“We read verses like ‘I was sick, and you visited me with help, administering care. I was in prison, and you came to see me,’” says Bonnie. “We felt the tug on our hearts to be that kind of person who would visit Jesus in prison.”

“My wife and I met in a Christian band,” says Bryan. “We’ve been doing music our entire married lives. I feel like music’s the channel we kind of live in.”

The Foxleys started performing music evangelism concerts in United States prisons, along with their two sons. They eventually connected with the team at Prisoners for Christ. When COVID-19 happened, it made prisons less accessible. So today, the Foxleys have also developed a digital approach to reach inmates. They upload Christian content to an app called Pando, which many inmates have access to while in prison.

“It’s an exciting time to be involved in prison ministry,” says Bryan. “We’ve got opportunities we never had before.”

(Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash)

One special type of video Bryan and Bonnie create is Redemption Stories, a combination of music and testimonies of Jesus transforming people’s lives. But that’s not all.

“We realized they really want music and they want teaching. They want practical help — the incarcerated individuals across the country,” says Bonnie. “So what we’re now doing is sending in some music and coordinating with some other people, kind of putting some scripture meditation videos up where they can use that with their quiet time. We’ve gotten a lot of letters saying what a blessing that’s been.”

Find your place in the story

The need in prison ministry is great. Is God calling you to consider this work? The Foxleys say listening comes first. 

“All we ever do in prison ministry is follow Jesus and He brings the results,” says Bryan. “The encouragement I’d give to anybody that’s even considering prison ministry is, ‘Hear the voice of the Lord and what His heart is for the broken and the lost, and you will be compelled to at least look into it. Then you’ll know if it’s a calling.’”

Greg Von Tobel serves as the president of Prisoners for Christ. He says the ministry is looking for the next generation of Christians to step into prison ministry. 

“We are desperate for young people to come up alongside us and take the leadership baton,” Von Tobel says. “We’ll train them, we’ll equip them, we’ll turn them loose. We’ll give them guidance. We’ll come up when they fall.”

Connect with Prisoners for Christ and learn more about how to begin to reach inmates with the gospel of Jesus.

“I have seen the Lord’s grace poured out on people who know that they need Him,” says Bonnie. “When you go to the broken, that’s where they’re at. You get to witness God’s grace abundantly, and it’s a blessing to see that. You grow closer to the Lord yourself. And in seeing that, you see your own need, but just give it back in praise and glory to God.”

Header photo courtesy of Israel Palacio via Unsplash. 

Greg Von Tobel with Prisoners for Christ says amid prisoner communities, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Especially outside of US ministries, there is often a dirge of prison ministry workers. But Von Tobel says his team’s calling is irrevocable. 

“We stand firm. We continue to march.”

For laborers with Prisoners for Christ, that means serving prisoners in more than 160 countries. From hosting medical clinics to offering Bibles, Christian resources, and prayer support, Von Tobel says his team is taking Christ to some of the world’s darkest places. 

“There are many – especially in some of these dark jungle prisons of Africa – many people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ before,” he says. 

The story is similar in densely populated India and its neighbor Pakistan. 

“Every country has a prison system, and many people come to know Jesus while in prison,” Von Tobel points out. 

He sees prisons as one of God’s great gifts to mankind. 

“Because it can be the last bastion where a lost soul will come to know his creator face to face,” he says. 

Please pray that prison ministries like Prisoners for Christ would be adequately resourced to serve inmate populations around the world. Pray that God would raise up volunteers to contribute to this effort and that hearts would be pricked to tell prisoners about God’s great rescue mission: one which proclaims liberty to all captives.

(Above photo courtesy of Biblica via Facebook; Header image courtesy of Ron Lach via Pexels)

That’s why prisoners are the focus of World Missionary Press in 2025.

“It’s an open mission field, and the response is amazing because there is such a sense of hopelessness in many of these places,” WMP’s Helen Williams says.

WMP has been sending its annual datebook to chaplains and inmates for decades. “We’ve been providing a date book for prisoners for years, almost as long as I’ve been here, and I’ve been here 28 years,” Williams says.

“We send [material] to federal prisons, state facilities, local jails – wherever the chaplain will use it.”

The impact is profound. WMP datebooks provide hope to people forgotten by society, whether guilty or innocent, serving a life sentence or a misdemeanor.

“It’s not a good place to be, but [the date books provide] something to grab on to every morning,” Williams says.

“We get so many letters that say, ‘I couldn’t get through my day without it.’ They say, ‘I keep it on my bunk. It’s the first thing I read in the morning.’”

WMP: UNBound

After decades of outreach, WMP is rolling out new materials and trying to reach more chaplains. The ministry is also adding a second web press and a fourth bindery to its production facility to fuel the expansion of its WMP: UNBound prison ministry program.

First shipment of 2025 WMP Scripture booklets for prison ministry.
(Photo, caption courtesy of World Missionary Press)

In the coming weeks, “we’ve got a new booklet coming out that speaks of hope; this is specifically designed for those [who] are incarcerated,” Williams says.

“It’s based on hope, not just surviving the situation, but finding a way to be stable and have something to lean on.”

Pray for the WMP prison ministry team as they work to expand the program and add necessary staff.

