“I was in prison and you came to Me.” Matthew 25:36

As I write this, I am at Angola State Prison in Louisiana. What is happening here is an amazing testimony to God’s grace and how He can use one person to transform the world. In 1995, Angola was known as the most violent and dangerous prison in America. Of its 5,200 inmates, 3,700 are serving life sentences. In Louisiana, life means life. There is no chance of parole or a reduction in sentencing regardless of your good behavior. Of the remaining 1,500 inmates, the average sentence is 91 years. 97% of the inmates will never leave prison. Every year the prison buries more inmates than they discharge. Needless to say, many inmates have no hope and see no reason to refrain from violence and breaking the rules. To compound matters, 7/10 of the inmates’ children will end up in prison as well. The cycle of hopelessness continues.

Then Burl Cain arrived as the new warden. He was a Christian who had been studying Experiencing God at his local church. Burl claimed that when he had to oversee his first execution, he realized he had not done enough to help these men find hope and salvation. He introduced Experiencing God into the prison. Before long, there were studies going on throughout the complex. Some of the inmates felt called by God into ministry. New Orleans Baptist Seminary established an extension center at Angola and began enrolling prisoners into its Bible college. No prisoner was allowed to enroll in the college who had not first taken Experiencing God. With the advent of the college, training hundreds of inmates to serve as Christian ministers, acts of violence in America’s most violent prison dropped by 70% Some of the inmates felt called to missions. To date the prison has sent out 30 missionaries by twos to other prisons. One prison which received the Angola missionaries saw acts of violence drop by 43% within six months. Now warden Cain has numerous initiatives to help the men teach their children from prison so they do not follow the same destructive path as their father. They host an annual carnival inside the prison so the dad’s can take their kids to the carnival. Two weeks ago over 500 kids spent the day with their dad’s that way. They also host an annual rodeo and craft show which brings 15,000 people from the community to spend time with the inmates.

One interesting story involved the bell in front of the main chapel at Angola prison. Apparently a church was constructing a new building and intending to have a bell in a bell tower. On the day they raised the bell into its place, a mishap occurred and the bell plummeted back to the earth, striking someone below and killing them. The church decided it did not want to use a bell that had killed someone to call people to worship. The inmates at Angola heard of the incident. Though the wages paid at Angola range from six cents to twenty cents an hour, the inmates raised the money to purchase the bell from the church. They placed it at the front of their chapel. They told me it seemed appropriate for them to redeem that murderous bell and to use it to call murderers to worship God each week in the prison!

This week my dad and I have been ministering at Angola and at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. It has been an amazing experience. Dad and I walked down death row at Angola and talked with some of the 85 people awaiting execution. Many of those on death row have taken Experiencing God. One inmate sang us one of the most heart-stirring renditions of “Amazing Grace” we had ever heard. We taught in the Bible college and spoke in the chapel. It is so heartwarming to have men serving life sentences tell you how they finally met God in prison and how He has transformed them. Several inmates told me that if they had not gone to prison, they would be dead today and in hell. Now, they say, they walk with God and they know where they are going when they die.

We also ministered for three days at the women’s prison. It breaks your heart to hear these women’s stories. Many of them grew up suffering constant abuse. They have never experienced love or acceptance. Dad and I spoke at an Experiencing God weekend at the women’s prison and the response was incredible. Inmates waited in long lines to thank us for coming to visit them. Many of these inmates have no visitors, year after year. You cannot remain unmoved when you hear a room full of inmates in a maximum security prison singing Amazing Grace! BMI was able to give each inmate a copy of the prison edition of Experiencing God Day by Day as well the Experiencing God workbook. At the close of our time you could not keep you eyes dry when the women all jumped to their feet and clapped and hollered and thanked God that we had come to minister to them.

I, like most people, am intimidated by prisons. We wish something could be done to transform the inmates but we have no inclination to be a part of the solution. What a privilege it was to serve alongside wonderful volunteers and chaplains who come to the prisons each week to teach the inmates Bible studies and Experiencing God. These are people who take seriously Jesus’ injunction: “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” (Matthew 25:34-36).

This past month has been extremely full. I have seen over and over again how God can do exceedingly abundantly more than we could have imagined if we will believe Him. I was in Summerton, SC with pastor Rob Pierce. His church which runs under 500 in attendance, yet it has sponsored a men’s wild game supper for the last several years which has now been embraced by many churches in their area. Around 2000 men showed up. Eight prayed to receive Christ; 195 rededicated their lives. I also led in four hours of staff development for Brookwood Church in Simpsonville, SC. Their pastor, Perry Duggar, planted the church fifteen years ago. Today they are running close to 7,000 people each Sunday. When you talk to these people they will affirm they are ordinary, but that they serve an extraordinary God.

In times like these when the world desperately needs hope, God’s people need to believe He still does miracles and that He will do them through us.

Posted by Richard Blackaby at 10:19 am