Volunteers, inmates experience God behind prison walls

HUNTSVILLE—More than 100 volunteers from seven states recently led an Experiencing God discipleship weekend for about 1,000 inmates inside nine Huntsville-area Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities.

Carroll Prewitt, a Texas Baptist Men volunteer from First Baptist Church in Lindale, leads a small-group discussion among inmates at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville during an Experiencing God weekend. (PHOTO/ Simple Joy Media)

"God wants to do a whole lot more than we can ever think about or imagine. God wants to change your lives, not just the inmates' lives," Texas Baptist Men Executive Director Don Gibson told the volunteers before they entered the prison facilities for the Friday/Saturday event, sponsored by TBM and Inmate Discipler Fellowship. "Be open to God, and be open to others."

In general sessions and small-group times, volunteers introduced offenders to the key teachings of Experiencing God, a discipleship curriculum focused on "knowing and doing the will of God."

Claude King, who wrote the best-selling curriculum with Henry Blackaby, joined about two-dozen other volunteers who entered the maximum-security Wynne Unit—going inside two high fences topped with razor wire and passing through multiple pairs of steel double doors—to meet with inmates in Rockwell Chapel.

"When the Lord looks down, he doesn't see this," a worship leader for the praise band said at the opening session of the weekend, grasping the collar of the white uniform that identified him as an inmate. "All he sees is red—the blood of Jesus."

Isaac Torres, a Texas Baptist Men volunteer from Kingsville, leads a small-group discussion among inmates at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville during an Experiencing God weekend. (PHOTO/ Simple Joy Media)

People make mistakes and bad choices, but God never fails, King told the assembled crowd.

"God is love, and God's will is the best thing for you," he said. "We can trust God's direction always to be right. It's not trial and error with God."

Inmates and volunteers knelt together at the chapel altar in prayer and opened their hearts to each other in small-group discussions.

Delvin, an offender from Houston, noted the difficulty in "trying to walk the walk" as a Christian in prison, where believers are viewed with suspicion. Correctional officers and fellow inmates wonder if they claim "jailhouse religion" just to curry favor with administration, he observed.

But one female correctional officer noted the positive impact of faith-based programs on prisoners.

During an Experiencing God weekend, David Valentine, pastor of Covenant Fellowship, a Texas Baptist congregation in Huntsville, taught gospel lessons to Wynne Unit prisoners in administration segregation, where inmates are in solitary lock-down 23 hours a day. (PHOTO/ Simple Joy Media)

"It strengthens my faith in God to see these guys' lives changed," she said. "The changes are noticeable in individuals."

Warden Eddie Howell at the Byrd Unit observed the Experiencing God weekend involved more offenders than any other religious program had at the prison, and he saw results almost immediately.

"Everywhere I went this past Monday, as I made my rounds throughout the facility, I was approached by smiling offenders who wanted to make a special point to express their positive comments regarding this program," Howell said. "Most stated that this program revealed a part of their inner self that they never knew before and that it was the absolute best program they've ever experienced."

Calvin Page, chaplain at the Wynne Unit, affirmed the role of faith-based volunteers who serve on an ongoing basis, as well as those who participate in special weekend events.

"We believe in God changing hearts," Page said. "Events like this help these guys, and I just pray that the presence of God will illuminate this place from the chapel on out.

"This is the best job I ever had, because you see God at work. Working here, I see transformation take place."

David Valentine, pastor of Covenant Fellowship, a Texas Baptist congregation in Huntsville, likewise sees transformed lives through ongoing ministry inside the prisons, sharing God's love both with the inmates and the correctional officers.

Razor wire is sillouetted with Rockwell Chapel at Huntsville's Wynne Unit, where an Experiencing God weekend was led by Texas Baptist Men volunteers. (PHOTO/ Simple Joy Media)

During the Experiencing God weekend, Valentine taught gospel lessons to Wynne Unit prisoners in administration segregation, where inmates who prove they are violent, disciplinary problems or escape risks are in solitary lock-down 23 hours a day.

Two offenders who had moved from administrative segregation to the general prison population testified to the impact of Valentine's ongoing ministry. Cedric, a former gang leader, had accepted Christ as Lord and Savior as a result of Valentine consistently sharing the gospel. In turn, Cedric led Aketa to faith in Christ, and Aketa became the first person in the state to be baptized in administrative segregation.

As Gibson had predicted at the beginning of the weekend experience, God also changed the hearts of volunteers. Bob Joyce, pastor of Shady Shores Baptist Church, near Denton, brought four men from his church to Huntsville in spite of apprehension about entering a prison. The experience removed his anxiety.

"I am no longer a prisoner to my fears concerning ministry in prisons," he wrote to Mark Hollis, executive director of Inmate Discipler Fellowship. "Should the opportunity arise in the future, please know that you can pretty well count on the men from Shady Shores Baptist Church to be available to participate."

Bill Glass of Champions for Life has invited TBM and Inmate Discipler Fellowship to schedule an Experiencing God weekend after every evangelistic crusade his organization holds in a Texas prison, Hollis reported. Kairos Prison Ministry also has expressed the desire to work in partnership with the Texas Baptist groups, he added.

Texas Baptists who have completed Experiencing God and who are interested in serving with an Experiencing God weekend in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility can contact Texas Baptist Men at (214) 381-2800.