Things were going well with IFI-IOWA. However, Prison Fellowship was concerned with the cost of IFI in relation to the few number of inmates being affected. Why spend all that money on 300 inmates over a year when you can contact 300 inmates in a weekend? So we were constantly having to justify what we were doing to folks who did not have a grid for and who had never substantially visited or interacted with personally any IFI. People from all over the country and around the world were visiting IFI IOWA to see what we were doing. There was a lot of talk of expansion around the country and around the world. Ultimately I felt no tug to go anywhere else, but others on our staff did. So nearly all of the original staff and counselors moved on after the first 18-months and then a whole-nother set of staff moved on or up or over and some went to other states and Sam went all-national and things got hectic in an expansion-promotion-administrative-national-sort-of-way. I tried to mostly stay out of it. Even though I kept getting pulled aside by this party and that individual to try and "stage-a-coup" or tattle, or assert my will. I opposed all of that. The only line in the sand I drew was, "If IFI becomes just another treatment program where Jesus in not the center of transformation, I'm out." Then we got sued by the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and I became mired in a lot of lawyer prep and depositions and more lawyer prep and trials and testimonies It was surprised that the lawyers Prison Fellowship had acquired were not saved and were not on my side, nor was Prison Fellowship on my side. I felt very keenly that I was going to testify before the world's representatives and there was no way I could deny The Lord. I felt very alone in that chair for 6 hours as I testified. I felt resented by my own lawyers, Prison Fellowship, and my own supervisors. But I kept true to the best of my frail abilities to what the Lord had placed in me. I even inquired about moving to another IFI, but I didn't have my own house in order, I was being misrepresented to PF National, and I was being under-cut by those who wanted that same position. In the end I was lied about, lied to, and left hung out to dry. (Again, this was just my impression. It was much more complicated and subtle than that and I am not without fault.) On a Tuesday I had discussions to move to another position within IFI-IOWA. By that Friday I was told it was my last day. That Sunday I packed my things in a tub and walked out of the prison. Ironically, on the day I was told to leave, the court decision came back that we had lost our case to the American's United for the Separation of Church and State.
And that's all I have to say about that...
chris
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