I couldn’t believe my ears.
I was at a prison where the warden was giving several other wardens and me a tour of the grounds. We met his staff and then sat down with about two dozen prisoners enrolled in Prisoners to Pastors, a seminary-level training program that prepares Jesus-following inmates to be leaders behind bars and when they return to the community. Many of these committed students shared how their lives had been changed because Prison Fellowship staff and committed volunteers have taught them to “rightly divide the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:5).
One of the students is a man who was in the process of gender re-assignment until he was introduced to Jesus, and then to Prisoners to Pastors. When he gave his life to Jesus and began studying the Word, he shared, he stopped taking the hormone therapy and found security in knowing God made him perfect just as he is. He told us that he has found unconditional love and safety among his brothers in the Prisoners to Pastors program.
I was awed to hear this testimony because in prison culture, a male prisoner undergoing gender re-assignment would be a walking target. He would probably be kept in administrative segregation just for his own protection. But this man had found acceptance in healing among his brothers in Christ! Nothing but the Gospel could change a culture so profoundly.
The other wardens were impressed, too. One by one, they came up to me and said, “Can I have a Prisoners to Pastors program in my facility?”
God is working behind prison walls, and He is calling those of us in the free world to join Him through our prayers, our time, and our resources.