Tulsa County Jail. Jim Pinkston, Francisco Davila and Zeth Parkhurst teach the men. Several ladies go to the women’s pods every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for the last five years, to teach. Zeth is teaching with Jim each Wednesday and teaching the hearing impaired. We have baptized 173 of our students this year.
Back to the ladies: We have ladies teaching in all four ladies pods at Tulsa County Jail each week. They rotate lessons every thirteen weeks. Jan Upton, Carol Siling, Elaine Russell, and Theresa Hawkins teach. Elaine is the coordinator for the women. They just opened the fourth ladies pod Elaine is teaching there every Wednesday. Many ladies are being changed by the Gospel because of these ladies.
Dick Connors Correctional Center. Jim Pinkston teaches NLB (New Life Behavior) Lessons and CASA (Christians Against Substance Abuse). He also teaches in the faith based unit and preaches there four evenings each month. He has taught there since 1990. Jim Carmichael teaches every Monday morning and preaches when Pinkston cannot.
Elaine Russell, Jim’s wife Jean, Jim & Jody Carmichael, and Patrick Murphy help and Booker leads singing when he can. We go to the Minimum Security unit on the first and forth Sunday nights for services and to the Medium Security (behind the walls) on the first and third Tuesday nights for services.
Correspondence. 40 packages of 6 to 7 lessons mailed to many prisons in Oklahoma. Every two weeks = 260 lessons x 2 = 520 per month or 6,240 per year. Many of these are people we studied with at Tulsa and Creek County Jail and have gone on to prison or were transferred from one prison to another. This is one way we keep up with our students as they are moved from prison to prison. Elaine Russell & Carol Siling send lessons to ladies who were former students at Tulsa County Jail who have gone to a prison or gone home. On the second and fourth Tuesdays evenings we have a group that meets to grade and get these lessons ready to mail. This is one place we can use some help. We meet at 6 PM in the Ministry Center.
John H. Lilly Correctional Center. Bryan Campbell is doing Celebrate Recovery every Saturday.
Creek Co. Jail . David Stikes, Jim Carmichael and Phil Smith are preparing to start teaching there again in January.
Re-entry program. (Hope City) houses up to eight men right now. Randy Milam is the onsite manager. In the last three years over twenty men have been helped and are closer to Jesus because of the Hope City ministry. Two of these men have their own businesses today and employ several ex-offenders.
Advisory Board. The board is made up of eight men and one woman: James Ivy,(deacon over ministry), Ken Williams, Steve Stade, Scott Blackwell, Gary Medley, Mark Clayton, Randy Milam, Kevin Neiman and Elaine Russell. Jim is the recruiter for the applicants. The board decides who
is approved to enter the reentry program. They go by a set of guidelines approved by the Elders. The board also oversees the operation of the program.
Rogers County Jail. Mike Hawkins started a great jail ministry a few months ago and has been very successful teaching there. God just keeps growing this ministry along with the others.
Future Plans. To continue with the programs that are now successful and just see where God leads us in 2017.
This ministry originated with Marvin Phillips at Garnett Church of Christ in 1989. Elaine Russell brought it to Park Plaza in 2007 where Mitch Wilburn, Terry Finch and James Ivy began working with the ministry in 2007-2008, then Jim Pinkston came on board in 2010 part time for 2 years then full time after that.
Baptisms from this work
2010 94
2011 109
2012 139
2013 259
2014 406
2015 382
2016 398
2017 173 so far this year
Total 2057 Since 2010 That we know of.
To put this in perspective, 2057 would more than fill first & second service at Park Central.
The main help we need is your prayers and support and we could use some help on second and fourth Tuesday evenings grading. We start at 6 PM at the Ministry Center. We furnish everything you need to do in this work.
Impossible without your support.
“Jesus did it!!!”
