Congratulations on a job well done

06.FEB.09

EDITOR: Fellow Vincentians, without any bias, I must congratulate the staff and inmates of HMP for making us very proud during our last Christmas Season, with various performances in the last concert which was well attended by people from home and abroad.{{more}} It was very disturbing to me when hearing our open-minded people, as we call ourselves, congratulating these people for a job well done. I call upon the authorities who take credit for that concert to read, assess and do the necessary things which will help to change things here.

(1) I suggest a change of venue to Victoria Park

(2) Invite others to come and see what talent we have behind bars.

(3) I see the need for churches to be involved with inmates, possibly in contest concerts.

The inmates are no more prisoners than many of us out here. They are there because of crimes committed, and they know. But in Psalm 142, verse 7, we read the following: “Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name. The righteous shall compass me about for thou shall deal bountifully with me.”

Our sins surely have us bound and only Jesus can deliver us. Some have sleepless nights, grudges, bad minds and several others. There’s a time for everything (Eccl 3:1). A time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace (Eccl 3:8). Our country can get better, but we have to get out of our prison cells and be free by amending our ways (Jeremiah 7:3). People who are truly spiritually motivated must be open-minded. In the year 1994, I went to Mr. Victor Cuffy, deceased, and another lawyer who is still alive, individually, and got the same answer to this question. I asked, “Sir, if an inmate at the prison approaches the authority one day and says, Sir I have confessed all my sins to Jesus and I am asking that I get a water baptism before I die, whether by hanging or natural cause. Can you make necessary arrangements for it to be so?” The answers to me were no, ‘that can never happen!

But praise God for Superintendent Eric Rodriquez for coming to the rescue of many prisoners who were taught about God, and that His mercy endures forever. Today, there are more criminals out here than in the HMP.

My words are limited, so please enjoy the best until another time by God’s help, and looking forward that our HMP will be a role model for other countries. So, Superintendent Eric Rodriquez, staff and inmates, thanks again for a job well done, and may God help you to continue. Some will be out but will be remembered.

Bishop Lester Frank