Zion's Prison Mission is a co-operative outreach effort with our sister congregations of the Central/Southern Illinois Synod Northern Conference and other local ministries. Led by our Missionary to Prisons, Karen Wong, AIM, the Mission's objectives are to:
- develop, coordinate and promote prison ministry opportunities for the congregations of the Central/Southern Illinois Synod's Northern Conference;
- develop and carry out ministries with female inmates inside state correctional facilities, federal correctional institutions, and county jails within the Northern Conference area;
- develop, coordinate, and promote an affiliate of Project Return prisoner reintegration ministry in the Northern Conference area;
- provide for other prison related ministries in the Northern Conference area.
Currently the Mission focusses on two ministries.
In partnership with Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI), Karen Wong, AIM, is a part-time chaplain at the Pekin Women's Federal Work Camp. Her ministry there includes leading classes on "Boundaries" and "Changes That Heal," and one-on-one spiritual counseling.
![Project Return of Peoria logo]](images/ProjectReturnPeoria-280.jpg)
Project Return of Peoria helps incarcerated mothers reintegrate into the Peoria community by matching each returning mother with a team of trained and supported volunteers for one year. We also educate the public about the barriers these women face as they seek to make a successful re-entry into the community. Click here or on the logo for more about Project Return.
Resurrection: The Mission's Newsletter
About the Missionary to Prisons:
Karen Wong, an ELCA Associate in Ministry (AIM), has been serving as a prison chaplain for Lutheran Social Services of Illinois since 1998. Prior to being called by Zion, she was the founding Director of Project Return of Central Illinois, which partners with incarcerated mothers returning to the Springfield area. She served as Central Illinois Director for Prisoner and Family Ministry of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois from 2001 to 2006, where she developed LSSI's prison ministry program and led the Storybook Project. Commissioned as an ELCA AIM in 1995, she served as Minister for Youth, Family, and Women's Issues at Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church, Washington, Illinois, from 1995-2001. She was called by Zion as a part-time Missionary to Prisons in May 2008, going full-time in September 2009.
History of the Mission:
The seeds for this mission were planted in the late 1990s when members of Zion began to participate in LSSI's Storybook Project, where volunteers go into nearby prisons to assist incarcerated parents record themselves reading books their children back at home. For some time Zion also housed most of the books used for Storybook Project.
In 2001 Zion's Pastor Steven Tibbetts became one of three pastors offering Holy Communion to inmates of the Women's Federal Work Camp in Pekin, where Karen Wong, AIM, was an LSSI chaplain. She then established an office for LSSI's Prisoner and Family Ministry at Zion in 2004, co-ordinating the nearby Storybook Project and chaplaincy services. Karen also joined the congregation, remaining as a member after leaving LSSI to form Project Return of Central Illinois in Springfield.
In 2007, the Pastors of the Northern Conference began discussions to establish Project Return in the Peoria area. With Conference support, Zion called Karen Wong, AIM, in Spring 2008 as a part-time Missionary to Prisons to direct that effort. That summer Zion also entered into partnership with LSSI, enabling Karen to continue her chaplaincy at the Pekin Work Camp. The first two Project Return partnership teams were commissioned in Advent 2008.
