The purpose of this ministry is to provide monthly transportation to visitors of
Ministry Opportunities:
I became a member of the Gittings Prison Ministry for one simple reason – Jim Gittings asked me to. It wasn’t called the Gittings Prison Ministry then. It didn’t even have a name. It had only a simple purpose, one modeled after a similar mission in metro Atlanta. Its purpose would be to simply offer free transportation to anyone who wished to visit an inmate in one of our state prison facilities in Columbia but lacked adequate transportation to do so. And since our inaugural trip on June 9, 2001 that is what we have done. We offer the trips once a month, alternating the second and third Saturdays.
We have three drivers who each drive four times a year. We pick up our guests at the bus station downtown and depart for Columbia in the church bus at 10:00 A.M. We stop for lunch near the prison complex and then drop off our guests at the appropriate facility. We then decide how we will spend the three hours or so until it is time to pick everyone up again. Our “downtime” activities have included trips to the Statehouse, bowling, hiking in the state park, and visiting the Congaree Swamp. We return to the prison complex around 3:00 and pick up our guests for the ride home.
We have encountered a diverse group of people over the years as one would expect. Some are shy and quiet. Others seem to never stop talking. We’ve had infants, and we’ve had folks in their 80’s. We’ve had an entire family that consisted of the inmate’s mother, wife, teenage daughter, and toddler son. There have been boyfriends, girlfriends, sisters, brothers, and friends. All of them excited about visiting their loved one and grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Studies have shown that inmates who get regular visits maintain a closer connection with home and community and have lower rates of re-incarceration. I hope this is true and that we are having some small impact in this area. However, it is not my motivation for making the trips. Jesus made it clear that visiting prisoners was important. So did Jim Gittings. Jim did not go with us on any of our trips. He was too sick to make the first trip in June and died on August 3, 2001. We decided to name the ministry in honor of Jim after his death.
Alan Kirk
