New Man Jail Ministry Stories

If you have ever wondered if your prayers really make any difference, Tony’s story will clear that up for you in a hurry! I met Tony on a Saturday afternoon about four months ago. I was in North Minneapolis helping give away hotdogs and chips on the corner of 36th & Penn Ave. North with the guys at FreedomWorks, a recovery ministry for formerly incarcerated men. It was a neighborhood outreach to anyone passing by. Tony stopped, got a hotdog, and sat down at our picnic table on the sidewalk. I started to chat with him and tried to share the gospel. He would listen for a while but then he would just tune out and respond almost incoherently. He was twitchy and distracted. He was either on some drug he shouldn’t be on, or he was not taking some medication he should have been taking. Either way, it was impossible to get through to him. I prayed for Tony several times. He hung around for a while and several of us prayed for him. Finally, a friend came and picked him up and he was gone…. Fast-forward about four months….

I’m checking in at the front desk of the Hennepin Co. jail. It’s Tuesday, I’m there to lead our weekly bible study in Quad (cell block) 14. But today the officer checking me in says, “Sorry, but they’re doing a surprise ‘shakedown’ in Quad 14 and the study needs to be canceled.” I was disappointed, but the Lord told me, “Don’t just go home. Ask about another Quad.” Okay, so I ask if there is another Quad that needs a bible study, (kind of a silly question because they get scheduled way in advance.) The jailer checks his schedule and says, “No, I don’t see anything open.” Then I hear a voice behind me say, “You can take my class if you want to.” A guy in line behind me, whom I’d never met before, said, “I lead a study in Quad 9A, but I have a lot of work to do, and if you want to take my spot today you sure can.” So, I’m off to 9A. As the seven or eight men from 9A file into the study room, I shake each hand, then the last guy looks familiar to me…“Hey, I know you!”…“Yeah…I know you too!” It’s Tony! And, he’s in his right mind and speaking coherently. He sheepishly explains that he’s in on a parole violation. I tell him, “I’m glad to see you again” and I launch into our typical bible study time.

These men are very engaged as I share my faith story and lay out the gospel as clearly as ever. They have lots of good questions. We spent two hours together. (I normally get only an hour, but the guards just never checked on us☺) When I gave them an opportunity to respond to God’s message, each and every man prayed a sincere prayer, repenting of their sin and trusting in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. The very last man to pray was Tony. He prayed, “God, I’m so sorry for my sin. If you could ever save me like Joe explained here, please forgive me Jesus, and help me live right.” I think sometimes the Lord likes to send me on a special assignment like that, just to remind us all that HE IS IN CONTROL!

Doug is 47. He’s been in and out of jail, or dodging the law most of his adult life. The first time Doug came to my Bible study in the jail, he just sat in the back, leaning forward with his head in his hands, staring at the floor. Half way through that class time he suddenly sat up and snapped out a question. “What about a guy who just don’t care any more? What hope is there for a guy like me?” Before I could wonder what I should say, I heard myself responding, “Don’t tell me you just don’t care. You showed up here didn’t you? Just keep listening and you’ll hear what God wants you to hear.” Doug did keep listening. He heard me share the gospel many times. He was back every week, being raw, real, and asking great questions. One week, when I gave the men the opportunity to trust in Christ, Doug was the first one to pray, “God have mercy on me. I know I’m a sinner. Jesus, please forgive my sin and make me right with you.” Doug became a new man in Jesus.

Then for several weeks we studied our way through Romans. Doug and the others wrestled with the reality of having a new life in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Then one week Doug came to class with a fire in his eyes like never before. He was busting to tell me, “Man, I don’t know how to explain this, but one night last week, I was in my cell, it was dark, and I was pacin’ back n’ forth and talkin’ to God. Then it hit me like a truck. I just kept sayin’ to myself, ‘All I gotta do is trust in what Jesus did for me, and everything is gonna be okay! Everything is gonna be okay!” Then he paused and said, “Man, then I felt something like more powerful than any cocaine or anything. I felt like electricity was shooting through me. I just knew…It was God, man! He was like really there! Joe, was that God or what?” I said, “I can’t say for sure, but He sure could have chosen to do that to affirm your faith that night.” Whatever it was that Doug experienced, he has never been the same. He said, “Man I used to lay in jail dreaming about when I would get out, what drug cash I would make, what hooker I would get, and what drugs I would do. Not any more. Now I want to get out and do good. But I’ve been dreamin’ about bad for so long, thinking it was good, that now I need to relearn what good is.” Yes, Doug and so many of these men have a lot to relearn as they start to relate to God, and life, in a whole new way. 

I usually meet with adults. One week I met with three juveniles. I started with as personal a connection as I could. “So, Patrick, why did you come to this Bible study?” I told them my story as a teenager, of living as a slave to my own sin and years of trying to make myself good enough for God through religion. Then I asked them each to tell me about their experience with God, faith, and why they came to this Bible study. None of the three had gone to church as a kid. They were all from the streets. They all knew very little about the Bible and the true gospel. That broke my heart, but God was working in theirs. They each said that they were starting to believe in God but didn’t know much about Him and wanted to learn more. “If you were to die tonight, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? Are you certain, hopeful, not sure, or doubtful?” When I asked them this they all said somewhere between hopeful and certain, but they didn’t know why. They had asked God several times to forgive them, but they didn’t know much about Jesus and what He did for them. I spent the next hour and a half explaining who God was, why Jesus had to die, how bad sin is, the difference between religion and living faith, what Jesus is calling us to do and what the Bible promises if we respond. They asked every question you could imagine but they were sincere and each one responded by making their faith real and trusting in Jesus with full certainty. I was able to go back the next week and meet with those same young men again. I quizzed them on what they learned last week. They all understood what they had decided with solid faith. But again, they had a thousand questions; “So, what do I do now if I sin again? Is lusting after a woman really a sin? Does God want me to get a legit’ job now, instead of selling drugs?” I taught them about starting to follow Jesus and getting to know Him. I covered a lot about their new relationship with God and focused on the power of His Holy Spirit in their lives now. I know they have tough roads ahead of them and I’m grateful to be able to reach them with God’s Word at such a pivotal time in their lives.

Jerome was a huge man with arms bigger than my legs, (similar to the man in this picture.) I am often reminded that some of the men that I serve could snap me in half at will. But this week, God drove home a truth that I will never forget. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 Jerome stayed in the back of the classroom. He was quiet and just kept looking out the window as we studied the account in Mark 2, of the paralyzed man who was carried by his friends and dropped down through a roof to get him in front of Jesus. As we talked about the story together, we noticed how Jesus was so willing to forgive sin and heal a broken man, how humbling it must have been for the paralyzed man to let his friends drop him in like that, and how Jesus cared for the lives of the lowly. I asked them who in the story they could relate to the most, and I asked them what they thought about Jesus. While others were commenting, I had almost forgotten about Jerome, who was still staring out the window. To my surprise, this powerful hulk of a man turns toward me and says, “I wish I could see Jesus right now! I wish I could give him a big hug and ask Him to get me out of here.” Jerome became meek. He saw himself as needy as the paralytic, and in that moment, he was renewed in his hope that Jesus cared and was willing to help. We prayed together for Jesus to do just that. He and several other men prayed to trust Jesus to forgive their sin and heal them. Each week, I still see God using jail ministry to call men like Jerome to learn the blessing of meekness.