Tag Archive for: Prison Minsitry Summer 2024

Make the most out of the opportunity

“His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Matthew 25:21 NIV)

During the last week of his earthly life, Jesus tells the story in Matthew 25 of three servants who are each given responsibility to manage a varying amount of wealth. Two of the servants manage their master’s funds well and double his investment. They are commended by the master, “Well done.” The third servant is condemned with the words, “You wicked, lazy servant!” for doing nothing and wasting his opportunity out of fear.

Your WELS Prison Ministry has been given a critical opportunity by our gracious God. After years of searching for a way to distribute our Bible studies digitally, we finally identified Edovo, an organization with which we contracted to put our studies on their learning management system. This opportunity has tremendous blessings and challenges as described in “Bringing the digital age to prison ministry.” The system is available to approximately 150,000 inmates using computer tablets in over 400 correctional facilities (out of 5,000+ total nationwide). Edovo plans to be available to 250,000 inmates by the end of the year.

We need your help to be as diligent and faithful in making the most of the Lord’s blessings. The help we covet most is your prayers. Pray that God gives us all the insight, energy, and people we need to take full advantage of this new endeavor. We are having to develop new ways of carrying out our ministry while maintaining many of the methods we have used for decades. The extra effort is taxing our resources, including paid staff and volunteers.

The second form of help we crave is hours of volunteer effort. Currently, we have a significant need for test correcting volunteers. But we also need to maintain or grow other forms of serving, namely writing pen pal letters, visiting inmates in jail or prison, or mentoring them after release. We equip followers of Jesus to find and fulfill these opportunities, especially at correctional facilities in communities near their congregation. If you would like to explore options for serving, contact me at [email protected].

A third form of help we need is financial support. Our faithful donors provide the means necessary to be faithful to Jesus’ call and make the most of this golden opportunity. If you’d like to support what we do, here are some ways to do that. Through your prayers, time and effort, or donations, we can look forward to Jesus’ praise, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” knowing all we give already belongs to him.

Dave Hochmuth, WELS Prison Ministry administrator

 

 

 

Bringing the digital age to prison ministry

We’ve got some exciting (and perhaps somewhat daunting) news. After years of declining ministry opportunities, the Holy Spirit has breathed new life into the Bible study correspondence courses from WELS Prison Ministry. On March 15, we launched the first phase of a new effort to distribute our courses digitally. In this first phase, three of our courses were converted to online courses using a system run by Edovo.com as mentioned in the lead article.

The response has been significant. Since the three courses were made available to inmates, we have been receiving about 240 tests per week on Edovo’s system. We continue to receive about 100 tests per week through the mail as well. The combined total is higher than our historical peak usage of about 300 tests per week via the mail 10 to 15 years ago. We thank God that we are reaching so many inmates again.

But this surge has its challenges, the first being a need for test correctors. We are trying to rebuild our team of active correctors back to 200 or more so that we can turn around corrected tests in a timely manner. If you have interest in participating in this type of ministry, which can be done from your home anonymously to the inmates, contact our New Ulm office for more information (507-354-3130; [email protected]). In conjunction with this recruitment effort, we are developing a new system for online test correcting for those correctors who would find that more convenient. We expect that system to be ready by this fall and pray that it further reduces turnaround time for tests.

Secondly, this surge in activity has been generated by only three studies. We would like to make the rest of our studies available to inmates on Edovo as soon as we can, but that could potentially generate thousands of tests per week, which is far more than our current and planned systems and procedures can handle. We are evaluating various strategies for this situation and pray we have a plan to report by the next newsletter in October.

A third challenge is that Edovo currently serves between five and ten percent of correctional facilities nationwide. While we expect that percentage to grow, we need to find or maintain other ways to reach the millions of inmates who don’t have access to Edovo. (For example, only five Wisconsin and two Minnesota facilities have access to Edovo. These are all county jails.) With so many of our resources devoted to responding to the Edovo surge, this seems daunting.

Thank God with us for these new opportunities, and pray diligently that he guides us so that we reach every soul behind bars that they might be part of his kingdom.

 

 

 

Receivers become givers

WELS Prison Ministry received an encouraging letter and gift from an unexpected source. Chaplain C. Tracy Bennett from Tyger River Correctional Institution in South Carolina sent us the following note along with a $100 gift:

Dear Friends in Christ,

Please find enclosed a donation for your ministry. Inmates made donations and asked for me to send it to you. We appreciate the Bible studies and are very pleased with the response we are getting from inmates who are completing them.

Prayers are being lifted for your ministry as it aids in building God’s Kingdom!

Blessings and Peace for the Journey,

C. Traci Bennett, Senior Chaplain

What a great encouragement it is to see the Holy Spirit is not only working faith in the lives of people through God’s Word, but is also motivating those hearers of the Word to want to help pass it along to others. God is good.

 

 

 

New Bible study going to press

WELS Prison Ministry is pleased to announce our 26th booklet, Who Is The True God?, is going to press. This new study helps students see that everyone has a god, whatever they love and trust the most. In our culture it is often self or material wealth. But only the Bible shows us the true God in Jesus, who lived and died as our substitute to win our eternal victory. We trust only in him.

 

 

 

Pen pal pipeline – Summer 2024

Excitement for the opportunity to send our booklets to inmates through electronic means has stirred up the hope that we may be able to connect pen pals to inmates digitally. Unfortunately, providing our booklets electronically and writing person-to-person through our pen pal program are two very different processes. Pen pal writing via e-mail poses unique challenges. The process and programs used in each facility can vary. Also, these programs do not allow pen names, which removes the safety of anonymity. As we continue to seek solutions, we still regularly receive inmate requests for pen pals. We continually need willing writers, who for now will write via pen and paper. With the busyness of the booklet ministry boom, processing pen pal requests is taking longer than normal. We ask that if you are interested in writing to an inmate as a pen pal, please contact Amy at [email protected]. She will give you the program details and assign you a pen pal as soon as she is able.

Please continue to pray for our pen pal volunteers as they share the gospel with the incarcerated through their letters.

 

 

 

Three ways to support WELS Prison Ministry – Summer 2024

Pray – As God’s redeemed children, our prayers are powerful and effective. Current prayer requests: for more test correctors, for success in developing an online test correction system, for ways to reach inmates outside the Edovo system.

Serve – All our ministry efforts are driven by volunteers motivated by Christ’s love. To volunteer as a pen pal, please contact us at [email protected] or 507-354-3130. To explore jail visitation or post-release mentoring opportunities, call 414-256-3243 or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Give – We thank our Lord and you for your helpful special offerings to Prison Ministry, which support our efforts to share Jesus with people impacted by incarceration!

To provide additional gifts for Christ’s work through Prison Ministry:
WELS, Attn. Gift Processing
N16W23377 Stone Ridge Drive
Waukesha, WI, 53188
(Make checks payable to WELS and list Prison Ministry in the memo line.)

Donate online at wels.net/donate-prison-ministry.

Give through your IRA charitable distribution, appreciated assets, or your will or estate plan. Contact WELS Ministry of Christian Giving at 800-827-5482 for assistance.

Direct your Thrivent Choice dollars (if you are a Thrivent member) to WELS Prison Ministry. Contact Thrivent Member Care Services at 800-847-4836 for assistance. Your 2023 designation is due by March 31, 2024.