South Bay, Fla.—A lot had happened in the last 24 months. There had been miracles, hard times, challenges, and growth. As 36 students in the Prisoners to Pastors program – along with 14 men completing the faith-based pre-release program – prepared to graduate, they sat under a handmade banner that read, “The road is paved.”
Why that message? Because every time the participants would complain about an unexpected setback, I would tell them, “Gentlemen, you are the first group of prisoners in the entire state of Florida to undertake the Prisoners to Pastors program. We are paving the road as we drive on it.”
Prisoners to Pastors (also known as The Urban Ministry Institute), is made possible by a partnership with World Impact, an urban missions organization. This rigorous, seminary-level curriculum prepares students to become Christian leaders in a correctional context and after they return to the community. But this Prisoners to Pastors class faced extra challenges on top of the daunting hours of reading, writing, memorization, and assigned ministry projects.
The Prisoners to Pastors class started at Glades Correctional Institution in March 2011. Just one month later, corrections officials decided to close the prison! But the Lord had a plan. South Bay, a private prison six miles away, agreed to take all the students in the class! Because the new prison was so close by, all of the Prison Fellowship volunteer facilitators and site coordinators agreed to continue on at the new site. The Florida Department of Corrections moved all the students – along with their books, chairs, desk, and personal belongings.
So when the students finally came to the graduation ceremony, having worked hard for 24 months, there was an overwhelming sense of joy and gratitude in the room. Graduating student Paul Ebanks gave the commencement address, while his young son sat in the audience, crying.
When asked what made him cry, the young boy said, “I’m so proud of my dad!”
So what’s next for the graduates, now that they have 400 hours of theological classroom time, 65 exams, and countless hours of study and practice under their belts? Twenty of the graduates were reclassified as “peer facilitators.” They are being sent out to lead faith-based dorms newly instituted by the Department of Corrections. The remaining 16 have been sent back out into the general population to share what they learned. They are now the salt and light of that facility.
These men have proven themselves as representatives of the Lord Jesus, who set an example which He intended His disciples to follow. As diligent students they have been equipped and approved by God to serve others, to teach others of the Good News of Jesus Christ. In 2 Timothy 2:1-3, Paul writes, “Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” They have endured the hardness, the tasks given to them and have become the good soldiers and disciples of Christ. At the end of the Graduation I told them “This, brothers, is how you are to think of yourselves as you go forth in the power of the Spirit to minister.”