January 5, 2000

150 inmates baptized
in Cameron County Jail
___By George Henson
___Staff Writer
___BROWNSVILLE--"I am freer now in jail with Christ than I was without him before."
___That was how one of 150 prisoners baptized recently at the Cameron County Jail described his new faith.
___The baptisms were the culmination of nine months of work by Drew Vail, who preaches more than 15 sermons a week--if you only count the ones in English. Vail also

CAMERON COUNTY JAIL CHAPLAIN Drew Vail (right) and Emilio Castillo, pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Trinidad in Brownsville, baptize an inmate at the jail. After more than a year of ministry in the jail, 150 inmates professed faith in Christ and were baptized.

serves as his own interpreter and preaches the same message for Hispanic inmates.
___After several inmates professed faith in Christ, the county provided him with a tub, and the baptizing commenced. Vail was assisted by education and missions pastor Tim McKeown and youth pastor Joshua Gartrell, both of First Baptist Church of Brownsville, and Emilio Castillo, pastor of Iglesia Bautista La Trinidad, also in Brownsville.
___Many of the inmates gave brief testimonies before their baptisms, and that led to 20 additional baptisms.
___Vail's arrival in Brownsville was the latest stop on a long pilgrimage with God. He battled drug addictions for years, entered 44 rehabilitation centers and was pronounced dead three times, he said. "The Lord never stopped working on me, though."
___By the time Vail left a rehabilitation center in 1989, he had lost everything--his family, his house, his job. He did, however, have a Bible.
___He took that Bible and went out and lived in the woods. After months of study and prayer, he said, he knew he was redeemed from drug abuse.
___In 1991, Vail went back to the last jail where he had been incarcerated, and that is where he preached his first sermon.
___Last year, he came to Brownsville to teach Bible classes in the school operated by First Baptist Church in Brownsville and to see his children. He did not plan to stay, only visit for a few months.
___He naturally gravitated to the county jail, and the first thing that struck him was the absence of Bibles. "I just kept asking myself, 'Where are the Bibles?'"
___Vail now has given out more than 2,000 Bibles, and Brownsville has become his final destination.
___"The Lord told me in March, 'You're not going home,'" he said. "So I went back to New York and sold all of my tools. I sold everything with three foot of snow on the ground. Now, that is God working."
___

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