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Brian Cole: Set the Captives Free - Nebraska Prison Ministry

Brian Cole: Set the Captives Free - Nebraska Prison Ministry

After spending over 27 years in prison and youth detention facilities, shortly after I was released for the last time on June 1, 2010, the Lord sent me back to prison. I was shocked because If I had never seen another prison again I would glory in that. But the Lord knew this is where I spent most of my life and these were the people who knew me best. They knew I didn’t believe in God and hated Christians. They knew I was a devil worshipper and an occultist. So, after I came to know Jesus and was set free, the Lord wanted me to go back into the prisons to be a testimony to what He has done in my life, giving Hope to others that this can also happen to them.

I have been doing jail and prison ministry for 5 1⁄2 years now. Other than ministering to a couple other prisons from out of state, my ministry has been to those in the Wisconsin prisons and jails, but this last week I was asked by Prison Fellowship to come to a youth prison (ages 14- 21) and an adult work camp in Omaha Nebraska to minister alongside a band called 513 Free and some other speakers and ministries.

I would like to just bring up a couple of observations and a testimony I have as a result of this trip.

Firstly, from past experience and being in that position once myself, I must say that youth are some of the hardest people groups to minister to. And it doesn’t even necessarily have to be ministering to them, but teaching them or trying to give them wisdom based on experience. I remember when I was 16 and in a juvenile prison. One year they sent me and some others to a scared straight event in an adult prison. I knew they couldn’t touch me and when they got up in my face I would just laugh at them like I was untouchable. I was rebellious, angry, and thought I knew everything. That is the state of most youth today, let alone those who are involved in drugs, gangs, and criminal activity, and is the state of mind most of these youths we spoke to in Nebraska were in.

They were hard, rebellious, argumentative, rolling their eyes, making rude comments and all around disrespectful most of the sessions. They were already full of themselves so they had no room for anything else.

The second thing I gleaned while there is that the inmates got away with so much stuff that would not be tolerated in some other prisons. There was a huge gang problem, like in many prisons, but here they openly displayed it. They were allowed to bag their pants, throw up gang signs, have their hair cut, braided or done up any way they wanted (which is often used to display a particular gang affiliation). One guy, Marco, was a cutter, and had just a couple days prior cut his face all up. Yet here he was at our event. There were many other things also, and when I was at dinner with some of the ministry people and security people from the prison, I asked them why this was allowed there.

They told us that ACLU was the main reason. Ah! That explains a lot in itself! My point is that if we want to teach criminals that these things are not ok, and if we want to make our prisons safer, and our communities safer after these man and women are released, then this stuff has to stop. The message this gives them is it is ok and you won’t be punished. Go ahead and continue to do what you’ve always done because we can’t touch you.

I will leave on a good note. There were many inmates at the end who did come up to either re-dedicate their lives to the Lord or became new believers. I don’t usually count people or place too much faith in this because for some of them it’s just a joke or they are doing it because others are, or to play some kind of game. I can only keep in prayer for all of them and trust the Lord will do His work in His time.

But the guy Marco, the cutter, did seem to get delivered from the demons which talked to him often and were telling him to hurt himself and others. His face and arms had scores of large cutting gouges, and the staff said it was almost a daily thing with him. We all prayed with him and the staff told us they had never seen him smile like he did that day. Just yesterday we got an update from the prison religious coordinator that went like this: “Marco came to class this morning and he was ‘like a new person.’ She couldn’t believe the change in him!”

The security director told us upon leaving the institution that if Marco never cut himself again while he was there that she would become a believer also!

Even though there are a lot of negatives and adversity we come up against in these institutions, it is the one Marco story which makes it all worthwhile. That and the fact of knowing it isn’t on us to change people, that is the job of our mighty Lord, and He is able.

Last Update: Aug 07, 2017 7:34 am CDT

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