The LOCK Ministry: Newsletter Issue 7

The LOCK Ministry: Newsletter Issue 7 (7/2022)

The LOCK Ministry

Walk for Mission

Walk for Mission is an event held by Seed Church. Seed Church (Senior Pastor: Hyuk Bin Kwon) is a Korean church in Orange County, Fullerton and they are interested in serving local missions. We were invited to their second Walk for Mission event that was on June 4th in The Courthouse parking lot in Fullerton. Along with us, Milal Mission in Southern California, KFAM and Seed Social Impact CMC were also invited. Each organization had their own tent and we had opportunities to share about our ministries with participants. We also were able to hand out hats that were embroidered by Potter’s Hands Project. Juanita Cooke Trail in Fullerton is a 2.8 mild trail that is well-known by locals. Participants were able to enjoy hiking in beautiful weather and learn about local missions.

It was a fruitful time because we were able to unite with Seed Church to share about our ministry. It was a blessed time for P1 PROJECT volunteers and LOCK community members to work together and participate during the event. We would like to thank all members of the Seed Church. Special thanks to Mr. Jong Chan Lee for being the bridge between our ministry and the church. He is a Christian leader who published 8 books on guiding Christian business executives, and he recently published a book “Post-Covid, Homo Booster is coming”.

Inside this issue

Walk for Mission...............................................1
LOVE Ministry....................................................2
Jail/Prison Visits/Counseling...................2
LEARN Ministry.................................................2
P1 PROJECT.........................................................2
P1 PROJECT Volunteers..............................3
P1 PROJECT Participants...........................3
P1 PROJECT Future.......................................4
LIVE Ministry.......................................................4
Potter's Hands Project.................................4
Direct-To-Film Printing...............................5
LOCK Community...........................................6

LOVE Ministry - Love Of Christ’s Kingdom

Jail/Prison Visits/Counseling

Recidivism Rate, which is measured by criminal acts that resulted in rearrest in 3 or 5 years, has decreased during COVID-19 but it is still around 71%. The goal of our ministry is to reduce recidivism. Most of the time people are rearrested not because of new crimes but due to not following probation/paroles and a lot of times it involves drugs. During the last 6 months, four people that we had close relationships were rearrested. We visited them while they were incarcerated and counseled and prayed with their parents. Two of them were released but the other two are still waiting for their last trials.

Restriction on visitation due to COVID-19 has been lifted but it is still required to make an appointment the day before and only one adult can visit the inmates. There are keeping 14-day quarantine policy if there is an outbreak, and this makes it difficulty to do jail/prison visits. The two that were released went back to work and they are getting support from their families but the other two that are waiting for trials are still struggling with drug addiction and there is a high chance they would go back to their old lives. We are praying that they can either go to a hospital or even prison where they can spend some time rehabilitating and start new lives.

LEARN Ministry - Learn On Christ’s Kingdom

P1 Project

Prison ministry and P1 PROJECT is following Jesus’ commission to spread the gospel but there are frustrations and disappointment when we are not able to see early fruits. Because they are people with a lot of hurt, it is difficult to develop close trustworthy relationships. We recently received a beautifully hand-made thank you letter from a participant. Brother K is a former inmate who was released after 3 years being in prison. His letter encouraged us and brought us joy. We are always looking forward to his letter. Just like the scripture in Psalms, hardships that he endured in prison became blessings. “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees.” (Psalm 119:71) We sincerely pray that God will continue to guide him and bless him while adjusting to his new life. We have been meeting in person and continuing our relationship by sharing God’s word daily.

P1 PROJECT Volunteers

P1 PROJECT has been growing continuously. With God’s abundant grace, the number of participants have increased from 320 to over 500 since the beginning of 2022. This amazing growth was possible because of the Lord working in the hearts of 23 volunteers’ prayers and efforts, caring for the participants. In particular, there is Ms. Sydney who has been providing administrative support to all volunteers. After P1 PROJECT and letters are picked up from the P.O. Box in Brea post office, she scans them and sends them to the volunteers. She also receives response letters from the volunteers, copies and saves them, and determines the amount of money the participants receive. She works daily for the P1 PROJECT due to the increased volume, also coming to the office every Tuesday and Friday. Ms. Minae Chung has recently joined the office every Tuesday to help Ms. Sydney. We held a P1 PROJECT volunteer gathering on April 30th where we had the opportunity to thank them while having dinner.

P1 PROJECT Participants

Brother S is 57 years old and currently serving his time in Valley State Prison in Chowchilla. He started P1 PROJECT a little over 1 year ago. He left his home at the age of 13 and went to jail after stealing a car from a Mexican Restaurant. Since then, he has committed nearly every crime a person can commit in this world. He is currently serving his sentence for bank robbery but is scheduled to be released this December. He admits that by the grace of God he is still alive despite having to face death countless times. He would like to write a book about his life someday and would call the book “Broken Hot Sauce Bottles”. He said his life resembles broken hot sauce bottles placed in the back of a restaurant. We were able to tell he struggled with mental illness when he first started P1 PROJECT, as his letters contained a lot of nonsense and gibberish, making it difficult to read his letters.

After some time, he sent his writing of a few chapters of Matthew and asked for a package worth $150 urgently. He promised that he will send his finished writing from Matthew to Romans soon. We could not trust this request and did not send the money at the time. Despite the rough beginning, he has been successfully doing P1 PROJECT and as time goes by, his letters and R&A (Reflection & Application) have improved. So far, he has finished the New Testament and just finished up to Samuel in the Old Testament. His letter and R&As continued to improve and we were able to tell he is truly doing P1 PROJECT joyfully.

