Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Special Requests
knock and the door will be answered ... but ya gotta knock...
This blog is intended to be a loop ... the ministry of carrying unconditional love in the form of QiGong inside Folsom prison ... Inspiration, story and commentary shared on the blog so that a much greater “force” or flow is activated ... your support (prayer, interest, financial, etc) for my ministry ... unknown spin-offs and loops as the ripples move out. It been working, sustaining and cultivating healthier programs and infusing my personal growth and capacity with your attention and intention.
I need some help. I’m knocking...
Prayers for the new programs I am starting tomorrow and next week. B yard at New Folsom is known as the no-program yard. If the ducat list went out as it should have, we might have as many as 20 men trying QiGong to find peace within. I begin programs both on the main line, Level IV, and for the men in the gym, Level I and II. Next week Joanne and I will begin a group focused on the Circle of Life process (manifesting change with action steps and accountability).
Money to reprint Freedom Within handout. We have gotten about 15,000 of these inter-faith meditation guides into prisons nationwide. I want to print another 5000 for the California Chaplains conference and that will cost $700.
Digital Video Camera to borrow for this weekend. I will be taking the men from C-Yard’s questions to Master Li’s workshop here in Sacramento , CA this weekend. I hope to video his response and some of his teaching and show the men. My old VHS equipment is broken.
If you can answer: Prayers - lob them on out towards Folsom ... Money for printing - send tax-deductible donations marked for “Judy’s prison work” to: Sacramento Friends Meeting, PO 163677, Sacramento, CA 95816. ... The video camera loan — give me a call or email me or leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.
I am so grateful for your love and support.
16:35 Posted in Supporting this Ministry | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
You are my Community of Support
Come inside with me
This work no longer seems right to call MY work, MY ministry. I do not go in alone. There is a supportive community that I can FEEL, talk to, engage with, and trust to support the emotional and financial path of sharing QiGong inside prisons. Together we are helping to reverse the cultural norm of rejection, shame and abandonment of these precious fellow human beings who are imprisoned. I am delighted to be your emissary. I am grateful for all the support of your prayers, thoughts, intentions, finances, and all manner of blessings.
How you might help:
1) Hold this ministry in your prayers. Pray for our QiGong classes, the practices of the men, and my efforts as their teacher, and the prison system in general as well as the victims. Programs are currently at New Folsom, Old Folsom and Avenal State Prisons.
2) Follow along as the story unfolds, check into this Web Journal frequently. Normally I add into it weekly. If you would like the weekly addition emailed to you I can add you to that group.
3) Be available for specific prayer support. When I need spiritual support, am adding a new program, am having trouble or want to celebrate something I send an email request to the PRAYER SUPPORT team.
4) Support the program financially. Your contributions are managed by the Sacramento Friends Meeting and will be used to support my travels, copying of handout materials and development support materials such as the contemplative calendar I dream of, or development of a prison related prayer research project. Perhaps you might consider my/our work as a part of your "missions" tithing. Marked for “Judy’s prison work” send tax-deductible donations to: Sacramento Friends Meeting, PO 163677, Sacramento, CA 95816
5) Begin to talk and think about our prison system, ask questions. Wonder how things might change so that these institutions can become true houses of healing. See those locked up as fellow humans rather than the rejected dregs of society. Help a crime victim heal. Give a parolee a chance.
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action"
- Mahatma Gandhi
16:40 Posted in Supporting this Ministry | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Friday, January 07, 2005
State of the Prison Ministry Report 1/2005
State of the Prison Ministry Report January 2005
Judy Tretheway
When thinking over 2004 and the evolution of my (our) prison ministry I recognize that something significant has shifted.
This work no longer seems right to call MY work, MY ministry. There is a "we," an "us," an "our" that is forming. I am more and more aware that I do not go in alone, but in some spiritual way, I take in all of you supporting my efforts.
There is beginning to develop a supportive community that I can FEEL, talk to, engage with, and trust to support the emotional and financial path of my ministry sharing QiGong inside prisons.
For years the Sacramento Friends Meeting has sponsored my work but this April, when I thought the doors were all closing, I sent out an email many of you got. The circle has grown much wider.
