Oklahoma Prison Ministry by Cecil Abbott

Over the past six months Leonard Crowl and I have been making monthly trips to the James Crabtree Correctional Facility in Helena, Oklahoma. In the last newsletter, in Steve Sickles' article about the Texoma Restoration branch, he mentioned about a request that IMCA had received from a Native American inmate and also from the James Crabtree Chaplain.

On our initial visit with the Chaplain, we advised him that we had located two fullblood Indian men from Red Rock, Oklahoma that had agreed to build the sweat lodge but that we had not yet found someone to be their spiritual leader. After talking with the Chaplain for a couple of hours, he requested that we stop looking for a spiritual leader as he wanted us to handle that responsibility if we could agree to come down to the prison at least once a month for a three hour service.

On our first visit with the fifteen or sixteen Indian brothers, we were met with a very cool reception, at least for the first two hours of our visit. These guys sat there and stared straight through us, with no sign of any emotion on their faces as if we weren't even there. They did indicate that they didn't want to hear anything about any white man's religion. They did listen as I tried to explain where I had received my Indian teachings and about the beliefs I had in this one and only creator-God. I told them that he created the sun, the moon and the earth. That he created everything on the earth and everything in the earth. That he created the heavens and everything that is in the heavens. I explained that there was only one creator-God that created all of mankind, the red man, the white man, the black man and the yellow man. I told them that the God I believed in loved them as much as he loved me or the people over in the old country . That if he would have visited the people over in Jerusalem, surely he would have visited our Indian people here. And then I started telling them the stories from the different tribes that prove that he did visit our people. By the end of the third hour they had softened their looks towards me and seemed to be somewhat acceptable of what I was saying to them. At the end of the service several of them shook our hands and thanked us for coming. After they had all left the chapel except one, the biggest and meanest looking of the bunch, who came to me and asked if I would bless his medicine bag as I was the closest thing to a holy man that he had seen in fourteen years. Needless to say we stopped what we were doing and blessed his medicine bag for him. A couple of months ago this last inmate I spoke of was transferred to another facility. We have continued to communicate by letter in hopes that his present warden would eventually allow Leonard and I to visit him where he now is incarcerated.

Since that first visit the rest of the Indian inmates have warmed up considerably and there has developed between us a good degree of trust and even concern for one another. They now tell us they can hardly wait for our next visit. We have been discussing personal issues, thing that are ongoing in their lives and we have group prayer where these needs are being prayed for. Nearly all of the men in the circle now pray, some in silence under their breath, but I am encouraged by their spiritual progress.

A couple of months ago the Indian inmates showed their trust in me by sending their drum home with me, so the rawhide heads could be replaced. When brother Jim Wood and I took the hides off the drum, we found that the pickle barrel which it had been made from was half rotted away. We started from scratch to build them another new drum. The new drum turned out absolutely beautiful and the inmates were very pleased to say the least. On our last visit, we took them six new southern style drum sticks. When we walked in with the new drum sticks, you could see their faces light-up. They had been trying to find a way to make drum sticks out of dowel rods and old socks and as yet hadn't been able to do so. Needless to say they were extremely pleased to receive my gift to them.

The sweat lodge still has not been built, but the prison officials have set aside the area and ordered the fencing that will surround the lodge once it has been built. We continue to need your prayers and financial support as this ongoing ministry and travel is expensive. Continue to pray for us and help when you can so that God's special work and a wonder may soon be fulfilled.