Recent headlines told of school violence, stolen innocence, shattered lives. An angry man entered a one-room schoolhouse in a quiet Amish town and eventually took the lives of six young girls. We forgive him, the family of one of the victims said just days after the incident.   To love the unlovable is the final test that moves a person from discipleship to an intimate friendship with Christ, echoed Pastor Melvyn Hayden’s message delivered some time after the incident. But who perhaps could be harder to love than a person who has murdered or victimized a member of society.

Yet there’s a ministry at Liberty whose members practice love through prison bars every day. Ernest Johnson, leader of Prison Ministry, says it’s a ministry that helps a “forgotten” group of people, some who may never again be released. He and others at Liberty write letters, send Bible studies and other religious materials, accept calls from the inmates and some visit inmates several times a year. One member, Bernice Webster, has formed a life-long friendship with a female inmate and has become the legal guardian of this young lady.
 

Margaret Askew said she began doing prison ministry after asking an incarcerated relative at the Jessup Penitentiary to send her the names and addresses of men who might want Bible study. He sent her a list of 25 men and she began writing them and sending them the Discover Bible study lessons. So far six men have completed all 26 lessons. 

“It takes a long time for them to complete a lesson because sometimes when I mail the lessons, the jail mails them back to me,” Askew said. “Then I just pray and send them back.”

 

Others like Oswyn Marcelle were given the name of a prisoner and just began to communicate with the person. Marcelle said Sis. Webster gave him his first name, an inmate at Cumberland maximum-security prison and he began sending Amazing Facts Bible studies. Then this person sent other names and those people sent additional names. Soon he was sending lessons to people in the Hagerstown Penitentiary as well. One person even started a Bible class in the prison, Marcelle said, and requested Bibles and study materials. “We sent him twenty-five Bibles, study materials and a commentary.”

All who participate say they get great satisfaction from the work.

 

“ I have received calls and letters that say you don’t know how much this means to me,” said Bro. Johnson. “One young lady said, ‘Please don’t stop sending me the quarterlies.’”
 

“To know that I’m reaching people and to read how they appreciate the letters and the lessons, brings me satisfaction,” said Marcelle. “A lot of times the only way these people would come to know the Lord is in prison. Once they come to know the Lord, they are just like everyone else.”
 

“Most of the inmates (I write to) are lifers and will never come out, but I believe God can use you no matter where you are and He will forgive you for anything if you ask and believe,” Askew said. “The only thing I can do for them is try and put God’s word in their hands so they too will have a chance for eternal life.”