Update for year, 2024

Correspondence

In 2024 we have increased the number of correspondence students by 600, bringing us to over 1800 Bible students on our rolls.

We have increased the number of courses we offer to 44, 14 New Life Behavior courses, 14 Bible courses by Jim Pinkston, 6 Bible courses by Carolyn Kusler, 2 Bible courses by Jody, 5 Kings Crossing Ministries mini-courses and are now offering three Sunset International Bible Courses. SIBI gave us permission to offer these courses as correspondence courses as well as the certification program for the inside.

We purchased five courses from Kings Crossing in Corpus Christi. They are mini-courses and save us overall about $2.00 per course mailed due to being smaller in size and weight.

Last year the volunteer graders (approximately 20) graded over 55,000 lessons, and that has increased by approximately 10,000 which breaks down to grading around 1,200 lessons per week … that is lessons, not courses. We count this by lessons because the number of lessons for the courses varies from 5 to 24 with the average being 13.

Jody spends at least 40 – 50 hours a week working on the correspondence side of the ministry, which I think probably is the backbone of the ministry.

She examines the history of each student in order to customize a training program that best suits their needs.  For instance, through her studies she determined that women incarcerated for child abuse will take our first course on a “sense of self” but if we send them the second or third courses concerning family and parenting, they drop out at a high percentage rate. So, she sends them the first course, then skips to the 4th course, and other New Life Behavior courses, then sends the Forgiveness course which she wrote that has a huge and positive effect on these ladies… and eventually they will take the courses on family and parenting.

When we send lessons, Jody has written several encouraging notes to accompany certain lessons, and certain students… it all depends on their age, how long their sentence, and what they are incarcerated for.

Along with our lessons we send a form for them to recommend new students, and a form for signing up for World Bible School, which we turn over to Pete and Mandy Shaw… and I believe this has turned into a very successful ministry as well.

Family Engagement

Family Outreach

We started a family engagement project a couple of years ago, in which we invite inmates to share their family information so we can reach out to them… and this has had some success as well. I believe our volunteers in that program have reached out to over a hundred families on behalf of the prisoners. The volunteers who are contacting these people include Ken Wiley, Ray Vaughn, Pam Sterit and Janet Swopes from the Okmulgee congregation, and Gerry and Lorna Nichols.

Clark Lineback has also been involved in this ministry as well, offering help when appropriate for those in need… of groceries, and in a couple of cases, rent, utilities, and car payments.

Caroline Kusner who is a former police lady, and Tim Lynn, former Secret Service and law enforcement have taken on the challenge of analyzing and verifying the needs.

Due to being badged, we cannot have direct contact with the families of inmates, so we stay behind the scenes coordinating and keeping track of volunteers and families. Our goal in this ministry is to help keep families together and encourage them to find a congregation to join if they are not in our area, as we have reached out to churches in several cities and states.

Jerry Way in the Edmond congregation’s prison ministry has joined us in this effort a number of times, and he also supplied us with a list of “felony friendly churches”, as he calls them, in the OKC area.

Family Engagement Worship Service

Last year we experimented with having a special worship service for families of inmates, and those involved in the Prison Ministry.

We had limited success but will continue in September.

My intention is to have one of the young preachers offer the lesson… this gives them a chance to preach, and gives a little variety to the service…. Kevin McKee was our last preacher before we broke for the summer and is going to be our first preacher as we restart for the fall.

The initial idea was to try to create a place where families of inmates, and former inmates could feel welcome.

Aftercare

Jody also started what she refers to as the “After Care” program… designed to reach out to and stay in contact with inmates after they are released. Thanks to the Vine organization, they keep us informed about who is being released or transferred, so we can keep in contact. Once we learn that a student is about to be released, Jody sends them a contact letter encouraging them to stay in touch with us and refers them to a church in their area.

As volunteers who go into prisons, we are not supposed to have contact with released prisoner for 6 months, so I have talked to Jack Robbins and Scott Kamp from Hope City to help us in this area as volunteers and they are both on board.

We need a lady or two to help in this area as well, we prefer men reach out to men, and women to women in this ministry and the family outreach program as well. In addition, we prefer young children being reached out to by women, and in a few cases, we turned them over to ladies in the children’s ministry.

In conjunction with this arm of the ministry we would like to help develop a jobs program for the recently released.  Tim Lynn has experience in this area.

