USA (MNN) — Would your church start a prison outreach? With Crossroads Prison Ministries, you won’t have to do it alone. Just ask Pastor Hiram Vega with Chase Oaks Church in Texas. His church partnered with Crossroads one year ago to recruit Spanish-speaking mentors to write letters with prisoners in a Crossroads Bible study.
Pastor Hiram Vega with one of the “founding” mentors. (Photo courtesy of Pastor Hiram Vega)
The congregation at Chase Oaks Church didn’t just catch the vision for prison ministry — they ran with it.
Today, 19 people from Chase Oaks Church are enrolled (either actively or on-hold) as Spanish-speaking mentors with Crossroads, and a total of 41 church members have been involved over the past year.
Pastor Vega says they recently marked the one-year anniversary of prison ministry with Crossroads by throwing a party for the mentors. At the celebration, they honored “founding” mentors with diplomas and a small gift—a nice pen for writing more letters to men and women in prison.
Pastor Vega says, “When we celebrated and we shared what we were doing for a year, people got excited and five people decided to join the ministry right then!”
The mentors at Chase Oaks Church are big on encouraging one another with Gospel wins. They share testimonials and stories of how they see the Lord working in the hearts of men and women they correspond with in prison.
Pastor Vega emphasizes that prayer is another key foundation of the ministry. “Whenever somebody presents a prayer request, we have a group chat. They share a prayer request, and we all pray. So it’s like we are being reminded of the difference we can make, not just answering the letter but praying for them.
(Photo courtesy of Pastor Hiram Vega)
“It’s a circle. We get an answer [from a prisoner], we pray, and then we see the difference in our lives too. So we get enriched both ways.”
Praise God for one year of Gospel prison ministry at Chase Oaks Church! Pray for more mentors, especially Spanish-speaking mentors, to join Crossroads.
Learn more about becoming a mentor with Crossroads here.
Header photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries.
