The LOCK Ministry: Newsletter Issue 6

The LOCK Ministry: Newsletter Issue 6 (1/29/2022)

The LOCK Ministry

Annual Celebration 2021

November 14, 2021 was the biggest celebration day for our ministry. It has been only three short years since The LOCK Ministry held our launching service on January 20, 2019, but God has been blessing us beyond our imagination. We had initially planned to present our ministry report at our annual meeting, but we were not able to get together because of the COVID-19 outbreak. To those who have supported our ministry through their prayers and finances, to those who have partnered us through volunteering for the P1 PROJECT, and to those who have experienced transformation through our ministry, we were waiting for an opportunity for all of us to be able to gather in praise and thanksgiving for God’s amazing grace. And, by God’s grace, He chose the perfect timing for our Annual Celebration.

We were able to finally gather in November, and this timing couldn’t have been better, since, in recent times, gathering has become increasingly difficult because of the Omicron variant. The church that provided a place for our celebration, Beautiful Church(Senior Pastor: Seung Hee Ko), has been very considerate in not only providing a place, but also in providing a praise team who led us in praise, and helped with video, sound, and in making beautiful program brochures. In addition, we would like to thank Pastor Seung Hee Ko for the encouraging message and to all the members of Beautiful Church. We would also like to thank the praise leader, Pastor Jong-sul Park and the praise team, Trinity Women’s Choir from Lord’s Light Church, Caris Piano Trio, Deacon Soonsik Choi from the Church of Joy in Southern California, and brother Jason Menjivar for playing saxophone.

The event was important for ministry reporting, but the testimonies of P1 PROJECT volunteers, Elder Pablo Kim and Elder David Kim, and the testimonies of the LOCK Community members, David Park, Hyuh Lee, Danny Yoo, and Jayson Shone, were a blessed opportunity to confirm the mission and purpose of our ministry.

Inside this issue

Annual Celebration 2021............................1
LOVE Ministry....................................................2
Jail/Prison Visits................................................2
LEARN Ministry.................................................2
P1 PROJECT.........................................................2
P1 PROJECT Volunteers..............................4
LIVE Ministry.......................................................4
Potter's Hands Project.................................4
Direct-To-Garment Printing.....................5
LOCK Community...........................................6

LOVE Ministry - Love Of Christ’s Kingdom

Jail/Prison Visits

Visits to jail/prison, which were stopped for more than a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, resumed on April 10, 2021. But due to the proliferation of the Delta variant virus and the recently severe Omicron mutation virus, California prisons/jails have been experiencing frequent visitation bans. Lock-down, administered by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation(CDCR), consists of three phases.

Phase-1 (Outbreak Phase) stops all classes and programs, visitation is prohibited, and inmates can go out on the playground only once a week to see the sun. If a new patient does not appear for 14 days, it will be moved to the Phase-2 (Modified Phase), where the inmates still receive a lot of restrictions. If a new patient does not appear for 4 weeks, it will change to Phase-3 (New Normal Phase) and all life will return to normal. Many prisons have experienced continuous and emergency lock-downs, so we were not able to even consider visits to prisons further away. Subsequently, we had to limit our visits only to jails in Los Angeles County and Orange County. The visits were also limited to the ones whom we already have been in fellowship with, and have not been able to attempt visits to any new inmates. In the past six months, we have sent 90 books of Today and 102 books of Living Life as to help the inmates’ devotional time. Bibles have been sent whenever the needs arise. We have been sending in Spanish Bibles as well, as the Spanish P1 PROJECT expands.

LEARN Ministry - Learn On Christ’s Kingdom

P1 Project

The P1 PROJECT is the flagship project of our ministry. We started the P1 PROJECT to encourage the inmates to read, write, and meditate on the Word of God according to Psalm 1, which says the blessed person is the one who meditates on the Word of God day and night. We pay $1 for every chapter the participant writes and we also give out two starting bonuses. There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible, so when they complete the entire Bible, they will receive $1,229 which includes the bonuses. According to our Newsletter #3 which was written in July 2020, there were 26 P1 PROJECT participants at that time. In the same year, on our Newsletter #4, by the end of December, the number increased to 100 participants. Then 6 months later, according to our Newsletter #5, by the end of June, 2021, there were 200 participants, and now, on in our current Newsletter #6, we have more than 330 participants.

