With our overseas prison ministry work being intermittent
and our travels only representing a portion of our time, some people ask if
there is anything we do regarding the prisons here in the United States.
I am not sure if everyone really knows that our work in the prisons in Latin
America was a development of what started almost eight years ago.
I think that many of you know about my
involvement with KAIROS PRISON MINISTRY where along with a team of
approximately 30 other volunteers we went in to prisons twice a year for a kind
of “Weekend to Remember” for the inmates where we introduced a group of 30
inmates to the love of Jesus Christ. This experience is what got me
hooked on prison ministry.
I still participate in KAIROS by attending what is
called PRAYER AND SHARE every Thursday evening where we do just that, we share
experiences from the previous week, discuss challenges we have experienced in
our walk with Christ and then Pray for one another. This is generally
attended by approximately 6-8 volunteers like me, and about thirty inmates from
Trumbull Correctional Facility and is held in the chapel at Trumbull.
In the past eight years, I have developed friendships and a
kind of mentor relationship with many of the inmates such that as they have
been transferred to other prisons or have been released, I keep in contact with
them by both e-mail, snail mail or by personal visit. Currently I visit
four inmates at four different facilities from prisons located in Ohio in London,
Mansfield, and Marion. Diane accompanies me on my visits to one of
the inmates who I met almost eight years ago.
Every Friday, I teach a class in the chapel area at Trumbull
Correctional Institution. We have done studies on the character of God,
God’s plan for our lives and how to recognize that plan, we have studied
individual books of the Bible. Generally, it is a meeting of Christian
men to have an open discussion about a variety of Biblical topics. While
it has structure, the inmates appreciate the opportunity to express their
opinions and open those opinions to discussion, correction or refinement of
those opinions and friendly debate on issues, always keeping the scriptures as
the final authority in the interpretation of problems, issues and decisions
that we each encounter in our walk.
I would love to be able to scatter pictures of these
activities here among the text, but photographs are difficult to get in the
prison. As you enter the prison facilities, there is a sign that reads –
“No Photography beyond this point.” There is a general rule of no
photography inside the prison, but we have occasionally been given permission
for special circumstances or events. I have included one of these in this
message.
