Mid-City Christian: Pastorgraphs: “From Cell to Celebration”

Monday, May 7, 2012

Pastorgraphs: “From Cell to Celebration”

E-Vangel Newsletter

May 7, 2012

Pastorgraphs: “From Cell to Celebration”

Donna Cleveland’s story would make a great book; and an even better movie. It is a classic account of how a person may rise from street-life to success.

A few years ago, not many would have expected Donna to be alive, much less receiving her Master’s degree (which she did two weeks ago). They would not have been surprised to find her in jail, where she spent plenty of time. Only now, she has the keys to the same jail where she was incarcerated. And the keys to the hearts of dozens of women incarcerated in the Las Colinas Women’s Jail in San Diego.

You might have guessed Donna is now a chaplain/social worker. The reason women in the Las Colinas Jail listen to Donna is because she has been where they are, done most of the things they have done, and found a way out of “the street life”.

As she sat in my office a few days ago, I found it difficult to hold back tears listening to her testimony of how she cried out to God in the depths of despair. She thought she was beyond the love of God, and everyone else’s love. That’s when she met Carmen Warner-Robbins, founder and Director of “Welcome Home Ministries”, an outreach specifically designed to help women in jail stay out of jail upon their release. But more than that, Welcome Home wants them to follow Donna’s example in finding a better, abundant, successful life.

Donna acknowledges that through Carmen, she discovered the love of God, and now shares that love with dozens of women in prison. She is Carmen’s associate in Welcome Home Ministries (based in Oceanside), and will be opening an office in Christ Ministry Center this month to serve their clients in the southern part of San Diego County.

Donna is able to freely walk into and out of the jail that was literally her prison, now visiting inmates as no one else can do. She becomes the personification of hope for women with little hope. Donna, who once longed for and found the love of God, now has a line of women waiting for their hugs, their love, their living example of how life can change for the better.

Former SD County Sheriff Bill Collinder knows Carmen and Donna. He cannot say enough good about their work. He reminds skeptics how much it costs to house one person for one year in jail. “If Welcome Home can help a fraction of these women, the financial benefits to taxpayers is significant,” Sheriff Collinder said. But he knows, as do Carmen and Donna, it is not about the money. It is all about redeeming souls, so that many (trapped in drugs, abusive relationships and prostitution), may find the pathway Donna Cleveland has traveled, “From Cell to Celebration”. That includes spiritual healing, without which most self-help strategies fail.

Donna, you inspire us. We count it an honor to have you at Christ Ministry Center. May God Bless you as you do HIS work.

If you would like to support Donna and Welcome Home Ministries, visit http://www.welcomehomeint.org/.

(To read more, click HERE.)

Bless you, each and every one, Brother Bill

From the Quote Garden

“Self is the only prison

that can ever bind the soul;
Love is the only angel

who can bid the gates unroll;

And when he comes to call thee,

arise and follow fast;
His way may lie through darkness,

but it leads to light at last.”

~ Henry Van Dyke, The Prison and the Angel