Ministry reaches out to inmates

Published 2:11 pm Monday, December 30, 2013

The Butler County Correctional Facility might not have a chimney, but that didn’t stop several members of the Greenville community from dropping off a few presents for inmates on Christmas Eve.

Warrior Ministries partnered with several area churches, businesses and donors to provide Christmas dinner and other gifts, and event coordinator and evangelist Carolyn Griffin said that the event couldn’t have gone better.

“The inmates had a dinner with macaroni and cheese, green beans, several desserts, fruit, turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce — they had a full traditional dinner along with toiletries and other items that were donated,” Griffin said. “And we made sure that the people who are in jail that don’t normally get anything got those items for Christmas.”

Email newsletter signup

Warrior Ministries is a support ministry fostered within the Camellia City that promotes fellowship among all denominations.

Though technically not a church — meaning there is no congregation — it also means that there are no limitations on who can contribute to the cause.

In this sense, Warrior Ministries’ congregation is the entire community.

And for Griffin, uniting the community behind a common cause that resonates with the spirit of Christmas is a gift in and of itself.

“The first group that I would have to say I partnered with is my church that I’m a local member of, and that’s the Harrison Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the pastor is Elder Timothy O’Neal,” Griffin said.

Other contributors include Pastor Cecilia Adams and the House of Prayer Holiness Church, Judge Steven Norman, Commissioner Jesse McWilliams, Safe Harbor director Kathy Smyth, First United Methodist Church, Norman-Blackmon Motor Company, Hot Wax and more.

“It was really great to give back,” Robinson said. “We all worked together to make sure that everything was in place, and to make the dinner happen for the guys in the jail.”

And just as many others are looking to make New Year’s resolutions, Warrior Ministries has resolved to make a resurgence in 2014 with a host of future events, including others that the inmates of the Butler County Correctional Facility might want to mark their calendars for.

“The date is tentative, but we are also going to have a rededication of Warrior Ministries coming up in February because that will be seven years since my ordination as an evangelist,” Griffin said. “And the individuals at the Butler County Correctional Facility are my friends, and they can look forward to Easter and other times when the sheriff, Kenny Harden, who so graciously worked with Warrior Ministries, can work with us to do that.”