I have been involved with prison ministry for about 4 years now.  I have found it to be the most significant thing I have ever done.  I got involved when a friend told me that he was going to prisons and what a powerful work he had witnessed God doing in prison.  His enthusiasm peaked my interest.  It wasn’t until several years later that someone asked me to participate.  At first I was very nervous about going into a prison.  What did I have to offer?  Would the inmates see right through me and think I was a fake.  What would it feel like to be inside, to listen to the gate shut behind me and know that I was inside a prison.   But I over came these fears and went in.  What I found there has changed my life and the way I look at things.

      I found that I sometimes feel safer inside than I feel on the outside.  I found friends that I share my faith with. Men who love God.  I have watched men who look like they are carved out of stone, solid muscle. Men who looked scary.  Men who looked like you wouldn’t want to meet them in a dark alley.  But I watched these same men break down and cry because what God has done in their lives.  You can’t witness the change in these men’s lives without it changing you. 

     For the most part these men have been thrown away by society.  Forgotten by their friends and family.  I’ve talked to men who haven’t had a letter or a visit from the outside for 10, 20 and sometimes even more years.  Men that were imprisoned when they were teenagers and are now old men.  We are taught before we go in that the most important thing you can do is to listen to these men.  Just listen.  You see nobody listens to them.  They feel that no one thinks they are important enough to listen to.  This may be the first time anyone has taken the time to listen to them.  It is amazing to see their eyes light up when someone listens to what they have to say.   I listened to a 38 year old Blackman that had been so prejudice all his life that he had never ever talked to a white man before and yet he said he told me things he had never told anyone before.  Only God can work on men like these and soften their hearts.

     I look at going to prison now with excitement.  To see my old friends, and to make new ones.  To be witness to Gods handy work in a place you wouldn’t expect to find him.  I can tell you that God is there and doing mighty work. 

Submitted by Randy Johnson