THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603080246
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BETSY MATHEWS WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Fans of country and western music will have an opportunity Saturday to lend an ear for fun while lending a helping hand for the future of troubled teens here.
``Re-investing in the Children,'' a fund-raiser for the chaplaincy ministry of the Tidewater Detention Home, is slated for March 16 from 7 to 11 p.m. To be held at Grand Affairs, 2036 Pleasure House Road, in Virginia Beach, the fund-raiser will feature ``The Bob Glass Revue,'' a country and western band that has donated time and talent for the event. Tributes to Garth Brooks, Reba McIntyre, Neil Diamond, Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline and Elvis Presley will be performed.
The chaplaincy ministry serves the Tidewater Detention Home in Chesapeake, which houses juvenile offenders and suspected juvenile offenders from Chesapeake, Suffolk, Southampton, Franklin, Smithfield, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach. Norfolk and Newport News have their own juvenile facilities. Some of the juveniles at the home are awaiting court dates. Others have already been sentenced and are awaiting transport to a state Department of Corrections facility.
At any given time, Tidewater Detention Home houses about 100 juveniles. The chaplaincy program, with its 90 volunteer counselors, is a spiritual lifeline for many of these troubled youth, providing crisis counseling, worship services, Bible studies, one-on-one discipleship and Christian literature.
The head of the chaplaincy ministry, the Rev. J.C. Jones, says the program works to teach the juveniles right and wrong, to show them unconditional love and to provide alternatives through Christian role models, youth programs and churches. In addition to his work at Tidewater Detention Home, Jones runs the Chesapeake Jail Ministry, as pastor to the nearly 500 inmates of the city jail.
Jones began his full-time ministry at the Tidewater Detention Home in 1988.
``I was pastoring a church in Oklahoma City,'' Jones said, ``and one night a parishioner called to say her grandson, who'd just turned 18, had been arrested for murder. I worked with the boy for six months and got acquainted with the chaplain of the jail there. When the young man was sentenced to prison, the chaplain asked if I'd volunteer as a counselor at the jail.
``My church board approved me to work at the jail one day a week, and after a year of this, I went to chaplaincy school in Arlington, Va. When I got back, the Good News Jail and Prison Ministry group called and asked if I'd come to Chesapeake because the chaplain there was moving. I came out here and talked to the sheriff and the board and went back and made the decision to come on out here.''
It was, Jones said, a decision led by God.
If there is a down side to the chaplaincy ministry, it is fund-raising. Jones - who is the only paid employee with the program - said that the ministry gets no government funds. It depends solely on donations from churches, civic groups and individuals. The fund-raiser is being organized by program supporter Sheila Ferguson, with hopes of adding a part-time program assistant in July.
Jones said he believes the chaplaincy ministry is a re-investment in the children of Hampton Roads.
``I continue to be optimistic that God is still bigger than our worst fears and that he can change lives by changing hearts.'' MEMO: A $20 per ticket donation is suggested for the fund-raiser,
``Re-investing in the Children.'' Call Sheila Ferguson, 340-3965, for
information; or mail checks payable to Chesapeake Jail Ministries Inc.
to 496 Woodlake Road, Virginia Beach, Va. 23452. by CNB