As we enter a new fiscal year, we look back on one of the biggest moments of 2013 – God’s miraculous work behind bars at Easter!
Prison Fellowship President Garland Hunt prays with an inmate on Easter Sunday.
Over Easter weekend, Prison Fellowship CEO Jim Liske and Prison Fellowship President Garland Hunt shared the Gospel with prisoners in Florida and Texas. They delivered a message of hope and prayed with prisoners in the yard, in the infirmary, and in segregation, which is like solitary confinement.
“Segregated from the population,” says Garland Hunt. “But not segregated from God.”
In the solitude of his Texas prison cell, Marcus was studying the Bible on Easter Sunday.
Garland approached the bars to let him know that even in prison, the Lord cares about him. “Do you know the Lord?” Garland asked.
“Yes! And I’ve been studying a lot,” Marcus replied. He’s determined to make the most of his time in solitary confinement. And to prove it, he has a notebook filled with certificates from the Bible courses he’s taken.
As they talked, breakfast came on a beaten-up tray that was passed to Marcus through a small hole. Marcus set the food aside, more interested in talking with Garland than eating. Reaching through the bars, he grabbed ahold of Garland to pray.
Later, more than a hundred men gathered in the gym to hear Garland speak.
All around the room, the prisoners heard and responded to the message. Volunteers and chaplains prayed with men who confessed their sins and made decisions for Christ.
Johnny is a prisoner who is afraid of parole and afraid of former friends, worried he’ll end up back in prison. “Pray with me,” Johnny asked a volunteer.
Another prisoner, Jeff, had already given his life to Christ, but grieves over lost years with his little girl. Jeff’s prayer was to see his daughter again. He hadn’t seen her since she was 18 months old and she is now six. He embraced the hopeful message of the Resurrection — there will be life for him after prison.
In Sanders Estes Correctional Center and at a federal prison in Seagoville, Texas, 41 decisions for Christ were made on Easter Sunday.
Jim Liske visited prisoners in the infirmary of the Central Florida Reception, a large Florida prison camp with different wings for prisoners needing hospice and others who are too young to be housed with the general population.
“The youthful offenders are just kids,” Jim said.
In the chapel, Jim preached about Timothy, who grew up without a father, and told the young men, “No one is disqualified from God’s grace.”
Jim visited prisoners in solitary confinement, speaking to them through a crack in the door. The youngest was just 15. One young man asked for a Spanish Bible.
In the infirmary, seriously injured and terminally ill prisoners serve out their sentences. Jason is one of those who faces death behind bars. Over 90 percent of his body was burned in a fire that resulted from a fight that landed him in prison. He’s had a tracheotomy and is in so much pain that he tries not to move his limbs. But he met Jesus in prison and you could see it in his eyes in spite of his pain.
Another prisoner, Michael, wore a helmet to prevent further injury to his brain. Weighted down by unthinkable pain of guilt, he was serving 40 years for a drunk driving accident that killed his best friend.
Easter was the first time he’d been outside since he arrived in prison.
Overwhelmed by Jim’s message of God’s love, he broke down in tears. “I’m the one who should be dead,” he cried. Jim explained that the Lord has a purpose for keeping him alive and, as he prayed with Michael, he told him that God offers him forgiveness.
What an amazing discovery: Michael realized God still loved him despite his past!
Thank you for delivering the powerful message of redemption through Christ to prisoners desperate for hope.
