Prison Ministry

The South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville is on of the state's major penitentiaries.  Hebrews 13:3 tells us, "Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body."  It is important to remember that we have brothers and sisters in Christ behind bars.  Whether they are wrongly imprisoned or justly incarcerated makes no difference.  They are a brother or sister, part of our same body, and they need your prayers.  They serve our Father in a much more difficult environment than we do.  They are being refined into the image of Christ through much hotter fires.  Wemust use the peace and stability that God has given us in our lives as a Gospel provision to take our time and bring these precious souls before Him in fervent intercessory prayer.

Two of our Deacons are certified for Christian services which are held on various Friday evenings in the hardest area in the penitentiary in terms of length of sentences and nature of the crimes.  This is also where you find the deepest, riches theology among the Christian men there.  Having been saved by grace, usually after theywere imprisoned, many of these men have spent decades in the study of the Word.  They hold daily Bible studies and prayer meetings together.  It is a joy to not only preach, but to fellowship in Christ.

Then there are those Friday evenings where they go to a different area which holds inmates with shorter terms and lesser offenses.  Men here as well are saved and will freely testify of the grace of God in stripping everything away from them and putting them in prison so that they could come to know Him.

At any one of the various services there will be a mix of mature Christians, those new in the faith, and lost souls.  Some of the men who do not know Christ simply want to go to church service to gout out of their zone for a bit.  Whatever their motivation, it is God who has arranged their steps to be in a place where they can hear His Gospel.  Pray that our Deacons will always be faithful to present the good news.