Woman takes her ministerial message behind bars

The first time Kathleen A. Marchant went to prison, she was terrified.

Marchant, 59, was part of a jail ministry team headed for the Pine Lodge Women’s Correctional Center in Medical Lake, Wash. She had been preparing for the prison retreat for nearly a year, but was apprehensive when the time came.

“The fear is a lot of not knowing how it would go,” Marchant said. “The first time I went in I was sick to my stomach, I was so scared. But I was scared of what? It was the unknown. Because once I got in there, they’re just people.”

That was 2009, and since then Marchant, of Culdesac, has gained a broad understanding and developed deep compassion for the spiritual needs of people in prison. She recently wrote her second book, an eight-week Bible study designed for the incarcerated and titled “The Great Escape — Redeemed for Life.”

“All these people, and you can’t be there all the time,” Marchant said of her inspiration for writing the book. “That’s when God just laid on my heart, well, we’re going to write a Bible study that pays special attention to those women. Because I can love them from far away. I can pray for them. But I can’t be there.”

Marchant came in contact with the prison ministry team during a women’s conference in 2008. The nondenominational group organized prison retreats including Bible studies, discussions, crafts, music and dance. They also provided special food for the women who qualified for the retreats, including coffee, hot chocolate and beef sandwiches. Marchant said the retreat team received donations, but volunteers also were responsible for expenses of about $250 each.

“We had a base camp and we stayed at a church in Spokane; slept on cots with sleeping bags,” Marchant said. “Then we went in Thursday night and met the women who we were going to minister to. The bell rang at 8 p.m. for their bed checks and to return to their cells, and then we go back to base camp. We would eat and discuss the people we met and plan the next day.”

Inmates generally welcomed the chance to alter their prison routine with enthusiasm, though not all of them were religious or even understood Christianity. Marchant said the volunteers would talk about how to live a Christian life, what Christianity means and “how to really survive and feel good about your life within the prison walls. You don’t have to just be idle and a victim. There is worth and there is value no matter where you are. … It’s the same for all of us.”

Marchant said she seldom knew — or even cared — what crimes the women had committed to land them in prison.

“Most of the time they just appreciated that someone would listen to them and not judge them,” she said. “Whenever I would go in I would never know their background. ... The only call that I was to do and the team was to do was to just be there and listen to them and just love on them. Let them know our past doesn’t define who we are.”

Volunteers did their best to follow strict guidelines regarding personal contact with inmates. Once, however, when Marchant was talking to a woman who was emotionally upset, “she was talking and collapsed in my arms. I fell over on the floor and I was scared what’s going to happen. Then I thought: ‘What would Jesus do?’ I just sat there and (the guards) didn’t move.

“That was one of the biggest blessings in my life — to be able to be there and help her experience that — just the release.”

In 2017, the retreat team moved their ministry to the Washington Women’s Correctional Center in Gig Harbor. More than 200 inmates signed up for the retreat, but because of rules regarding inmate-to-volunteer ratios, only about 25 women were allowed to participate.

That’s when Marchant developed the idea of writing a Bible study, following much of the retreat program’s focus.

“My goal would be to give them the tools to build their life in the prison and live a productive life within that time frame,” she said.

The study walks readers through an introduction to Christianity, how to pray, meditate, how to study the Bible and Christian action.

The book was published by Deep River Books of Sisters, Ore., and contains 312 pages. It retails for about $14.99 and is available at some local bookstores and at online retailers, including deepriverbooks.com.

Marchant said the study already has been picked up by seven Bible study groups, including one in South Africa. And the feedback she has received so far has been positive.

Through this process, Marchant said she has learned to put her trust and the outcome of the book’s success in God’s hands and not to worry about the details.

“I think people overthink (Christianity),” she said. “To me it’s just basically you just need to love people. That’s what we’re called to do, and when you do that, your life is just so much better.”

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.