 | |  | | | Chaplain
Edward Welsh, stands in front of the entrance of the Los Angeles County
Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles. Welsh ministers to prisons
throughout California. (Thomas R. Cordova/Staff photographer) | | |
CHINO HILLS - Edward Welsh leads prisoners on the righteous path.As
the senior chaplain at the Men's Central Jail of the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department, Welsh counsels up to 20 inmates a day. He's also
founder of the Jesus Is the Key Ministries, a nonprofit that trains
churches on how to start prison ministries. But when first asked
13 years ago, Welsh had no interest in working in prisons. After all,
he'd spent much of his young life in them.
"God uses my past, but I think he uses his word and his ability to
change life much more so,'' said Welsh, a big man with tattoos
decorating both arms. Once emanating racial epithets and hate, the
tattoos are redone to include biblical Scriptures, indicating a
redeemed life. "I'm just kind of an instrument in here.''
Welsh has spoken to hundreds of prisoners about turning over a new leaf.
He's also traveled overseas, built fixtures on some of the nation's
most famous aircraft and raised seven children. In his younger days,
Welsh was in and out of prison, doing time for crimes including drug
possession and attempted murder.
How he got from there to minister is a journey grounded in Christian faith, and he uses this story to reach those behind bars.
"It's an amazing story of someone who has moved from the dark side of
life,'' said Ron Storm, chief executive officer of Hillview Acres, who
met Welsh at a church several years ago. "Ed Welsh is a guy who used
the struggles of his past life to help a lot of people.''
Those struggles included dealing with an abusive father who took his
frustrations out on Welsh's mother after he drank. Welsh recalled
pointing a hunting rifle one night at his dad, who had severely beaten
his mother.
At 14, Welsh said he first accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. But he
got angry at God after his mother died while he was in juvenile hall.
By 15, Welsh ran with Mexican gangs. A year later, he went to
California Youth Authority for drugs. He returned at 19 after beating
and stabbing someone.
Afterward, Welsh took part in robberies, and at one point hid in New
Mexico from authorities. At 22, he went to San Quentin State Prison for
selling drugs and was later transferred to prisons in Tehachapi and
Soledad for other crimes.
Welsh ended up in prison one last time, at the California Institution for Men in Chino, for robbing a jewelry store in 1978.
"Every time you go to prison, you always say, ‘I'm never going back.'
But when you get back out, you still fall back into the same old
things, because that's really all you know,'' he said.
Welsh left prison in 1980, moving in with his wife, Allison, but plotting to gather up some friends for a robbery.
Then he received a letter from a friend who was still behind bars.
"He said, ‘Brother, I want to see you stay out this time. ... The worst
day in the streets is better than the best day in prison,' '' Welsh
recalled. "Here I am, thinking of doing something wrong, I looked at
the letter as an omen, and I decided not to do it.''
That letter began an unstoppable path toward righteousness for Welsh.
Allison was pregnant at the time and they were caring for their
9-year-old niece. Because the couple didn't want the kids to grow up
around a bad lifestyle, they went back to church. Though Welsh had been
angry at God before, he and his wife became born-again Christians.
Welsh spent the next 14 years working primarily in the aerospace field
as a jig and fixture builder -- assembling tools used on aircraft. He
worked at Northrop Grumman from 1981 to 1988 and again from 1992 to
1999, as well as McDonnell Douglas and TRW as a contract worker.
His work included working on tools used to assemble the F-18 Hornet,
F-20 Tigershark and B-2 Bomber. He was also a contract worker for Walt
Disney Imagineering, assembling animated props and action pieces for
various rides.
In the early 1990s, Welsh traveled with Chino Hills Calvary Chapel to
Russia. When he returned, the church pastor suggested that Welsh start
a prison ministry after the church received a letter from a CIM inmate
looking for visitors.
In time the prison ministry grew, with Welsh and other volunteers
visiting CIM, Chino's California Institution for Women, Chuckawalla
Valley State Prison and Ironwood State Prison.
Four years ago, Welsh left Chino Hills Calvary and began Jesus Is the Key Ministries.
The organization holds Bible studies at CIM, CIW and Adelanto Community
Correction Facility. Jesus Is the Key also educates churches on the
need to help prisoners once they're paroled and in need of jobs and
housing.
Welsh, and other volunteers, have had the chance to speak at prisons
throughout the state, as well as prisons in Maryland and Germany.
As senior chaplain, Welsh coordinates the different faith groups that
minister to prisoners, and he schedules Christian concerts.
His job and volunteer work are not always easy. Welsh once counseled a
man who seemed to be on the right track, but wound up in prison after
being out for just six months. Another time, Welsh ministered to an
inmate who was a youth pastor and in jail for child molestation. When
prison riots broke out a few months ago, Welsh and other colleagues had
to speak to the inmates to calm them down.
The mentality toward inmates from outsiders -- anger and rage -- is
understandable. But Welsh knows all things are possible with God.
"I've seen some very hard-nosed, hard-core criminals come to the Lord,
and I know that they're different,'' he said. "I know that they've
changed.''
Joanna Parsons can be reached by e-mail at joanna.parsons@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8555. | 
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