February 10, 1999
Ministry abounds when
prisoners outnumber population
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___GATESVILLE--It's not something the Chamber of Commerce might brag about, but prisoners outnumber free citizens in Gatesville by 2-to-1.
___In the eyes of Mary Alice Wise, however, there's a spiritual opportunity in those numbers.
___"We're overwhelmed with the ministry opportunity," said Wise, a member of Trinity Baptist Church in Gatesville, a town with 7,000 residents and 14,000 inmates.
___Trinity pastor Tim Crosby agrees with Wise'sassessment. "I think it's a tremendous challenge, but a tremendous opportunity," he said.
___Crosby knows exactly how big both the challenge and the opportunity are. He served as chaplain for Mountain View Unit of the Gatesville prison complex 16 years before becoming pastor of the church 16 months ago.
___He has been a member of the church 17 years, however, and has seen prison ministry expand the thinking of the congregation.
___"It has helped the people of our church be much more missions-minded," he explained. "They realize we are in the midst of a missions field and that we are church on mission."
___Such a demanding ministry is easy to sustain because it is so fulfilling, Crosby said.
___"There is tremendous satisfaction when you see the excitement in inmates faces. You realize when you work with them individually that they are real people, not just prisoners. They are people who have made mistakes, but they are still created in the image of God. You might even see someone and think, 'She looks like my sister', or 'He looks like my brother.' That puts a face on a population which we can look at highly impersonally," Crosby said.
___Many Trinity members have gotten personally involved, including Wise. She found herself leading Bible study with the women on death row, including Karla Faye Tucker, whose execution case made headlines last year because of her life changed by faith in God.
___Though once estranged from God's direction, Tucker learned the Bible deeply, Wise said. "When I first met Karla, I couldn't believe the depth of her knowledge of the word."
___Tucker's transformation began in the Harris County Jail, when a group of women from a Houston-area church led her to faith in Christ, Wise said. The women continued to come to Gatesville to disciple Tucker after her sentencing to death row for murder.
___"The secret was a church that took an interest in an inmate," Wise said.
___Wise reports that the women she teaches at the prison "are like my Sunday School class. They are my friends. They pray for me, and I pray for them. It's been such a blessing in my life."
___Prisons are not only places for evangelism, but also discipleship, Wise said.
___"There is a body of Christ in the prisons who are crying out, 'Come and feed me.' They are good Christian people who have made mistakes and are needing people to come and minister to them. 'Come and feed me.' That is the cry," she said.
___Virginia Hutto of Jonesboro Baptist Church in Jonesboro is seeking to answer that cry by pairing up women inmates with mentors.
___"It has been proven that inmates who have a mentoring relationship with someone who meets with them for at least one hour a month for at least one year have a much lower recidivism rate," Hutto said.
___The mentoring program has grown to 200 women who go to Gatesville on the second Saturday of each month, some traveling more than 300 miles to participate in the program.
___Most mentors deal with one inmate and seek to be a friend, listen to concerns and write letters between visits. Mentors also help inmates find a nurturing church home at release.
___More information about this ministry is available from Hutto at Box 93, Jonesboro 76538, or by calling (254) 463-2606.
___Two Mission Service Corps volunteers, Carole Ross and Freddie Douglas, also work with Trinity Baptist Church to enlist and equip volunteers from other churches to come to Gatesville and help with prison ministry.
___Ross is another who has seen both sides of prison ministry. She was a correctional officer in Gatesville for 10 years.
___Ross was in an "Experien-cing God" study group when she felt God leading her to prison ministry. "I said, 'Oh, no, God. That's what I do for a living,'" she remembered. "But I wanted to take God at his word before I saw him face to face, so I said yes out of a love relationship with him."
___She discovered God already had given her some of the tools she needed to be successful in the ministry: "God has chosen me to be the liaison between the prisons and the churches. God used those 10 years I worked in the prisons to teach me the policies and procedures we would need to know to do ministry."
___Ross admits administration was an area where she needed help, so she prayed for a secretary. God answered that prayer in the form of Douglas, a 72-year-old from Wharton who came to help one Saturday in the prison and now has retired to volunteer full-time.
___"This is part of Texas 2000. If we reach an inmate here, while they're in Gatesville, it's going to spread all over Texas when they return home," Ross explained. Texas 2000 is the Baptist General Convention's plan for spreading the gospel statewide through missions, evangelism and ministry.
___But the spiritual and physical needs of inmates do not stop when they accept Christ.
___"These girls are hungry. Many have asked Jesus to come into their hearts, but now we need people to come and do discipleship training with them," Ross said.
___Inmates also have physical needs churches can help with, she said.Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!