Otter Creek - Day Two

[from left to right: OCCC halau dancing with their new pa'u skirts; Master's Touch & Randy outside OCCC - Corrections Corp of America, the company that operates the prison gave everyone a Kentucky Wildcats t-shirt and CCA cap, as well as providing a very ono lunch; passing out more gifts to the Hawaii inmates on Tuesday. Pictures are courtesy of Dannah Prather of the Western Recorder.]

Who would have thought that the fresh orchids donated by Greeters Hawaii would have such a huge impact. On Monday afternoon, when they were distributed, everyone was so appreciative - as fresh flowers (and from Hawaii) are a rarity. We had a nice surprise, for when we arrived at Otter Creek many of the inmates and guards were wearing them!

This morning's program was a sharing time with the women from Hawaii. Our Danette is quite amazing! She opened up with the introductions and everyone listened so attentively, as her good humor, her openness, and her pidgin was just what everyone needed this morning. Then Liane read a letter from Haunani Apoliona, Chair of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; followed by Audrey reading a message from Mufi Hanneman, Mayor of the City of Honolulu. The women were touched that important people from home had taken time to send them a message of hope and their prayers. When Danette shared about sister Verdine's work with the Maui Economic Opportunities Inc. - the women from Maui cheered! Randy had wanted someone to share their testimony and we all thought it was going to be Ethel. However, while all this was taking place, she was sitting in the audience next to a volunteer from Kentucky ... who turned out to be non-other than Eileen Mullins. Now you're probably asking, who's Eileen? Wait until you hear this story. Eileen has a son who ended up in the Kentucky Federal prison. It is located waaaay out of town, so visiting him was very difficult, especially as there wasn't any place to stay nearby. So she founded Haven of Rest in 2004, a hospitality house for those who have loved ones in prison. She received the Women's Missionary Union's Dellanna West O'Brien Award for Women's Leadership Development in 2006! To read that story, please visit http://www.wmu.com/news/readnews.asp?id=116

Back to this story - Eileen leads a Bible study at Otter Creek. One day, she observed a group of women from Hawaii out in the yard. She was heartbroken by how sad and forlorn they looked. So she prayed that someone would come to visit them. Her testimony was about how amazing God is - for never in her wildest imagination could she have dreamed that a husband and wife team who have won 6 Na Hoku Hanohano awards and a group of hula dancing - gift bearing women would show up at the prison to minister to this group of women that she had been praying for. She addressed the inmates and said, "God is the one who loves you" for no one other than someone who loves you this much could have planned such an experience. We do have a great and mighty God!

For those of you who know Ethel, she is one talkative lady, especially when sharing about what God has done for her. The background of Ethel's sharing goes back to KHNL sharing our story of our planned visit to Otter Creek. After the story, Ethel received a call from a mother looking for her step-daughter. She begged Ethel to check if her step-daughter was at Otter Creek. Ethel wondered how she would ever accomplish this - do you just blurt out if there was a woman with a specific name from Hawaii there and please call home? Our God is all sufficient. On the first day of passing out the goodies in the dorm and cell, Ethel ended up meeting this specific step-daughter to a chance conversation (Ethel wasn't even looking!). So that first night, upon leaving the prison, Ethel called her parents who were overjoyed to know where their daughter was! So when Ethel had to share with the inmates, she requested that this step-daughter come up to the stage. And there she passed on the story leading up to that moment, and then passed on the message from her parents - that they loved her! In fact, Ethel shared that the dad was so choked up that he couldn't talk to Ethel on the phone, but passed on the message via the stepmom ... that he loved her - hard! As Ethel was sharing, the chaplain was sitting next to Danette, who said - this girl needed to know she was still loved. Wow, isn't it amazing to know that our God loves us hard!

The chicken skin continues ... when Master's Touch was ready to teach Hulihia - there was a women who jumped up and said she knew it! She had learned it from Ilima when she was at the Kailua facility. So, she danced it with Master's Touch and everyone was whooping and cheering! What was so neat about this story is that this prisoner recently came to Otter Creek, and so wasn't yet comfortable with this new group of women, and the halau women didn't even know that she wanted to or even could dance! We're thinking that this woman now has a group she can bond and feel comfortable with. And of course, when we presented the pa'u skirts to the halau, there were more tears and hugs all around. Remember that this halau is a prison halau, so they practice in plain pa'u skirts made from sheets ... so to have these colorful Hawaiian print skirts - and many from a master kumu hula, Michael Casupang - how thrilling!

As we left the prison, each of us were glad we had made the trip. While we were only there for a few hours over two days, it was long enough to get a sense of that loss of identity, as you leave all your personal belongings - including driver's license, credit cards and keys at the front desk; and the sense of hopelessness as you hear doors clanging shut behind you. We pray that the gifts that were so generously donated by our friends in Hawaii, the handwritten words of encouragement on colorful Hawaiian postcards by the members of Olivet, the memories of these two days of sharing in dance and song, and the hugs, tears and prayers will help sustain these women as they as so far from home. We have been touched and have an even greater and personal awareness of our God who gave us this opportunity.

When we left, we followed Eileen Mullins to the Federal prison so we could visit the Haven of Rest and to spend some time with the folks there. While there, we had an impromptu concert in the chapel for the volunteer missionaries.

Then on the drive back, Shirley thought we should experience some of the beauties of Kentucky so we stopped by the "natural bridge" - a natural stone formation. Then we rode a sky lift up into the mountains ... everyone was a bit nervous and had to pair up for comfort on the ride up. Chie was our lone brave soul - riding by herself (whew - since we had an uneven number). Everyone held on tightly to their rubber slippers since when we looked down, we could see a lot of rubber slippers which had lost their owners.

We're happy to report that we are once again back safely at Shirley & Jim's ... of course, not before stopping for a bite to eat, where Audrey and Ethel had their first taste of chicken & dumplings!