Chaplain Ron Weller, inmate Roy Saldana and Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast.
Forgotten Man Ministries provide spiritual refuge for inmates.
#OceanaCountyJail
HART — Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast has announced a new partnership of Forgotten Man Ministries (FMM) with the Oceana County Jail, which just launched this month.
“Sgt. Joel Dickman was instrumental in starting this program — seeing the needs of inmates and how we can meet those needs,” said Mast. FMM is currently working in approximately 33 county jails in Michigan, and has a great reputation within the Michigan Sheriff’s Association, he said.
Chaplain Ron Weller and Sgt. Joel Dickman.
“We know that good mental health is a byproduct of good spiritual health. The sheriff’s administrative team understands that effective jail ministry will ultimately improve our community as changed men and women leave our facility and integrate back into society. We know that due to our facility size and staffing levels, we must be purposeful about what programs we offer. We are committed to offering a program that is passionate about the spiritual wellbeing of our inmates,” the sheriff said.
“FMM will begin sending a chaplain to our facility around two to three times a week. Our chaplain will organize other volunteers for our facility. The chaplain assigned by FMM will be a vetted individual who is familiar with the corrections environment. Our desire is that our chaplain will be a regular part of our everyday team. This will be someone who will be in our facility weekly, meeting with inmates for one-on-one counseling, bible studies, and providing Christian literature.
“For many years, your group of dedicated volunteers has given a significant amount of time dedicated to what we know as the ‘Oceana County Jail Ministry.’ Due to our staffing levels and how we have changed our house rules about how jail ministry was going to look moving forward have made the original group of volunteers system difficult to be effective.
“It’s important to know that we truly appreciate the commitment and dedication of the Oceana County Jail Ministry and what the organization has done over the many years of service to not only the inmates but the staff and community as a whole. We hope that by this transition, people will again see the possibilities of what God can do in this unique setting.
“If you are burdened for the men and women who are incarcerated here, I would ask for you to consider partnering with Forgotten Man Ministries to serve in such a unique way. If you are interested, please e-mail Sgt. Joel Dickman at dickmanj@oceanasheriff.net or call the office (231-873-2121) anytime. If you have a desire to donate to the jail ministry, please go to https://www.forgottenman.org/ for online giving options.”
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