Few ministries provide such unique opportunities to preach the gospel and intimately minister to individuals as a prison ministry.
Permission was given for New Life Prison Ministries to begin a ministry at the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre (Ontario, Canada) in the late 1980’s and soon after that I joined the group. In the early days we invited up to 20 inmates from the minimum-security dorms. We showed a Christian video and provided a sign-up sheet for those interested in a personal, one-hour follow-up visit in a small 6’ by 6’ cubicle. Many signed up.
On one occasion a memorable incident occurred during the movie. An inmate with an angry look paced up and down behind us the whole time. Needless to say, this was quite unnerving. Then he signed up for a personal visit, and the lot fell to me. What a kind and friendly gentleman he turned out to be. He had been in an automobile accident and had a portion of his skull removed. He complained that unfriendly inmates kept trying to poke his unprotected brain. He experienced great trouble sleeping and often became very irritable. Our visit was a pleasant surprise to say the least. We had an enjoyable time in the Scriptures and in prayer and parted as friends. This incident taught me not to prejudge.
Another, frightful meeting was most memorable, but the eventual outcome affected the remainder of my 30-year ministry. I was warned by the guard that a man had aids (then a fearful disease). I prayed fervently for protection and decided to stay as safe as possible in the tiny cubicle. Once he had left after a tense hour, I felt that I was safe. Not so! I slapped a bloody mosquito on my arm and realized that my efforts at staying safe were futile. As time passed, I learned I was disease free. I thanked the Lord for His protection and completely lost my fear of the many diseases which could be contracted in prison, especially Hepatitis C whose germs can survive on surfaces for days. In all my years I never contracted one prison-related disease.
In 2001, I was asked to take over the ministry leadership. At that time things began to change significantly. Construction was progressing on a unit of “PODS”, a new concept for the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre. These PODs consisted of six units of 32 cells each. PODs A to F housed inmates of various levels of security.
In 2005, the chaplain inquired whether the New Life group of volunteers would be interested in taking on a new area of ministry to the POD inmates. He explained that this would be a higher level of security where we could only host six inmates at a time. Inmates would sign up in advance and the chaplain would supply us with a weekly list, rotating through PODS A to F. We never lacked names on that list of inmates, now called “clients,” wanting to attend a one-hour open gospel discussion session. We would be locked in together in a small meeting room. Like Paul in the book of Acts, we “received all who came” (Acts 28:30).
Across the twenty years of ministry to the POD clients, we had access to literally thousands of men. The chaplain had also made arrangements for us to use a large laundry tub for prison baptisms for interested clients. In all, two hundred plus men from a number of Christian groups were baptized publicly, for staff and other inmates to see.
We experienced a dizzying variety of men and events over the years. The following is a brief summary of outstanding memories:
We had a convicted terrorist attend one of our sessions. He came across as a most kind and friendly young man. When another inmate complained about slow replies from the chaplain, this man spoke up, defending the busy chaplain trying to deal with over 300 men.
We had a number of famous murderers. A man in a refugee camp in Kenya had heard the gospel from one of our volunteers and had ignored it. He then came to Canada, married and ended up stabbing his wife 38 times. He came to our session and ended up kneeling, weeping at the foot of one of our volunteers, praying for salvation.
Another man had killed three people. In our session he displayed an extensive Bible knowledge. He told us that he had repented and was forgiven. He seemed quite glib, but who were we to question? The next week we were given additional information that he was happily signing autographs as a hero to other men.
We witnessed to pedophiles who were well known and hated throughout the institution. On one occasion, men passing by in the corridor were yelling, “there is no forgiveness for pedophiles!” This was for the benefit of a clean-cut, innocent looking young man who had a degree in psychology. He had been charged with distributing online child pornography. Our focus always had to be on the gospel, not the crime. No crime is beyond the forgiveness of the Lord Jesus, our loving Savior, who died to “take away the sins of the world.”
A Muslim from Somalia who had recently converted to Christianity, told us that he had 9 brothers who were seeking to kill him for leaving Islam.
An American marine who had been stationed in Somalia told us of young Somalis who had captured hyenas and led them around muzzled. They also carried bags of blood which they would throw on the marines, then unmuzzle their hyenas.
During one session, two men began to argue and stood up to fight. One of our volunteers said, “let’s pray,” and the men promptly sat down and bowed their heads.
One scruffy young man came in the next week clean-cut and beaming. He told of how he had asked the Lord into his heart after the session. He was so changed that we hardly recognized him. A 30-year cocaine addict came to the Lord and was baptized. A young man with obvious leadership skills started a Bible study in his POD with 7-8 men. We also met a young man who had been saved at a Bible study in Gaza.
Over the years, the Lord also provided a wide variety of volunteers: a retired businessman, a former atheist who had seen a sign, “Jesus saves” and had inquired, “saves from what?,” a former marijuana addict, a former member of the “Jehovah Witness” cult, a vice president of sales for a national cleaning supply company, a home builder, and a former prisoner in Kenya.
The Lord Jesus, “knowing all things,” knew well the future of those who approached Him. We can only look forward with anticipation and great joy to meeting the men we knew only as criminals before their conversion, like that of the thief on the cross.
The Lord blessed and carried us through in spite of our feeble attempts to faithfully preach the gospel in ways the prisoners could relate to. Many men went on to complete a large number of New Life Ministry Bible correspondence courses.
As I look back, I realize that we were blissfully ignorant of how minutely the Lord orchestrated all that was taking place around us. Prison ministry certainly has its share of difficulties, but the joy of sharing the gospel with those special, incarcerated inmates far outweighs the problems faced. We thank God for the prison guards who were so very helpful and played such an important role in making our visits worthwhile.
“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).