Prison Ministry

Prison Ministry

La. State Penitentiary at Angola, Hunt Correctional Institute, and La. Correctional Institute for Women

Sponsored by The Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge

The Criminal Justice Ministry is still the largest mission effort of Discipleship Training.  This year volunteers led three, thirteen-week semesters at La. State Penitentiary at Angola, Elayn Hunt Correctional Facility (St. Gabriel) and La. Correctional Institute for Women (St. Gabriel). We maintained a semester average of 255 to 300 this year (plus 120 Seminary Extension at Angola). The three ministries are greatly strengthening the Body-of-Christ, which is empowering the inmates to more effectively share the gospel with lost men and women in the various camps.

Please pray over the incredible expansion of this ministry in all the area prisons. The open doors call for at least 40 new people to be a part of this ministry this year.  God is opening doors faster than we have spiritual soldiers to invest.  The advancement will need new vision, soldiers and financing.  God is at work in Criminal Justice Reform.  We must join Him there. 

Angola Mission Target:        5000 + Men
Hunt Mission Target:          3000 + Men
LCIW Mission Target:          900 + Women         

All 8,900 need to need to be saved and discipled to rebuild their lives and families.

Strategy:

Prayer:
Bring light into a dark place.

Grow the Body-of-Christ in prisons around LA:
Lost people see Jesus when the Body-of-Christ lives out of His love and truth.

Do Sequential Discipleship:
We still need men to facilitate these courses in the prison.  We place one free person with ten prisoners for each semester, so you can see how great our manpower needs are.  Do three, thirteen-week semesters per year.

After Care:   
To recruit churches and mentors for continued discipleship and training for the men and women who have been released.

What Can Your Church Do To Help?

PRAY  for inmates and ministry opportunities to witness and disciple each in our Louisiana prisons.

DISCIPLE  your men and women in the basic discipling units.

ENLIST trained men, women and churches to teach and mentor.  Call someone who has served at one of the prisons to give a personal testimony about the experience to your congregation and train in discipleship.

Enlistment Contact:
If you are interested in volunteering, please call the Baptist Association of Greater Baton Rouge Office at 296-3943 and talk with Jan Terral.  The Department of Corrections requires a security check on all volunteers entering the prison system, so be prepared to give the following information:  name, social security number, date of birth and driver’s license number.

Praise Report:
The La. Correctional Institute for Women at St. Gabriel has nine women being trained to lead out in reaching the inmate population through Master Life.

God is at work in our prisons!

The year 2009 has seen God do great things in prison ministry.  He continues to call gifted men and women to minister in Louisiana prisons.  This Association and its people have been very generous in underwriting the revivals which are taking place in our state. 

This year, the number of men who are enrolled in the Seminary Extension Department at Angola has increased again.  God is sending a new wave of volunteers into the ministries at all the prisons in our area of the state.   These Seminary graduates are being sent out as missionaries to other prisons in Louisiana to help spread the gospel and to disciple the saved.  

Again this year, the Prison Ministry Task Force has been involved in organizing REVIVALS in Angola, Hunt Correctional (EHCC) and the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW) in St. Gabriel.  Many lives have come to meet Jesus through these evangelistic events.  TIER VISITATION is being developed with more volunteers taking the time to “visit those who are sick and in prison”. A college-style semester-discipleship ministry, called TRUE FREEDOM has been developed through the lessons learned at Angola.  Eleven diplomas are available for inmates who can earn them at the appropriate stages of their spiritual development.  The past five years have been invested in developing a fully operational model for this ministry at EHCC.  Men with diplomas in the regional State facilities can then be transferred to Angola to attend seminary.  Also, plans are now being made to have a Seminary Extension Department for the women at LCIW.  Please pray for the finances necessary for this start-up.  Approximately $100,000 is needed to start this new work.

Last year we reported that BAGBR had been invited into the State Police Barracks and LCIW to do True Freedom Discipleship.  This is our layered and sequential discipleship training ministry which now has eleven diplomas, each of which takes from one to two years to earn.  Both of these units are now manned and functional.  Each diploma is designed to grow a person through a specific “spiritual age” of growth.  This program requires at least one new volunteer for every ten offenders enrolled.  Volunteers disciple a group of ten or fewer offenders through courses like “Survival Kit: Five steps of Christian Growth”, “Free to Forgive” and “MasterLife”.  The course taken is dependent upon the stage of spiritual growth of the group.  Volunteers would need to be at the prison one night or day of the week for thirteen weeks. 

At this very moment, start-up of the True Freedom Discipleship Program at LCIW is occurring and around thirty female volunteers have signed up to help.  The team is about eight people short right now so if you feel called of God to help, please contact the Associational office.

The “Malachi Dads” and the “Lois Mom’s” diplomas also need a lot of “one day” volunteers to help supervise the children of offenders who are brought into the prison for a one day visit with their parents. Revivals scheduled at each prison provide another opportunity for individuals to come in and participate in prison ministry without having to commit to the thirteen-week process.

We met with the Orleans and Jefferson Parish sheriffs and chaplains on Saturday, September 26 to discuss developing a discipleship system for them.  A good strong team is already trained and in place to implement this ministry.  If simpler discipleship processes can be set up in the parish jails, then offenders will already be growing in their relationship with God when they get into the state prison system making for an easier transition into existing programs.

Another long-term goal of the task force was to develop HALF-WAY HOUSES for prisoners who are eligible to be released but either have no where to go or are not yet ready to make a stable life on the outside.  Recently, God seems to have opened the door for our first half-way house to begin.  Please be in

prayer for God to supply the yearly salary of a half-way house director.  His job would be to coordinate teams of laymen who will conduct discipleship training in the half-way house, train men how to write resumes and how to conduct themselves during interviews, take them on job interviews and train them how to live responsibly on the outside again.  He will also need help in overseeing the facility.

One great need in the prison ministry which reveals itself afresh each month is the need for volunteer chaplains in our prisons.  This needs to be an individual with good ministry skills who can minister to and encourage the Senior Chaplain and the offenders who are lay leaders in the “church behind the walls.”  Keeping the church in prison strong and loving is necessary to the vital outreach of the church.  This ministry would take eight to ten hours per week.

Please pray!  No servant-of-God can have much of an impact without strong prayer support.  Only Jesus can change the prison system and only Jesus can change the individual offender.