Greg Garver found God at his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. An unlikely place perhaps, but Greg believes that his mistakes in life are exactly what prepared him to answer God’s clear calling to follow Him into prisons.
Greg, who lives in Colorado, has been arrested “more times than I can count.” His alcoholism tumbled him in and out of jail “umpteen times.” Finally, Greg found himself facing a prison sentence for yet another DUI charge. “But God had other plans,” says Greg. “He saved me from that.”
Released on probation, Greg began his journey of recovery and, with the Christian guidance of his pastor and his AA sponsor, sought a personal relationship with Christ. After becoming a believer, he started praying that God would show him a path of service. It took nearly a year, but God answered Greg’s prayer.
A volunteer with Prison Fellowship’s Operation Starting Line (OSL) attended Greg’s church to promote an upcoming, in-prison evangelistic event. Greg says he had never heard God speak to him so clearly before or since. “It was the most overwhelming feeling of ‘you need to go do this,’ ” remembers Greg. “I knew that was my calling and my purpose. God protected me all my life and prepared me to do this.”
Greg went into two Colorado prisons with OSL that summer. Mingling with the inmates who gathered in the prison yards, Greg spread the message of the Gospel. He even felt God calling him to encourage one of the corrections officers. “I plant seeds,” says Greg. “I go in and I just sow.”
When a fellow volunteer talked to him about an OSL event in Florida, Greg didn’t hesitate. He joyfully made the trip. And again, when asked to help with a five-day campaign in prisons in New Mexico, he answered the call. “I own my own business, and I have four very good employees who take care of things when I’m not here. I’m very blessed.”
Greg looks at every part of his journey as a blessing—even enduring the darkness of alcoholism. Greg says that knowing what it is like to emerge from an addiction on a path lit by Christ makes him an effective witness to prisoners. He understands the heart and mentality of someone who feels lost and without hope.
“I know God planned this for me since before I was born,” says Greg. “He was just waiting for me to finish messing around and doing my own things, so that I could go into prison and spread the news of what Christ has done in my life.”
In addition to his service through OSL events, Greg is also the Douglas County, Colorado, coordinator for the Celebrate Recovery program, a Christ-centered support group to help people break free of addictive thinking and behaviors. He says God has opened so many doors to him and his volunteers, so they can reach out to prisoners with “hurts, hang-ups and habits.”
“I was living in darkness and now I’m living in light,” says Greg. “My life today has so much use and so much purpose and so much hope. I pray every morning that God will use me, and prison ministry is a big part of fulfilling that prayer.”