Canadian Mennonite
Volume 5, number 11
June 4, 2001

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Photo: Marcia Boniferro stands in front of the San Francisco Jail where she works as volunteer. MBM photo by Grant Rissler.

San Francisco, Cal.-Some days as Marcia Boniferro leaves work, she turns and waves. But the men with whom she works don't wave back. Their cells in the San Francisco Jail don't let them look down on the street, or up to the sunshine.

Boniferro took this Mennonite Voluntary Service position with the Northern California Service League because she wanted to bring light to a dark place and "learn a lesson in com-passion." She has ample opportunities to do both as a pre-release counsellor. The service league she works for also helps ex-offenders get jobs and make the transition back into society.

As a liaison between the 800 inmates and the outside world, Boniferro's duties include crisis intervention, teaching parenting classes, facilitating visits of children with their imprisoned fathers, and spearheading the production of a journal of writing and art entitled "The Can Opener."

"It's a privilege that they would let someone with my education and training go up there and be on the other side of the bars 40 hours a week," Boniferro said. "It's a privilege, but there's also a cost."

It took a while to get used to being in the jail on a daily basis, she said. "The energy is just so dark and depressing. And it was new to be talking through the bars with murderers and sex offenders. But those first couple of weeks, the thing I realized was that it is so easy to love people."

She told of a visit she helped set up between a prisoner and his newborn daughter. "When I had to bring her back downstairs," she said, "he just cried."

She heard recently that for every African-American male in college, four are incarcerated. "I hardly ever deal with any white people," she says. "It's obvious that Blacks or Hispanics don't have the same rights as others because they're the only ones up there. The United States is failing its minorities. But Canada isn't much better. We just incarcerate native peoples."

"All I see here is suffering," she says flatly. "Suffering for those who are incarcerated, suffering for their families, suffering for their children. You're making a generation of children suffer to make men pay for what they've done. The longer I'm here, the more I just think it's wrong to incarcerate people.... I don't believe God looks down on this place and smiles."

"There are times I feel like what I'm doing is completely worthless," she says. "I can't open the doors. I can't stop California from incarcerating Californians. My perception is that the U.S. justice system is one of the darkest [places] in the world."

But every day, she also feels that she's "bringing light to [that] really dark place."

-Grant E. Rissler

Photo: Deby Hergenrader, left, and her sister Kathy Mullen bring their message on abilities to Emmanuel Mennonite Church.

Abbotsford, B.C.-The service at Emmanuel Mennonite church here was a little unusual on May 20. It was Disability Awareness Sunday and the speakers were a pair of gymnasts from Fresno, California.

Deby Hergenrader made the 1972 U.S. Olympic team but an injury cut her career short. Together with her husband, Deby founded "Break the Barriers," a gymnastics club for people of "different abilities." Deby's sister, Kathy Mullen, is a Special Olympian.

Deby told many moving stories, including how Kathy was able to break barriers that she herself could not. When their gymnastics club was invited to perform at a juvenile detention centre, they were warned that it would not be an easy crowd. The boys gave Deby a warm reception but when she introduced herself to the girls, she was met by "ice."

As she was desperately trying to think of what to say, Deby felt Kathy's hand behind her. Deby pushed Kathy towards the young offender in front of her and said, "This is my sister Kathy and she loves giving hugs." Kathy latched on to the young girl and in no time had melted the ice. Soon the other young girls were lining up to get a hug from Kathy.

These young offenders saw judgement in me, Deby said. "But in Kathy they saw 100 percent unconditional love. Kathy was the bridge." The gymnastics team stayed for an hour after their performance to visit and pray with the inmates.

It is this kind of situation that has led Deby to believe firmly that although we call people like Kathy "disabled," they are perfectly created for the purpose to which God has called them. As the gymnasts travel across North America, they often ask their audiences questions such as: Who is more disabled-the person who can't talk or the person who hurts others with their words? The person who can't hear or the person who won't listen? The person whose mind is slow or the person who is quick to judge?

Deby and Kathy told their stories at Emmanuel and shared their talents through "expanded" sign language: signing and performing gymnastic moves to recorded songs. Many in the congregation found themselves moved to tears. In their closing song, "I see Jesus in you," their genuine joy shone through in their body movements and beaming smiles.

One woman said she wished her sister, who has disabled children, could have been here to experience the different perspective that these athletes brought. After the service, many stopped to thank Deby and Kathy. It was clear that during this worship service at Emmanuel they had once again broken the barriers and given the congregation the opposite of what they had expected: ability awareness.

-Angelika Dawson