A few months ago, John Alarid received a surprising email. It was from the girlfriend of a prisoner at Ozark Correctional Center (Missouri) asking if Alarid would be willing to come to the prison to baptize 10 men.
The parking lot of the Durham (NC) County Jail is not a place most people would see as a location for religious revival, but on June 25, this unlikely setting served as the site for the baptism of 39 of the jail’s prisoners.
The scene is one familiar to Christians. A pastor stands next to a man partially submerged in water. With “Amazing Grace” playing in the background, the preacher intones, “As a confession [sic] of your faith that Jesus Christ is head of your life… I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”