Faith's Social Justice Prison Ministry

By Mike Valder

This is to acknowledge Lynn Nau who has been the mainstay of Faith's prison ministry work for many years. She writes to several prisoners on a frequent basis and sends them our church bulletin. A year ago she helped me find the contact information for a prisoner who I knew 40 years ago but I have never reached out with any kind of contact. He is 90 years old and has been in prison for 28 years. I wrote to him and he wrote back, and I learned that he was due to have his fourth parole board hearing in July of this year. Since I no longer have a license to practice law I recruited my attorney friend Dave Appleton to do the legal end of helping in this case. He was great!

I contacted the prisoner's family and things developed to the point where I spoke with him by phone and then I testified at his parole board hearing recently. To explain to the Board why I was testifying, here is what I said: “In recent years I have been active in my church's social justice program which involves corresponding with people in Arizona’s jails and prisons, and providing holiday gifts for the children of people in prison. We believe that we are called to do what we can and what is appropriate for people in prison. Matthew's gospel calls us to visit the imprisoned. For many prisoners such outreach may be the only support they receive from outside prison. Upon release we welcome them into our church community."

A member of the board asked about this and I told them about Faith Lutheran Church. By a vote of 4 to 1 the prisoner was granted parole and the family was jubilant. Five members of the family were in Phoenix from California for this hearing.

The purpose of this note is to acknowledge the work that Lynn Nau has done for many years and that she was so ready to help me find the contact information on this prisoner and she encouraged my work on the case.

Praise Lynn, praise God!