When prisoners are released on parole, if they do not have family to help them, they are often back inside in a short time… they immediately have to report to a parole officer, start paying fees and fines, find a place to live, and fine employment.  Unless they receive help in a hurry, we all know what this usually leads to… the only way they have to survive is to return to a life of crime.

Prison Re-entry Program

Hope City

As you know is managed by Marc Clayton who is doing an excellent job in maintaining the facility in every way possible.

John 3:16

Ray Vaughn is very active in this program and gives those recently released inmates another opportunity for a place to stay and grow.

Inside Prison Ministry

Sunset International Bible Institute Certification Program

 

We now have three classes for Sunset being conducted at Dick Conners, two on Monday morning, and one on Monday afternoon.  Reggie Wilson, one of the Chapel Orderlies, is helping with one of the classes on Monday morning. The Park sponsored him for a master’s degree in Bible studies, which he is very close to completing

My goal is to get as many inmate students, depending on their level of commitment to the course, to become “teachers” as well.

 

 

 

Tuesday Evening Services / Medium Side

Brad Jensen, a member of St James non-denominational church, heard about our ministry and contacted me.  I invited him to come to our grading on Thursdays, and he began to come regularly.  He will be joining us at Dick Conner as a volunteer and after visiting the Park is considering becoming a member here. Tim Lynn has been joining me & Elaine on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays for our services on the medium side of DCCC.  Mrs. Johnnie West from the Okmulgee Church (her husband is the minister) joins us on the 1st Tuesday.

Sunday Evening Services / Minimum Side

Jim Pinkston oversees the Sunday evening worship service on the minimum side on three Sunday nights a month. Volunteers include Elaine Russell, Joan Pitts, Rafael Verona (who may be moving back to California), John Wesler, who is involved in a prison ministry in Texas, but comes to Tulsa two weeks out of the month, and Shelby Reiter will be attending.

In total we have nine badged volunteers, in addition to Jody and me.

Jody and I also drive to Eddie Warriors Correctional Center in Taft every Friday morning to deliver courses in person…. We normally have a minimum of 50 courses to deliver and considering the cost of postage this saves around $200 a week in postage costs.

The Park Prison Ministry Website

Created approximately 10 years ago to share Apologetics lessons, letters and articles, and sermons by inmates, sermons by Jim Pinkston and others.

We are also slowly adding videos covering the various courses we offer so family members who also want to take the courses can listen to them on line, or download a copy and complete the lessons and send them in… this is to save on postage, rather than mailing courses to family members, they can merely download them from the site.

This also where we maintain our database.

David L Moss County Jail

Jim Pinkston, Francisco, Ray & Suzanne Vaugn, Brad Jensen (will soon join them) Elaine Russell, and Theresa Hawkins go into the Tulsa County jail for the quarterly baptisms, and Francisco and Ray are Assistant Chaplains in the jail and are allowed to teach classes.

Elaine and Theresa teach Bible courses for the ladies.

The jail is still locked down for ministries to visit and teach, but that should soon change, and when it does, I will be going in one day a week to teach a baptism course, and the steps to salvation courses. This will ensure these people know why they are being baptized. Since Covid, Jim and the others who baptize only have a few minutes to teach them before baptizing them.  Jim Pinkston will be going in one or two days a week as he has time to teach Bible courses.

Volunteer Appreciation Dinner

Every year we plan to have a special dinner for our volunteers in order to demonstrate our appreciation for all they do, and all they give.

Future….

I am hoping to find someone who can take over the Sunset Classes or at least fill in for me when I can’t be there for one reason or another.

Angel Tree… on the inside…

I was asked to “play Santa” this year for the Dick Conner dads and their children… this apparently isn’t going to work out this year, however I think this is an excellent idea. One of our main goals is to keep families together… and back on the right track, leading to eternal life in Heaven.

So, I will be reaching out to the inside Angel Tree people this year, and those who manage the inside dad’s program in an attempt to bring Christmas to the inside, so incarcerated Moms and Dads can have Christmas with their children.

As you know, the Park has committed their Christmas project to focus on Angel Tree… these children are so important because they are at the highest risk of following their parents into their life style.

 Prayer Requests

1. We have prayer requests for the inmates, for their safety, for their growth in their faith, and for their families.
2. We also request prayers for the volunteers, that they will remain strong, and have patience… especially when the grading which can be tedious at times.
3. Prayer requests also for the growth and success of the prison ministry.