By Lennie Spitale

Editor’s Note: Lennie Spitale has been involved in full-time prison ministry for many years. In fact, he’s even written a book or two on the topic. Just pop his name into Amazon.com and you’ll pull up his book entitled Prison Ministry: Understanding the Prison Culture from the Inside and Out. It has this plug from Chuck Colson on the cover: “This may well be the definitive book on prison ministry.” Lennie now oversees the prison ministry of Covenant Fellowship Church.  What a gift this man is to our church! Below is an update from Lennie on our Prison Ministry.

“I am an inmate at GWCF (G.W. Hill Correctional Facility), and I’ve been attending your church services…Your services have helped me and others maintain a good spirit and hope! I and my fellow inmates thank you.”

The sentiments above were taken from a letter that was recently sent to the church in response to one of the prison team’s ministry among them. GWCF is the alternative name for the Delaware County Prison, which is located only a few miles from Covenant Fellowship making it a prime target for evangelistic outreach. The church has granted me the privilege of leading the team for the past year.

Over the last year, the prison itself has gone through a change of leadership. Beginning January 1^st, an entirely new administration took over the facility; the old guard is out and the new guard is in. (Pun intended)  And although this resulted in many administrative changes for the correctional staff, its impact upon the prison team was minimal. We were able to continue serving at our various weekly assignments without interruption.

One major key to the smooth transition was the fact that God has our own David Robinson, a member here at CFC, as the sole chaplain for the Delaware County Prison. David and I meet regularly and he was able to keep me aware of all the changes that were taking place.

The new administration has set a limit on how many volunteers a church can send into the facility. Their formula is a limit of four volunteers per service. Since we currently have five weekly services going on, in five separate units of the institution (two for women and three for men), we are allowed a total of twenty volunteers. Our CFC prison team now has 21 members, which includes two letter-writers.

Currently in process, is the launching of Grafted In, a CFC outreach that is designed to help former prisoners integrate into the life of the church. This mentor-driven ministry will be headed up by Tom and Maggie Fitzpatrick.

Please pray regularly for this ministry. The prison is replete with opportunities for the gospel to go forward, to both save and encourage.  Pray for the volunteers to have courage and for the hearts of the inmates to be open.