The surprising fact is 20 participants in Valley State Prison also started P1 PROJECT because of Brother S’ introduction. Through him, we have been witnessing improvement of his writing skills from God’s word even without proper education. We are concerned about what he can do after being released at the age of 57 but since God has changed him through the Word, we are confident that he will be given new opportunities. It is our hope and joy to see such changes through P1 PROJECT.

P1 PROJECT Future

As the number of participants increased to over 500, warning lights started to come on. The maximum participants that can be handled has been reached and Ms. Sydney’s working time has become excessive. We started to struggle financially as well. We have decided to make an adjustment until other churches or mission agencies emerge who can assist, or more effective operating methods and resources are prepared.

First, we stopped all incoming P1 PROJECT participants from jails. We did this because it is difficult to have continuous communication with participants in jail due to their short period of incarceration. We are suggesting to start P1 PROJECT after moving to a prison. Secondly, it is difficult to send money to inmates in county jail. We are able to send money to California prison inmates using an online system called J-Pay. But when sending money to inmates in county jail, an official money order has to be created and it takes a lot of time and manpower. We decided to make an exception if there are personal family requests.

For the prison inmates, we are now putting new incoming participants on a waiting list. They can start P1 PROJECT after a participant is being released from prison. If there are more volunteers and increase in financial support or churches or other mission agencies emerge, we will resume receiving new participants. There are 35 prisons and 150 jails in California and the number of inmates is nearly 200,000. The P1 PROJECT participants are only 500, which is 0.25 % of the total inmates in California. Please pray that sufficient partners and financial re sources may be prepared so that we can carry out the mission to more inmates through the Word of God.

LIVE Ministry - Live Out Christ’s Kingdom

Potter’s Hands Project

The purpose of Potter’s Hands Project is to provide education and skills to previous inmates and drug addicts to start their own business. Currently we are operating an embroidery business and a Direct to Garment business. We trained two brothers in the last 6 months. Brother J started working with us part-time initially, but since February he started working full-time. Brother J has shown interests and talents in sales and has been responsible for reaching out to individuals and organizations to deliver sales. Brother W joined us in May and he is mainly working on product creation.

Embroidery has been mainly on hats and polo shirts but recently we were able to do this on towels as well. We purchased Epson F2100 garment printing equipment last March along with a pre-treat and a hot-press equipment. We would like to thank all sponsors who made these new purchases possible. LIVE Ministry—Live Out Christ’s Kingdom Potter’s Hands Project P1 PROJECT Future (P1 PROJECT—cont’d) 5 Amid the high casualties caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, missions in Ukraine are emerging as a major task. Our ministry also made and sold hats with the colors of the Ukrainian flag to help the Ukrainian mission and delivered half of the proceeds to the Ukrainian mission. Although it was a very small amount, it was a project that we decided to do because we wanted to participate in world missions even a little.

Direct-To-Film Printing

For Direct to Garment, there are actually two shirt printing methods: Direct-To-Garment (DTG) printing and Direct-To-Film (DTF) printing. DTG is a method that prints directly onto shirts and DTF is a method that prints on a film then attaches to shirts using high temperature press. DTG is mainly suitable for cotton shirts but not for shirts that is made of polyesters. DTF is widely used because it adheres well to any fabric and the colors come out vividly. DTF costs a little more because it requires more film and powder. The pictures on the right are shirts that we made for Beautiful Church Summer Bible School and Korean language school. DTF can be used for a variety of fabrics, such as the one on the left.

The main purpose of the embroidery and DTG/DTF business from Potter's Hands Project is to provide vocational training to those coming out of prison and to those who are breaking free from drug addiction. But it also can financially support The LOCK ministry as well, including P1 PROJECT. Right now, the reality is that we are not yet able to cover our own operating costs, but we hope that we will be able to help finance the overall financial requirements of The LOCK ministry as we accumulate skills and secure a good number of customers. We will need a lot of financial support to support the rapid growth of P1 PROJECT. We are currently supporting the training of two people. If we do this for six months at a time, we can support at least four people a year, and we hope that the number will continue to grow in the future. Through the Potter's Hands Project, we are praying that many people will become more competent and financially independent. The picture on the right is a shirt made for the first P1 PROJECT volunteer meeting in April. Recently, the Potter's Hands Project has opened a new website that is used for business. (www.lockcustomdesign.com)

LOCK Community

The LOCK Community, which had its first meeting on June 27 2021, continued to meet every month, and held 6 meetings in 6 months last year. At the beginning of this year, however, the January meeting had to be canceled due to the sudden spread of the COVID-19 Omicron, and the 7th meeting was held in February. After that, they met twice as a Bible study group, but now it has discontinued. Among the members of the LOCK Community, Brothers J and W are currently receiving vocational training in our office, so we have the opportunity to meet almost every day.

We recently learned that Hillside Church in Los Angeles has become a gathering place for several LOCK Community brothers. Five bothers, including Brother J, who is being trained in our office, began to attend Hillside Church. Pastor Sam Koh from Hillside Church visited our office, and we were able to talk about the ministry of caring for the growing number of LOCK Community members.

Prayer Requests

1. P1 PROJECT is at capacity. Please pray for expanded partnership, more volunteers and financial support that can keep P1 PROJECT growing.

2. Continued growth of Potter’s Hands Project and increased number of customers and clients so that many former inmates can be trained and assisted.

3. Brother J’s future career as his vocational training is about to complete.

4. Successful completion of vocational training for Brother W and also other potential new brothers through Potter’s Hands Project.