To see Helen and Belinda* strolling through the botanic gardens or browsing stores at the local shopping centre, you might mistakenly think they are mother and daughter enjoying a family day out. But Helen and Belinda’s* relationship was formed in one of the most unexpected of places: a prison. Helen is a prison ministry volunteer, and Belinda*, a former inmate.
A mother of three and grandmother of two, Helen Leek has been involved with prison ministry for nearly two decades. “It started when I did the Emmaus Walk, a bit over 18 years ago,” says Helen. “I had spoken with a fellow at my swimming club who had done the walk, and he mentioned how it opened doors to other avenues of serving – one being prison ministry.”
”As soon as he said it, something inside of me said, ‘That’s where I should be.’”
“I’d known before that there was such a thing as prison ministry, but I’d never contemplated actually doing it. And so, I thought, ‘Right, that’s Holy Spirit telling me.’”
“At first, I started volunteering through another organisation. After a while, one of the chaplains at the prison mentioned she would love to find a volunteer chaplaincy assistant. At the time, I was working at the Electoral Commission, but straight away I said, ‘I would love to do that!’ So I threw in a paying job for a non-paying job – which in itself makes no sense! But it’s where God was leading me.”
“When I was doing the chaplaincy assistant role, I got to see all the wonderful aspects of prison ministry, like being able to talk with inmates and encourage them. I also saw the different approaches of Prison Fellowship, with programs like Angel Tree and how Prison Fellowship volunteers were able to continue supporting women once they are released. The organisation I had been volunteering with were not allowed to have contact with inmates once they were out, whereas the transition out of prison is part of Prison Fellowship’s ministry. So I thought to myself, ‘Right, I would prefer to go with Prison Fellowship!’”
Nine years ago, Helen began as a Prison Fellowship volunteer. A few years later, she met Belinda*.
“Belinda* and I met about a month before she was permitted to start day leave, in the lead up to her parole. At first, I was just visiting her in prison, but then I was asked if I would be willing to accompany her on day leave.”
Day leave, offered to inmates who meet specific requirements, provides prisoners with the opportunity to re-enter the wider community in the lead up to their release.
“It’s about seeing what the person is like outside,” says Helen. “How they adjust to being in the wider community. Some people will have families to go to, so they might stay with them for the weekend.” But for many prisoners, estranged from their families or lacking a support system, day leave is only possible if you have a chaperone willing to accompany you outside prison walls. And it’s a big responsibility. For Belinda*, Helen was that lifeline.
“You have to be very strict with times and that sort of thing. The officers in the prison help arrange it, talking with the inmate about what they might like to do – things they haven’t been able to do while inside. Belinda’s* first day of leave was to a botanical garden. Another time, we went to a shopping centre.”
A few months after they met, Belinda* was released on parole. “Initially, she was in this little place of temporary accommodation,” says Helen. “She didn’t have support from family whatsoever, so at first, I would go and see her maybe three times a week. We would head out together to get different things organised and to see her parole officers. Basically just getting everything set up.”
In prison, Helen had offered to pray for Belinda*. “I remember once in prison, she was going through some things in anticipation of being released, so I asked her, ‘Do you want me to pray with you about it?’ ‘Oh no,’ she said, ‘But you can when you go home if you like!’”
Outside prison, Helen noticed that Belinda* enjoyed listening to the Christian radio station Hope 103.2. “She liked having that on in the background,” she says. “And she also wanted to go to church. At first, for certain reasons, she wasn’t allowed to, but then she was eventually given the go-ahead, on the proviso that I accompanied her. She lived out of my area, but I thought it was more important that I go with her than it was I go to my own church. So for about four weeks, I travelled down to her area to take her to church.”
“She loved it. She told me, ‘I love going there. I love the music. I love the people,’” says Helen. “And then she said, ‘The trouble is, sometimes I doze off in the sermon!’ I told her, ‘That’s alright – providing you don’t snore!’”
“Gradually, over the next couple of months, I consciously started withdrawing a little bit and started making more phone calls to her than visits,” says Helen. “I was talking with a woman in prison the other day about mentoring her, too, once she’s released, and I explained that it’s a bit like a sapling.
