Rilla Unger
Rilla Unger, a member of the Intertribal Life Ministries team, was a picture of faithfulness-writing letters to her treasured, incarcerated friends until she could hold a pen no more, shortly before her death in February. She may have been 97 years old, but she was still committed to the outreach she started so many years earlier.
Rilla served as a volunteer for ILM since the late 1980s, when founder George McPeek couldn't keep up with the onslaught of correspondence, many of the letters from prisoners, since Intertribal Life newspaper (then Indian Life) has always been delivered to prisons across North America. So Rilla stepped in and soon was nearly a full-time volunteer, answering 40 to 60 letters a week for more than 35 years.
She wrote thousands of letters to prisoners over that time period, responding to the questions, prayer requests, and general conversations of the correspondants. She prayed for the people she corresponded with, and asked the Lord for wisdom in dealing with each person's needs and for direction on appropriate literature-Bibles or books-to send them to help them come to a saving knowledge of Christ or grow in their faith with Him.
"I find it very fulfilling because most of the people I write to have very deep pain. I'm able to bring some joy and comfort into their lives. Just to get a letter when you're in prison, especially those with a long sentence, is very meaningful," Unger once told a reporter from Winnipeg Free Press. "Both the books and the newspapers [we send them] get passed around from prisoner to prisoner in an institution. Many of them write to tell us that they've accepted Jesus as their Savior and want to know how to live as a Christian."
Of course many of her correspondents-from those with short-term sentences to death row inmates-considered her as family, many even keeping up with her after release from prison.
The ILM director team, Todd and Krystal Wawrzyniak recall, "When we were brand new in the ministry, we were questioning how a newspaper impacted people for the Lord. Then we received a phone call from a man in Texas who asked to speak to Rilla.
"For the next hour this man shared how he had been incarcerated and came across our paper. He found it encouraging and then read that he could write in for prayer and someone would write back. He didn't know what to expect-if he'd even get a response.
"Rilla responded to him. She was always encouraging, never judgemental. She sent a Bible to him, and encouraged him to memorize scripture. Eventually, he decided to place his faith in Jesus.
"He started sharing the gospel with others, and soon a guard and his cell mate started following Jesus. After he was released, he turned his previous motorcycle affiliation into something for the Lord and started a motorcycles for Jesus ministry. This man is still ministering today!
"What impact does a newspaper have in people's lives? Much, when God uses people like Rilla to share His love!"
