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And Christ Walks Through Prison Walls

Angela Bell


And Christ Walks Through The Prison Walls

At a Ministers Meeting about twelve years ago Drs. Bonnie would be going to Valley State Prison for Women (a maximum Security Prison) to facilitate a workshop for the Lifers group incarcerated there and invited USM graduate volunteers to go. My spiritual heart vibrated. I had a strong inner calling to go. I was their first volunteer and little did I know that my life would change from that inner calling.

A group of University of Santa Monica graduate volunteers walked thru the prison walls, with open loving hearts with the intention of serving and loving in a nonjudgemental environment. We created an envelope of loving and Light in the gym, transformed it and lo and behold, heaven descended, and the essence of Christ permeated the room and continues to do
so each time we go back.

Fifty nervous women entered the room and occupied the trios. Two women insisted that I do the first trio with them. One had green eyes and she went by the name Curly, the other had brown eyes, I have blue eyes and my first communication was “The eyes have it”. That broke the ice and we had a wonderful and fun trio. Little did I know Curly was the Head Honcho of the prison yard and if you’re not in her inner circle, she was to be feared. She would not let me go out of her trio even though I communicated that moving to another trio with others would be a good experience.  I had to go for help to get free. However, she and I became fast friends from that time on. Almost all of her cell mates and the prison staff said she would never crack. Somewhere deep inside I knew, if I held a positive Light filled vision of her divine essence and continued to love her as she was, she would transform. For some years each time we came back (we have been doing workshops there consistently twice a year for the past twelve years) and even though she did not attend, she always sent one of her inner circle to find me and tell me, “Curly said hello”.

When she did come back, I witnessed the miracle of the Spirit of God (in God’s timing) take place. The  loving that takes place in a trio is healing, transforming, miraculous, and palpable. Somehow my deepest loving which I experience as the Christ emerges here and has been and is life-changing and transforming. In my service to the women, I am served. The women are filled with wisdom. When she did come back she told me she was tired of being called “The Devil” and stated emphatically
“She wanted to find God”. In that moment I witnessed and sensed the Spirit wash down over her. She broke down in my lap and sobbed. From that time on Curly attended all of our workshops. She became a positive presence in the prison, assisting new inmates, helping to organize our workshops. Whenever we see each other, we joyfully dance with each other and reconnect in a long time friendship. She no longer goes by the name Curly as it is associated with her past but is now using her birth name.

In one of the early workshops, a woman came up to me and said I reminded her of her grandmother. She sang a song in my ear that her grandmother sang to her as a child. The fulness of the loving (a lifeline) she had for her grandmother emerged so strongly between us. This then brought to my awareness a song my grandfather (who was the love of my life) sang to me as a child. I sang that in her ear, and the loving between us expanded infinitely. That loving then became the pathway to healing over the years. Her grandmother died while she was incarcerated. She became my surrogate granddaughter and the relationship continued over the years (we go to the prison twice a year), and continues in a new way now. From the skills she learned through Freedom to Choose, she used her time in prison well, completing education she forfeited as a younger woman, and became a vital positive force in the prison. She headed up positive programs for the women, became certified as a drug counselor. She had very little chance of being paroled and spent 18 years in transforming herself. Lo and behold, she went before the parole board, with much support from our volunteers, and was approved for parole. The Governor signed her parole and she entered the free world. She now works part time for Freedom To Choose Foundation, is completing her Bachelors Degree and will be going to USM in the Fall. She is now a Surrogate Grand Daughter in the real sense of the word and we do things together in the free world. Is this not a testimony to the power of loving and forgiveness?

We now go into the prison with a group of between 70 to 80 volunteers strong, all of whom travel and serve at their own expense. We set up an envelope of Loving Light, do the work in a joyful Spirit to set up the room and welcome the women. Many of the women have attended previous workshops and keep coming back. We now work with about two to three hundred women. I am continuously amazed at the Love, the devotion, the level of commitment, the Light and the expertise with which our Facilitators, Dr. David and Bonnie Paul facilitate and pour their loving into this work. I am grateful and honored that they keep letting me come back. We are now going into a men’s prison twice a year in addition to the women’s and what a joyful experience this is!!

I am not quite sure how this happens but it does: I expand into my deepest loving when I am serving in the prison. In my perception, Christ is very present and I am inwardly closest to that part of me there. Jesus loved and served those in need and the forgotten. Women and Men in prison many times are forgotten and judged even tho the divine spark of God lives in them. They are valuable Human Beings, loved by God and are divine. When
this part of them is witnessed and acknowledged, and the power of forgiveness is present, transformation takes place. Freedom then becomes a matter of Geography.

They call me “Grandma Rock” and I am everyone’s loving grandmother and will continue to serve in this capacity as long as I am called. I am so grateful to be an MSIA Minister.


Angela Bell USM Prison Project

3 thoughts on “And Christ Walks Through Prison Walls”

  1. Ah, Beloved Angela, this touches me deeply. I am grateful for your sharing and for your showing up to let the Light work through you in such powerful ways, in the prisons and elsewhere in your life! You rock, Grandma Rock!

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