The P1 PROJECT not only allows many participants to meditate deeply on the Word of God for the first time, but through continuous correspondence, we pray for their spiritual needs. Since most of the participants are without family support, they have confessed that they have gained a lot of strength not only in receiving the money but also the letters of encouragement and words of comfort. Through the Word of God, many participants in the P1 PROJECT are deeply moved by the Holy Spirit, transformed to live the blessed life of Christians, and furthermore, we expect they will continue to have a lasting fellowship with us even after they get released.

Sister J is a 38-year-old woman who corresponds with Deacon Sydney. She ran away from home when she was 13 and has been in and out of Juvenile Halls and jails all her life. Currently she is incarcerated in Santa Ana Jail. She started the P1 PROJECT last September and has experienced transformation in her life. She has completed the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and started on the book of John. She would have never imagined writing a big book like the Bible, but she confesses that it is amazing that she is able to write the Bible through the P1 PROJECT. She has learned so much about God and Jesus through transcribing the Bible and has realized she does not need a lot of money. The desire for money to spend and receive through the P1 PROJECT is also gone. She says God has given her talent in drawing and earns money by drawing portraits. Since starting the P1 PROJECT, she has been evangelizing to other inmates. We are witnessing a small fruit that began with the P1 PROJECT through sister J.

The chart on the left shows the number of participants in the P1 PROJECT at the end of December 2021. There are 326 participants in the 22 California State prisons and seven county detention centers. We have the largest number of participants with 135 people from California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in Norco. Next is the Orange County jails, with 40 people participating. Among the 5 jails in Orange County, TLF (Theo Lacy Facility) and CMJ (Central Men’s Jail) have the most participants. 135 people from CRC is a large number of participants. However, given that the current number of inmates in CRC exceeds 4,000, the number of P1 PROJECT participants is less than 4%. Therefore, we need to remember that there are a plethora of opportunities for us to evangelize. In the last six months we had interesting situations where female inmate participants have significantly increased. There are currently 5 women participants from the California Institution for Women in Corona and 6 women participants from Santa Ana jail. The special characteristic about women participants is that they are very enthusiastic about the P1 PROJECT and they are experiencing transformation in their lives.

P1 PROJECT Volunteers

As the number of participants in P1 PROJECT increases, volunteers are the most necessary helping hands for our ministry. 7 new volunteers joined our ministry through the P1 PROJECT volunteer training at the Beautiful Church on September 12, 2021. David Kim, Pablo Kim (Spanish), and George Wiriadinata have volunteered from the beginning when the P1 PROJECT was launched. Sharon Hahn, Johann Joo, Sydney Joo, Joy Kim, David Lee (Spanish), Ariel Song (Spanish), Deborah Song (Spanish) joined us through P1 PROJECT training class at the Beautiful Church, and recently, Cindy Oh and Song Un Ramos have joined us as well. As a result, there are 12 dedicated P1 PROJECT volunteers. Moreover, Deacon Sydney Joo comes to the office every Tuesday and Friday to ensure smooth communication with all P1 PROJECT volunteers. Letters and P1 PROJECTS that we receive are first scanned and filed in the office. Then, they are emailed to the volunteers. Volunteers read the P1 PROJECT they receive and let Deacon Sydney know how much the participants get paid. The office forwards the money using the online system to participants in jail/prison, and sometimes as a package or to the family members they request. Volunteers write and send a reply letter to their participants and email us the copy of the letter, then we print the letter and file them in participants’ folders. As this process repeats, participants in P1 PROJECT are encouraged and comforted through continuous fellowship with the volunteers.

LIVE Ministry - Live Out Christ’s Kingdom

Potter’s Hands Project

Even if people from prison say they are sober from drug addiction and alcoholism after they are released, they have a hard time finding a job and a place to live. Unless we solve this problem, the vicious cycle of them going back to incarceration is inevitable.

Therefore, last year we launched Potter’s Hands Project so that we can help them find a job. We purchased an embroidery machine in February of last year, opened an office, and we have been running an embroidery business for a year. After purchasing the Ricoma MT-1502 embroidery machine, it took us quite some time to learn and get adjusted to the machine, but now we are able to sell embroidered hats, t-shirts, jackets, and towels.

