ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: assistcomm@cs.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net


Wednesday, August 28, 2002

ISLAND OF PAIN BECOMES AN ISLAND OF LOVE FOR MANY...
Inmates on Rikers Island, New York, find hope from Christian team

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

RIKERS ISLAND, NY  (ANS) -- For the thousands of inmates whose home is the prison-city called Rikers Island, New York, this is a place of pain. Located on an island in the East River, between Queens and the Bronx, it was built on a 400-acre plot of land in the early thirties, during the depths of the Depression. (Pictured: Rikers Island Billboard).

And many today are still in the depths of depression, but other have found joy and salvation following visits from Festival of Life NYC 02 teams that have included bike and skateboard displays, music, testimonies and message from Mike MacIntosh. (Pictured, right: Biker upside down for the Gospel).

MacIntosh, who is also senior pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in San Diego and a Ground Zero chaplain, told 220 young inmates during an open-air presentation on Tuesday, August 27, that he had been a hopeless LSD drug addict himself and this had destroyed his marriage and his life.

"Jesus not only restored my life but also my marriage and I was remarried to my lovely wife Sandy," he said on August 27. "He can change your life also."

He did as many prayed the "Sinners Prayer" after the message.

BORN-AGAIN DOO WOP

A big hit with the inmates was New York born Walter Santos, who sings what he called "Born-Again Doo Wop." During his visits to Rikers he sang Doo Wop favorites with Christian lyrics like Stand by Me, In the Still of the Night and Teenager in Love. (Pictured: Santos at Rikers Island).

He told inmates at Rikers Island about how God set him free from drugs and alcohol. "I used to run around these streets of New York like a maniac," he said. "I was on methadone and heroin and would run in and out of the buildings like lost dogs. I was looking for something to fill up the emptiness inside of me. You know that God set me free and he wants to do the same for you. Sometimes it takes the situation that you are in here on Rikers Island, being at a Ground Zero in our life that my friend Mike MacIntosh talks about in his new book, for you to do some self-evaluation and see what is wrong with your life."

Santos said that he visits many prisons in the US and shares his testimony. "It is a great feeling to go into prisons - the so-called tomb of society, which society buries people that are problems - and talk about how they can be raised up out of that tomb just like Lazarus. I am very excited about that because it makes my life worthwhile. I was a taker who used to use people and now I am a giver and I give messages of hope and testimony. If God can set me free, he can set anyone free.

"A lot of inmates in the past have tried to escape from the island but the current in that part of the East River is so strong it is called Hells Gates and so it is when escapees start to drift down to that whirlpool. It's a cauldron of emotions where everyone is going through a storm through their life there. You can get stabbed there for just looking at someone the wrong way. Now we hope and pray that many from this place of pain will find comfort and salvation in Christ."

BORN-AGAIN RAP

Another musical presentation came from Mexican rapper, Fermin IV who then told the crowd how during his secular career as Mexico's most notorious rapper, he was empty and lost. "Then when I found him, my life changed and I am now rapping for him," he said.

Preparing for Tuesday's outdoor gathering, the Festival organizers put on a special dinner for corrections staff and also presented basketball equipment for the prisoners on the island.

DINNER FOR OFFICERS

During that event, Mashere Pride-Rawls, Executive Director for Special Programs and Community Resources for the City of New York Department of Correction said in an interview, "Here on Rikers Island there are ten different facilities all within one minute's walking district from the other. Within the Department we have 14 facilities and out population is slightly fewer than 13,000. The inmates here that are sentenced do a year or less, but more of them here are detainees and then stay to up to a year going back and forth to court trying to resolve their court cases."

When asked if she thought the Christian message would help the inmates, she said, "I feel that any inmate who is open to receive any type of religious service, it could help. They just have to be open."

MUSLIM WELCOME

A surprising attendee was a Muslim cleric who warmly welcomed Mike MacIntosh and his team to Rikers Island.

In an interview, Muslim chaplain, Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil, Director of Ministry Services for the New York City Department of Corrections said, "I work together with all people of faith. I think that is the beauty of God. Anytime that someone would come in to bring in the Word of God whether it is your particular way or another way, it is always for the blessing of God. As the director of ministry services, I worked with all faith groups. It is always be a pleasure to come here and be reminded of God. I don't have a problem with prayer; I have a problem when there is no prayer. So this [Festival of Life] is a wonderful thing and I am here to participate with it and to make sure it goes the way he would want it to go, to remind people about the Word of God." (Pictured: Imam Umar Abdul-Jalil with Mike MacIntosh).

Besides street witnessing teams all over New York, The Festival of Life is holding a series of free events at the Centennial Hall in New York City. Among those performing are Fermin IV, The Kray, Anointed and Michelle Tumes, with Mike MacIntosh bringing an evangelistic messages at the end of the services. For more information visit www.festivaloflife.org.
Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times). Wooding is also a syndicated columnist, and was for ten years a commentator on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 40 books, one of which is "Blind Faith" which he co-authored with his 93-year-old mother Anne Wooding, who was a pioneer missionary to the blind of Nigeria in the 1930s. Copies of this book are available from the ASSIST USA office at PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126. His writings are on the ASSIST Website at: www.assistnews.net
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