Fishing for souls

During my ministry at the Regional Justice Center in Kent, I rotate through the units looking for men to talk to.  I'll ask the officer to announce something like, "the chaplain is on-deck and available to pray and read the Bible." 

We get some kite requests for visits, prayer, and spiritual direction, some.  Our chaplain office has word searches sudoku puzzles and some solid Christian books available for reading.  We receive very popular books by Dr. James Gills.  I circulate, "Don't waste your life," by John Piper, and "An anchor for the soul," by Ray Pritchard.

Often, the men ask us to do things we are not free to do--contacts friends or family or carry out some legal or jail need.  They want us to contact someone on the outside.  

Should there be a restraining order, we could walk ourselves into a big mess by participating in what the courts have blocked.  Since many defy these orders regardless of the consequences, we can't help them at all.  

We respond, "My supervisor doesn't allow me to do that, but I'd love to share and pray with you." In those cases, that is all they want and once they find out we can't and won't do those things, they walk away.

During these fishing expeditions, we pray and "send out a line." Guys sometimes open up about a prayer need or about their religious journey.  I'll ask them where they are at spiritually and they might say,  "Oh, I am a Christian.  If the Lord gets me out of this mess, I will really believe Him."  

I do not pursue information about their cases with them, at all.  Sometimes, they share a harrowing story about their innocence.    

In other words, they are obviously not sharing the real story with me and minimal contrition--until the Lord miraculously opens their hearts.  They are used to a firestorm of manipulation and con games.  

I'll ask them to look up John 3:16.  Sometimes, they get their faster than I do.  They do have a solid spiritual background and know Him but have been caught in a web of substance abuse and other crimes.  

Other times they have never even heard of that verse and location so they search around the table of contents aimlessly.  It's amazing to me over and over again how much that is true.

I'll probe carefully but deeper and ask the Lord to work mightily as I begin to share verses from the Gospel of John or Romans.  As we continue, the guys may really want to dig in and I can make a full gospel presentation.  That does happen and frequently.