Our customers have continuously increased from small businesses in nearby areas to the churches and individuals. Our customers have expanded out of state to areas such as Texas, Ohio, and Michigan. We have started to offer our product online website, www.pottershandsproject.com, which we expect to increase our sales volumes.

LIVE Ministry—Live Out Christ’s Kingdom Potter’s Hands Project P1 PROJECT Volunteers (P1 PROJECT—continued) 5 In our embroidered final products of hats and t-shirts we attach a hang tag before sending them out. As you can see in the picture on the left, a hang tag is a small tag – in the front, is the logo of The LOCK Ministry and the QR code. Anyone with their cell phone, can take a picture of the QR code and go to our web site www.thelockministry.org. On the back of the hang tag, it is written “Your purchase made a difference. Thanks for helping us mentor, educate, and guide current and former inmates.”

The main purpose of the Potter’s Hand Project is to provide vocational training and provide business start-up opportunities to P1 PROJECT participants who are released. However, even though we have the right candidate to hire, we have been lacking in financial support required to hire and educate for at least 6 consecutive months. Finally, though, we are financially prepared to hire someone who can work part-time for about two days a week, and we were able to start training the new hire as of January this year. As the Potter’s Hand Project expands, we pray that we can educate and help more candidates.

Direct-To-Garment Printing

It’s been almost a year since we have purchased the embroidery machine for the Potter’s Hand Project. After we started the business, we discovered that there are areas in the garment decoration business that embroidery machines cannot cover. The embroidery machine has the ability to beautifully decorate small logos on hats, polo shirts, and towels. However, a technology called Direct to Garment (DTG) Printing is required to draw photos and pictures or long sentences on the shirts in a short time. Most of the Embroidery businesses combine DTG businesses.

There have been generous sponsors who have provided funding to purchase the DTG equipment, so we have decided to purchase the equipment. We are going to purchase a DTG equipment model called Epson F2100, along with pretreatment equipment and a hot press. DTG equipment mostly uses cotton T-shirts, and the fabric needs some chemical treatment to help the printed paint settle permanently on the clothes, which is pre-treatment. And after the print, we use the hot press to iron it with hot heat so that the paint settles in the cloth. Epson F2100 equipment also features Direct to Film (DTF) as well as DTG, so we can print pictures or letters on vinyl first and attach them to clothes as needed. Once DTG and DTF equipment come in, most of the necessary garment decoration technology is ready for a wide range of business expansion for our ministry.

LOCK Community

Our first LOCK Community gathering was on June 27, 2021. From then on, we have met six times once a month for the last six months. There is a saying, “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, but community.” It is very hard for people who have fallen into drugs, alcohol or gambling addiction to get out of that addiction. Although they seem to have been out of that addiction for some time, oftentimes we see them go back to old habits. Addressing addiction isn’t just about getting out of addiction for a while, but it’s important to give them a sense of belonging through the community with a caring relationship. In many cases, when addicts meet a good spouse and have children, they see them get out of addiction.

In addition, through the community with believers we have seen transformed lives through their testimony. In Samuel 22:1-2, when David was on the run from King Saul, the Adullam community was formed and gained strength, where he met the people who became the cornerstone of unified Israel. In the similar way, we want to create a Jesus believing community where people can encourage one another by getting rid of addiction and old habits through the LOCK Community.

The first purpose of the LOCK Community is fellowship. Through community we comfort and encourage one another. Second is volunteer. Through their life experiences they can help those who are going through hard times. Third is the sponsor. As the LOCK Community members settle down and lead a decent job or business, they can remember the help they received from The LOCK Ministry and now they can return financial support for our ministry. Fourth is the leader. Eventually, we anticipate that the LOCK Community members will become the leaders of The LOCK Ministry. At the Annual Celebration 2021 held on November 14, the LOCK Community members took charges of playing many important roles. We earnestly pray that the LOCK Community members will become important leaders in our ministry and, even more, to have a profound impact on our communities.

Prayer Requests

1. Many P1 PROJECT participants may be transformed by the power of the Word of God and experience the new beginning.

2. For volunteers and financial supports to continue to expand the P1 PROJECT.

3. For the expansion of the Potter’s Hands Project so that we may be able to train those coming out of incarceration and support them to start their own businesses.

4. For strong bond among the LOCK Community members, and it may become the driving force of The LOCK Ministry.