At that time, I felt resigned to lay down what seemed to be finished, with gratitude. Within days of sending out that email, all the momentum had shifted. Doors were opening and I was feeling empowered with a fresh vitality.
There is no question in my mind that reaching out, asking for help, directing more than just my own intentions and prayers towards this ministry, made a dramatic difference.
Now in 2005, I feel challenged to somehow cultivate the supportive energy of this fledgling community and bind together this scattered support of my ministry. I don't so much have a picture of what or how, as I have a yearning, a feeling of rightness about this next evolution of my previously very personal journey.
So I look to you, my community, for suggestions, for encouragement, for questions and prods. I feel that a big part of the health of this community of support is the cultivation of my own ability to share about the work, and to ask for help and support.
In December, I began a Web Journal. To begin with I pasted in the reports I had written on this years work, added some of the papers I wrote back I 1999, and began writing about each Thursdays experience at Folsom prison. I plan to write down some of the stories, musings, frustrations, and perspective that have previously just been shared orally. Ask me your questions, that will help stimulate the material people want to read most.
http://chifully.blogspirit.com/
I have been encouraged to write some magazine pieces, and to speak at upcoming QiGong conferences. I have submitted four proposals for workshop presentations. I trust that as I develop the Web Journal the articles will emerge.
In November I experimented with asking for financial support and was so pleased that with your donations I was able to print another run of 5,000 of the Freedom Within handout, and pay all my out of pocket expenses for the Chaplain Conference and second trip to Avenal State prison. The pot is empty now, but I have no doubts that when the need arises the resources will be there. And that feels good.
It is good to know you are in this with me -- helping to reverse the cultural norm of rejection, shame and abandonment of these precious fellow human beings who are imprisoned. I am delighted to be your emissary. I am grateful for all the support of your prayers, thoughts, intentions, finances, and all manner of blessings.
How you might help:
1) Hold this ministry in your prayers. Pray for our QiGong classes, the practices of the men, and my efforts as their teacher, and the prison system in general as well as the victims. Programs are currently at New Folsom, Old Folsom and Avenal State Prisons.
2) Follow along as the story unfolds, check into my Web Journal frequently. Normally I add into it weekly. If you would like the weekly addition emailed to you I can add you to that email group -- replay to this email asking to be in the WEEKLY UPDATES group.
3) Be available for specific prayer support. When I need spiritual support, am adding a new program, am having trouble or want to celebrate something I would send out a email request just to that group. Respond I'll put you in the PRAYER SUPPORT email group.
4) Support the program financially. Your contributions are managed by the Sacramento Friends Meeting and will be used to support my travels, copying of handout materials and development support materials such as the contemplative calendar I dream of, or development of a prison related prayer research project. Perhaps you might consider my/our work as a part of your "missions" tithing.
Marked for “Judy’s prison work” send tax-deductible donations to: Sacramento Friends Meeting, PO 163677, Sacramento, CA 95816
5) Begin to talk and think about our prison system, ask questions. Wonder how things might change so that these institutions can become true houses of healing. See those locked up as fellow humans rather than the rejected dregs of society. Help a crime victim heal. Give a parolee a chance.
"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action" - Mahatma Gandhi
Judy Tretheway
19:50 Posted in Newsletters , Reflections , Supporting this Ministry | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Prayer and financial Support
Thank you! My experiments with reaching out for financial and prayer support this year have taught me that there are many people helping the Divine watch over my ministry. I am not alone. Nor are the men I serve. Nor are you and your prayers of healing and support. We flow together in the stream of love (chi) from your prayers and financial support, through my journeys inside, to the discovery and practice with the peaceful inner center from which the men’s lives can move and evolve. May you each feel the deep gratitude of myself and the men inside New and Old Folsom and Avenal Prisons for your contributions. May this project continue the expression of Love that is the key to all healing.
Recent donations have covered the printing of the handouts, my hotel, gas and registration for the Prison Chaplains Conference as well as handouts and hotels for the November Avenal trip. Thank you!
Donations are tax deductible and overseen by the
Sacramento Friends Meeting,
PO Box 163677,
Sacramento, CA 95816.
15:20 Posted in Supporting this Ministry | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this