”When you have a sapling, you don’t strap it straight to a post. You have the post a bit further away with a rope set up so it learns that bit of independence. The mentor is still there near you, but you don’t want to be there doing everything or telling them how to do it all. Rather, you’re there at a distance for when they need you.”
Today, Belinda* is four weeks away from completing her five years of parole. “At the moment, I ring her up maybe every three or four weeks,” says Helen. “Every now and then we catch up for lunch or a cuppa, and sometimes my husband will also come with us.”
Oftentimes, volunteers like Helen and inmates like Belinda* have come from very different walks of life. “I’ve talked to some people in prison, and honestly, hearing their stories… They’ve had atrocious backgrounds,” says Helen. “It almost seems like they have been set up to fail. But God cares about all of us. And we can all get a second chance. I believe God is the God of second chances.”
“I’ve described it to some people like a navigation system in your car,” says Helen. “Sometimes, you miss a turn. But then it will just say, ‘Re-navigating’. Well, how many of us ‘miss a turn’ in life? Or take a ‘wrong turn’? It’s okay, now we are re-navigating!”
“One time when I was driving Belinda* back to her place, I told her, ‘You know what, Belinda*? Jesus died for you as much as He did for me. No matter what you did. If you confess and bring what you did to Him, He will forgive it. He will forget it.’”
Helen is still visiting other women in prison weekly. Keeping her eyes fixed on God has been key to her journey. “I remember one time I was in a bit of fear and trepidation, debating about whether to see a particular person at the prison,” she says. “But God brought to my mind scriptures where it talks about Him surrounding us. Him going before us, beside us, ahead of us.”
“Some people get words from God all the time,” says Helen. “That’s not really me. But there have been times when I’ve just been sitting in church, and Holy Spirit has prompted me with someone’s name. Or he has given me a verse that someone needs. And I think, ‘Oh, fantastic!’ Coming up to Christmas, I wrote each of the women I meet with a Christmas card. And the same thing happened – God dropped individual verses into my mind to include in their cards. When I saw one of the women the next time, she said to me, ‘Helen, that verse that you gave me, someone else gave me that exact verse!’ As I said, that sort of thing does not normally happen to me. So I know He’s with me in all of this.”
“I visit the prison at the beginning of each week,” says Helen. “When I’m there, I’ll usually get shown to a room where the women can come and talk with me privately.” To help build trust and show her own vulnerability, Helen has shared parts of her own story with inmates.
“My brother died when I was 14, through someone spiking his drink. We never actually found out who did it, but I had to go through a journey of forgiveness. And I did that as an act of obedience to God. It took me about 20 years to realise I couldn’t do it on my own. I had to ask God to help me, and I had to turn to people in the church to support me along that journey.”
“One of the women I’ve been speaking to recently in prison has just regained her faith. There are also inmates in there who run their own Bible studies and prayer groups.”
During her visits, Helen is also mindful of demonstrating God’s love and care to the prison staff. “They have such challenging jobs. I always make sure I say ‘Hello,’ or ‘How’s life?’. I also pray for them. I know God’s hand is reaching into the rest of the prison beyond the inmates, because sometimes an officer will ask me, ‘What do you talk to them about? Spiritual stuff?’ Another one asked, ‘What is Prison Fellowship about?’ I was able to share with them all the things Prison Fellowship does. Another time I said to an officer, ‘I hope I’m not holding you back from your lunch by being here!’ And the officer just said, ‘No, I consider it really important that the women are able to talk with you.’ That’s evidence that the prison staff are seeing the value of this ministry,” says Helen.
“Prison ministry has taught me how to really and truly accept others for who they are,” says Helen. “I have a 6-year-old grandson. One day he said to me, ‘NanNan, what do you talk to them about?’ I said, ‘Well, sometimes I talk to them about God, and sometimes I just talk to them.’
“‘Sometimes you’re just plain friendly to them, NanNan?’ he said. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘That’s good,’ he said. I guess what I love most is the way the effect of all this is reaching out so much further than me.”
*Name has been changed
WOULD YOU LIKE TO EQUIP MORE VOLUNTEERS like Helen to visit prisons and walk alongside former inmates after their release? Your donation can help volunteers share the love of Christ with prisoners across the country.
