“ALFIO & THE CROSS OF REDEMPTION”
By Gary Hall
Hollywood Impact Studios Prison Ministry has been serving inside the Los Angeles County Jail since 2009. One of our first inmate/students was a grey-hair older man named Alfio. He was rough and weathered, with a deep, world-worn gravelly voice.
One of our instructors always likes to start his first class of each semester by asking our inmate/students, “How many of you have been in jail more than ten times? twenty times? Thirty times?” One day, when the teacher got to “more than 50 times”, there was only one hand still raised… it was Alfio.
Alfio was very upfront with us that he did not know where his faith was and how he felt about God, but as the semester progressed so did Alfio’s faith. One reason was due to Brandon Chandler our youngest instructor, who often walked alongside Alfio. Alfio’s faith continued to grow to the point where, prior to his release Alfio told us he wanted to be baptized. After spending much time on his knees in prayer, Alfio was released from prison two years early, to which he says, “To God be the glory!”
After his release, Alfio continued to grow spiritually through our “Alumni Group” and through the Tinseltown Bible Study led by Gary and Judy Swanson, held on the 20th Century Fox movie lot. God brought many gentle, kind, Christ-filled mentors alongside Alfio. And, yes, he did get baptized at Grace Baptist Church, standing right next to his beautiful wife.
Life plans changed and Alfio and his wife moved up to Washington State. He began making crosses for churches. When I thought about it, it was almost overwhelming, how our mighty Lord could take this man who had once been in our classroom in jail and so totally transform his life.
More of Alfio’s crosses. These face Highway 97 which is a major highway. Traffic is estimated at approximately 35,000 vehicles daily.
In April of 2020, we reached out to Alfio and asked him if he would be willing to make a cross for our ministry. He agreed, and the journey of our cross began.
Alfio wanted this cross to be one-of-a-kind. He went out and found two older, dying oak trees, cut them down and began the milling process.
Milling and cutting continued.
The cross begins to take shape. Week after week Alfio would email us the progress of the cross…
… until finally it was done.
This beauty is 11 feet tall and weighs 450 pounds. The trees were cut down and milled by Alfio’s friend Alex Stoops, the authentic looking spikes were hand made by his friend Bob Null and Alfio’s wife JoEllyn used fire to “paint” the sign on the top of the cross. All of these friends spent much time praying over this cross as it was being created.
So here’s the second part of this story. How exactly do we get this cross from Washington State to Los Angeles?
We are going to send our guy(s) up to get it! Right now, we have Tony Mendoza who has volunteered. Tony has 30 years of addiction and incarceration but has been clean and sober for over five years. He has also reconciled with his family and leads music worship at his church.
Our plan is to make this a big event for GOD’S GLORY. Given all the issues going on in our world, we want to show something positive and it is all positive because of our Lord and Savior.
Here is a man with a long criminal history who has been REDEEMED. The cross he has so painstakingly made with his own hands will be picked up by more people who have been REDEEMED. Families and marriages have been restored,
We are going to reach out to every Christian radio station and many churches between Spokane, Washington, and Los Angeles. On the route down, Tony will interview people touched by this ministry. He will have a big roll of blue painters’ tape for people to write their favorite Bible verse, prayer request or other word of encouragement. Those people will stick that piece of blue tape on Tony’s car (yes, he said that was okay) on the cross itself or even on the trailer. We are hoping that radio stations will interview him on his way down. He will get a lot of attention. We hope he meets tons of people at gas stations, rest stops, restaurants and along the road. Share his testimony and hear theirs.
Please pray for this trip and that it will all be to the Glory of God and maybe help heal some hurting people along the way.
THIS JOURNEY HAS BEGUN… October 26th! Updates to follow. See our Facebook & Instagram. You can be part of this by contributing on our Website.