearts, and awkward Zoom silences. We had participants join us from hospital beds, hotel rooms, in the car, putting on makeup, and on smoke breaks. Zoom fatigue wasn’t too much of a thing, because it was our only chance to be together.
Every week our discussions grew, our connections deepened, and we experienced some of the truest discipleship we have ever had as a community. While we still ache to be with our people on the inside who have had no visits or programming, we are so filled with gratitude for the opportunity to walk closer with each other on the outside. It has been a gift we never expected that grew out of the disappointment and chaos of the pandemic.
We have often longed for a way to connect on the outside, and this has been an unexpected gift to get together online even if we are calling in from other states, hospital rooms, or motels. It has been a vehicle for community in the midst of isolation.
The Desert Stream
We sat in a meeting to dream of ways to reach our students and graduates on the inside. If we can’t yet write letters in, or teach virtually, how do we let them know they are not alone? How do we share hope and community… how do we visit those in prison?
The idea of a publication bubbled to the surface. We could make an entire publication written and designed just for our people who are incarcerated! We can’t write to them individually, but we can tell them stories and songs of hope in a way that they can take to their bunk and sit with.
We called it The Desert Stream, for Isaiah 43:19
‘See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
We reached out to the army of educators and graduates of the Academy to write inspiring pieces, Bible studies, educational tools, workouts, mental health tips, and creative writing prompts. It quickly developed into a print version of our Academy program- with mind, body, and spirit tools for the readers. Best of all, it looks and feels like us. A messy, wild, intentional and heart-gripping pile of hope and brokenness free for anyone who want it. It looks as diverse as the-Kingdom-of-God-is-within-us, put on paper.
Our first three issues have gone not only to our friends in the jail, but to other women’s facilities in Tennessee, re-entry homes, formerly incarcerated people in at risk-housing, former students on the outside, and friends of People Loving Nashville in the unhoused community. We have received submissions for content from the street, the prison, the jail, and from those who have hope to give from the suburbs.
We are so proud of and blown away by how it came together so supernaturally. It is a publication by the broken for the broken, a beautiful avenue to amplify our graduates’ voices and stories. We are in the unique position of having contributors who were incarcerated in the very same bunks writing encouragement to those who are still in them.
For $2400 a month we have been able to print enough to reach as many of our people we know are in need of encouragement as possible. Thank you so much to our generous contributors and donors for making this new thing happen!
Please enjoy our christmas issue of The Desert Stream here:
The Desert Stream Issue 3: December
Christmas Dinner 2019
Last Christmas, we had the honor of throwing a huge party open to the entire female population in the facility. We set up the gym with long tables covered in sparkling tablecloths and flowers, christmas trees and crisp pine centerpieces. When our Christmas dinner guests walked in they said they didn't even recognize the place.
We had some of our favorite artists sing Christmas carols and songs of hope. PaleoKitchen generously cooked us a beautiful chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and pie that we were able to serve to everyone at the table. Our beloved Bible teacher shared courageously from her heart and reminded everyone of the chance they have to choose to live and the God Who Does Not Forget Them. So many attendees shared that they couldn't remember the last time they had been able to sit down for a Christmas dinner. The energy was electric and by the time we got to the parting gift of goody bags, we were all gushing about how we would all always remember this night.
Even in the midst of grief, of dreams crushed, another year passing by where we are not where we hoped we would be- there was a deep fellowship of being together, of being remembered. Our deep fellowship of communal suffering, where we mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. But it is not just our human pain that unites us, or only Jesus' call to visit him while he is incarcerated- but rather it is Love that breaks down all of our walls. It is the kingdom of God that crashes down our judgements and isolation- truly, it is the light in the midst of suffering, addiction, and violence that shines the brightest.
None of this rich community and mutual healing would be possible without our incredible volunteer team and generous supporters. Thank you to everyone who makes this work possible!
Thank you so much for being a part of this team and for supporting us visiting The Ones He loves. You are all the breath in the lungs of this work and it would not be possible without you.
Gratefully, wildly, and passionately,
Your Friends at Wild Indigo Programs