>>>>This story appears today in the New Orleans paper and is a source of great joy for me personally and all the many clergy and volunteer ministers who work behind bars. The Rayburn Prison has been my ministry of charity since my ordination in Dec 2008. The two gentlemen mentioned in the article are wonderful volunteers who give so much to this ministry. Mike Holland is a member of our ministry team for the Catholic Community. Tomorrow will be a big day; we all are looking forward to the dedication. The Archdiocese is sending our retired Archbishop Alfred Hughes to celebrate and we will have our first Mass in the Chapel later in the afternoon. What a wonderful day ahead!
B.B. 'Sixty' Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie gets chapel, with help of volunteer fundraisers
Published: Thursday, November 18, 2010, 4:00 AM
Daniel Lawton
For church volunteers in St. Tammany Parish, the dedication of the Bethel Interfaith Chapel at the B.B. “Sixty” Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie on Friday will be the final touch on years of rigorous fundraising.
Construction of the Bethel Interfaith Chapel at the B.B. 'Sixty' Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie was financed by $550,000 in private donations, which were solicited by a network of church groups over a three-year period.
The construction of the 7,100-square-foot nondenominational chapel was financed by $550,000 in private donations, which were solicited by a network of church groups over a three-year period.
“There were so many skeptics at first,” said Mike Stevens, who attends Church of the King in Mandeville and spearheaded the project.
Stevens, who has been active in prison ministry since the mid-1990s, began raising money for the chapel in 2004, when he noticed that faith-based activities at the state prison in Washington Parish were becoming so popular that they were spilling over into the gymnasium and the cafeteria.
When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, he put his plans on hold, but resumed work in January 2007, partnering with the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation to host a kickoff fundraiser featuring U.S. Sen. David Vitter and Gov. Bobby Jindal, then a congressman. The event raised $150,000.
According to Cindy Mann, executive director of the Prison Chapel Foundation, a nonprofit organization that builds prison chapels in Louisiana, the chapel at Rayburn is the 12th built in the state since 2001.
Mann said that prison chapels have received a positive response from the Louisiana Department of Corrections and wardens across the state.
“From the start, every warden wanted to be first. They are all on board because they know the difference this sort of programming makes,” she said.
Mann said that faith-based programs have been shown to not only decrease levels of recidivism, but also make jails safer. According to Warden Robert Tanner, Rayburn has offered faith-based programs since its opening in 1989. In addition to decreasing violence, Tanner said, such programs give inmates “something to look forward to and hope of a better life.”
Tanner said that spiritual activities at Rayburn range from Bible study to a faith-based motorcycle group that grills hamburgers and brings in their bikes for inmates to peruse.
He said that inmates at Rayburn span the gamut of religions and though the majority of activities are by Christian groups, the prison has a Muslim population and also a small congregation of Wiccans, all of whom will have access to the chapel.
Volunteers and jail officials associated with the Rayburn chapel said that the response from inmates at the prison, which holds 1,142 men, has been positive.
According to Warden Tanner, over 50 inmates have volunteered to work on the construction of the chapel. Inmates have also donated over $14,000, most of which was generated on hourly wages of between 12 and 14 cents.
While inmates contributed what they could from the inside, Stevens melded together an impressive network of volunteers from the faith-based community to raise money.
Mike Holland, who attends Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Mandeville, began working on faith-based programs at Rayburn in 2004. Recently retired, he was looking for community service opportunities and found a fit with prison ministry.
“I just felt like this was a calling, that God wanted me to do this, and I did. It has consumed so much of my free time, but I get so much satisfaction back,” he said.
Holland, who now serves on the board of the Louisiana Prison Chapel Foundation, said that 493 individual donations were made toward the chapel at Rayburn, more than any prison chapel in the past.
Yet despite the outpouring, it was because of one special donor that the project was able to finally break ground.
In January, short of his goal and running out of options, Stevens sent letters to all previous donors telling them that “the finish line was near.”
A few days later, his wife came into his office with a envelope that she demanded he look at immediately.
Stevens said he almost fell out of his chair when he peeked inside to find a check for a sum well in excess of $50,00 from an anonymous donor. The contribution was the exact amount he needed.
“I felt like God had impressed on someone’s heart,” he said.
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