On Oct. 2, 2024, Northwestern College provided a plethora of reasons for Christian college-seekers to choose this campus as their home for the next four years.
One that many cite as being a main drive for their final decision to attend NW is the focus on Christ in all things on campus.
Whether it is the varied opportunities for undergraduate Christian education or the integration of a faith-based attitude into every campus sport and competitive team, one might struggle to ignore the omnipresence of God as one goes about living life at NW.
However, there is an avenue for Christian growth that often goes underappreciated such as events that Campus Ministry Team coordinates. Faith and Justice Coordinators, Norah Beekhuizen and Kate Van Der Werff, set up annual events for campus ministry. The first of the opportunities that Beekhuizen and Van Der Werff worked on was one of the few recent visits to the Mike Durfee State Prison in South Dakota.
According to Beekhuizen, these prison visits include groups of ten students and one faculty member. They all make the drive up to the prison before going through a few security measures, eventually arriving at the Livingstone Church, built within the walls of the prison.
At the service, the visitors line up at the front of the church and greet every attendee as they walk through the doors. Around 150 people were greeted at the most recent trip that took place a few weeks ago, and many people who attended said that they were quite touched by the testimony that one inmate gave during the service.
Beekhuizen said the following about the details of this man’s sermon. “At the most recent prison visit, the inmate that gave the opening word was attending his last prison church ever,” Beekhuizen said. “His sentence was up, and he was being released. This was probably the most touching experience of the whole visit. After the service, there was a time for people to come up and say goodbye to him, and not only did he have tears running down his face, but just about every inmate did as well. To think that the church had created a community so strong that it made him sad to leave prison was crazy to me.”
It is truly wonderful to see a prison community rectify and disregard traditional stereotypes and norms about what it looks like to be a prisoner through a collective relationship with Christ.
CMT’s Mission and Justice branch would like to inform students that there will be more visits to Mike Durfee State Prison in the upcoming months and to stay posted for more information about these opportunities.
