Prison Fellowship staff and volunteers lead prisoners in a seminary-level training program behind bards in California.
“I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody, about somebody, who can save anybody.” –Williams Brothers
This saying is the story of my life.
When I enrolled in Prison Fellowship’s in-prison seminary training program, I thought it would be a piece of cake. I’m a preacher’s kid. I have been doing Bible studies all my life.
I was wrong.
In the past, Bible studies have been surface explorations of particular chapters or verses for the week. I know and love the Bible. But this seminary program proved to be beyond my expectations. It required me to not simply read and discuss the Word, but to analyze situations and people from thousands of years ago. It compelled me to search for confirmation of the Word in the Word.
My love for the Lord ignited a desire to give my time behind bars to writing in-depth exegetical papers and doing ministry unto the Lord. This is all hard work, but it is a labor of love. It is the least I can do for all He has done for me.
What keeps me going when things get difficult is my seminary classmates. Plenty of times I have thought it was too hard for me. I may have quit things in the past, but I won’t quit God or this program.
The Prison Fellowship staff and volunteers stay dedicated to us year after year, and they are the best women of God I know. Nancy, Barbara, and Audrey will never know how much their service to God is worth to me in a place that’s often considered “the devil’s playground.” They have helped to equip us to make the California Institution for Women into the California Institution of Worship. And I am grateful.
Betty has been taking Prison Fellowship’s seminary-level classes for two years. Pray for her and her classmates as they stretch their minds and hearts to learn more about ministering to their fellow prisoners and their communities upon their release someday. To learn more about Prison Fellowship’s in-prison programming or to find out how you can get involved, please visit www.prisonfellowship.org.