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PRISON
MINISTRY
OPPORTUNITIES TO SERVE
We are asking God to provide workers who
will commit 2-4 hours per month to teaching, training, group facilitating and mentoring
inmates and their families. Time volunteered can be focused in a specific week
or quarter,
or certain days and evenings. The scheduling of programming and classes vary depending
on the needs of individual units.
GROUP FACILITATORS/LEADERS
Key seminars are presented throughout the year. To help
seminar participants to make the most of their opportunity, we need volunteers who help
with their assignments, group discussion and filling out of the note books.
TEACHERS
Teachers will have the opportunity to teach
small groups, one on one studies, and correspondence courses.
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Meet
Our Director 
Dale and Judy have been involved in prison ministry for over 23
years in Indiana, Kentucky and Texas.
In 1983, Dale and Judy decided to go into ministry full time, Dale
wanted to see what they could do to help those who were
incarcerated, by teaching them the "Good News" of Jesus
Christ. Dale has spent the better part of his life either keeping
men and women in prison or putting them there. In his work with
K-Mart he arrested the same people over and over again. Dale
realized then that a change would not be made in people, unless they
had Jesus in their life. So since 1983, Dale has been trying to help
men and women to change their minds, so Jesus can change their
hearts and rule in their lives.
After graduating from Sunset School of Preaching in 1986, Judy and
Dale returned to Indianapolis to start the Prison Ministry full
time. Prior to going to Sunset, Dale had been working at the Marion
County Jail part time, teaching the gospel to the inmates with one
on one studies. Occasionally he would have a class, but for the
first year it was basically one on one studies. Later, after gaining
the confidence of the Chaplain at the Marion County Jail, Dale
became part of his volunteer staff. After ministering at the jail
for some time, Dale realized that the ministry needed to branch out
into the prison system in Indiana, because most of the inmates that
he was teaching, were leaving the County Jail and going into prisons
through out Indiana. Now, after eighteen years, the ministry is going into five facilities in Indiana, two facilities in Kentucky
and five facilities in Texas. Dale accomplished this with the
Lord’s help by raising the consciousness of the churches in
Indiana, Kentucky and Texas. Dale along with others helped them see
the need for preaching the gospel to those inside the prisons, for
training volunteers to go in and minister to inmates; and for
negotiating with the Chaplains and the prison officials helping them
to understand our mission, and how we could help them to make better
citizens of those inmates the state had given them charge of..
In the past twenty years, Dale and Judy have mentored twenty-seven
ex-offenders and helped them integrate back into society. Four of
those lived in their home. Out of those twenty, as far as we know,
only one has returned to prison.
What Dale has learned about helping men and women who have been
incarcerated was not learned in the classroom. It is not theory. He
learned it by helping men and women live life outside of prison. He
learned it by helping these individuals one by one know about Christ
and what living a Christian life is all about. He watched them try
to find work, try to rebuild relationships with their spouses, with
their families. Dale understands the enormous challenge they face in
rebuilding their lives. But he also understands that it can be done
with the help of God and his people.
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