Our Daily Bread, Prison Ministries Program is run by trained volunteers and professionals that meet once or twice a week in the prisons and county jails with a focus on sharing the Good News with inmates, male and female. Part of the Good news is that they are no longer alone as they have brothers and sisters willing to come along side and help them. In addition, workers are available for one on one and group counseling with those in need. After the inmates come to know the volunteer, it is important to begin to either  work with their families, offering help, as needed.

ODB Volunteers and Professionals needs to be trained in giving the ODB, Seminars and Counseling studies in order to deal with the problems of inmates. Once familiar with the materials, then workers contact local jails or prisons to see what times are available to meet with inmates inside. Seminars and Counseling are offered and arrangements should be made through the Chaplains office for weekly fellowship groups and studies. As a representative of ODB you will be sharing with inmates and others the programs ODB has to offer, such as Bibles, Fellowship House, general study materials and admission to the ODB Bible Institute.

Teamwork, the Solution:  Top

Prison Ministries is about transition and helping inmates transition back into society as productive believers and citizens. The other programs and support services that you will be representing is The Fellowship House, providing structured Christian Housing, counseling, helping those in transition get clothing and work, once released. Often times inmates newly released are institutionalized and need people to take them by the hand. 

It is important that a team comprised of representatives of Prison Ministries, Pastoral Counseling, Probation & Parole, local Pastor and Fellowship House meets together in an effort to help ex-offenders transition back to the community, hopefully with a new life and a second chance. In order to co-ordinate things properly in advance, six months are usually needed to be able to locate resources enough to be able to facilitate the needs of the individuals being released. Once we are notified of the need, we begin with prayer as they are added to the list of prayer requests on the Prayer Hot Line.

The next step is we jointly begin to search for local resources where the individual is being released. If there is a Fellowship House in existence in the area usually that is where we begin. We check with local churches for a sponsor or mentor in the transitional period. Once the church is involved there usually is communication between the church and the person being released. This helps save time and costly errors as the resource is now communicating with the  need. It then becomes the local church's responsibility to help the individual with support groups, but it is important that you remain in touch during this period of time of transition. 

Trust is a Key:  Top

Trust is difficult for the local church and the person in transition. You are their link as you will probably know the individuals better than anyone, as you have had the opportunity to work with them over an extended period of time while they are still incarcerated. Walking and mentoring the individual back into the community is helping them find work and housing. Mandated by Matthew 25:31-46, this program works with people in need and as we do for them, we do for the Lord.

You might ask, "Why is all of this important?" 

Two Reasons: First is to honor God as Biblically it is correct (Matthew 25:31-46). Secondly, the return rate without the intervention from the church is 87% with an average cost to keep an inmate of $30,000 per year. It is estimated that there are 1.2 million people in prisons and another 1 million in county jails with an estimated cost of 66 billion dollars per year to incarcerate plus the additional police which estimated the cost of salaries and equipment is about 220 billion per year with no hope of anything getting better. Unless we as believers intervene problems and costs will increase beyond what even our grand children can pay.

Contact Us for available services offered in your local area. If there is no local chapter you or your church should consider Prison Ministries as an outreach in the community. We are here to help you get started. We provide the training and can help with the necessary resources that it takes to get started and in an on going basis.

We are responsible both to God and each other.