“Last year, we printed about 750,000 [date books], and the goal [is] to triple what we do in volume within the next year,” Williams says.

Consider partnering financially with WMP to bring hope to the hopeless.

“If they want to donate to the UNBound program, that would be wonderful,” Williams says.

“Pray that the Lord brings the people [who] can help get this thing going and keep it growing and growing.”

Header and story images courtesy of World Missionary Press.

“At the time, I didn’t want any part of that,” Von Tobel recalls. “I was very pleasant to the man and said, ‘Thank you very much, but I’m not sure that’s something for me.’”

Fast forward another six months. A second church member approached Von Tobel with a different Bible Study invite. This one convened at a similar location: the county jail. 

“I was not so nice to this man as I was to the first man,” Von Tobel laughs. “I just said, ‘I have no idea why you’d be interested in taking the Gospel to the inmates that have done so much wrong.’”

Then God employed what Von Tobel calls a spiritual two-by-four. During a pulpit interview, his pastor discussed a singular topic: prison ministry. That third prompting from the Lord, along with a nudge from his wife, finally did it.  

Von Tobel was off to jail. 

“I was arguing with the Lord as I was driving down to the King County jail about why I was doing this,” he says. “What do I have in common with individuals that have much wrong and are incarcerated?”

That night, Von Tobel says he saw the Holy Spirit fall afresh. About twenty prisoners attended the study, and several came forward during the altar call. 

Von Tobel never stopped returning to prisons. Thirty-five years ago, he left the brokerage industry and stepped with his wife into full time ministry, founding Prisoners for Christ. 

To Christians who face a wall of judgment, fear, or lack of commonality with inmates, Von Tobel has an invitation: 

“Come and see. Come and taste what jail and prison ministry is all about. Some of our longest standing volunteers all took that step of faith at one time or another to say, ‘Ok, Lord. I have no idea why I’m doing this except that you’re nudging me to do this.’”

Before COVID-19, PFC was active in Washington State at about 40 institutions, with others in Arizona and Idaho. The pandemic closed almost every prison, and Von Tobel says it took about three years for them to reopen. 

“In some states, those doors are still not open, but we continue to travail in prayer and intercession to get our volunteers back,” he says. 

PFC has 3300 volunteers in 35 countries around the world. Because restrictions tend to be highest in the US, Von Tobel says opportunities in other countries’ prison systems are more abundant. 

“We never want to give up on our homeland or the prison ministry here in the United States, but the opportunities in third world prisons dwarf what the opportunities are here.” 

He and his team take international trips each year to preach the Gospel to prisoners and host training sessions about prison ministry for nationals. 

“We’re training those on the ground because we believe that those on the ground have the best opportunity to minister to those they’re in front of,” Von Tobel says. 

Here in the states, that looks like everything from intercessory teams to pen pals and volunteers helping distribute resources to prison chaplains. 

Please pray for the ministry of Prisoners for Christ: that inmates would experience sincere heart transformation by the Word of God, and that many lives would be changed as a result. 

If you feel led to join the effort, click here to learn about volunteer involvement, or consider donating to PFC. 

“If God can use me,” Von Tobel says, “he can certainly use other believers that have no experience in this arena.” 

Courtesy of Alan Bowman via Unsplash.

Header image courtesy of Pixabay. 

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.

Helen Williams of World Missionary Press says the journey began when a new missionary asked WMP for Spanish Bibles. “‘World Missionary Press doesn’t print Bibles,’ I told him, ‘but we have Bible studies and material,’” Williams says.

“He said, ‘Okay, that’s wonderful! Can you provide it?’ and he sends us a list of 100 copies each of our Bible studies and some other material.”

WMP teamed up with a distributor in Honduras to supply the missionary with the items he requested. Praise God for this quick collaboration and for recent prison changes leading to Gospel opportunities.

“They got a new superintendent at this prison, and he’s a believer so he made it mandatory that the prisoners attend a Gospel service,” Williams says.

The story doesn’t stop there. Williams reached out to another MNN partner for further teamwork.

“I also contacted Mission Cry and said, ‘I’ve got prisoners in Honduras that need Bibles, can you help?’ And Mission Cry said, ‘You bet!’” Williams says.

“They provided 350 Bibles free for these prisoners in Honduras. That’s how the Lord works.”

How can God use you? Seek the Lord for further direction, and consider partnering financially with World Missionary Press. Most importantly, cover the work in Honduras in prayer.

“Pray for fruit; pray for people to come to know the Lord who might not otherwise have access to His Word. Pray for those responding, that they would grow and become established in their faith,” Williams requests.

“We just need to pray that the fruit that comes from it (prison outreach) would be fruit that remains and changes a nation.”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Donald Tong/Pexels.

“I want to thank the Mission Network News audience members who have prayed for Pastor Tomal over the last 12 weeks,” Allen says.

“It took the intervention of the country’s High Court in the capital of Dhaka to grant him bail so that he could be released after two and a half months of confinement.”

Pastor Tomal’s young family and two congregations rejoice at his return. He’s the only Gospel worker in his area of Muslim-majority Bangladesh. The good news doesn’t end with Pastor Tomal’s release.

“That local Islamic Council wanted to keep Tomal in jail to silence him, but they didn’t realize that his vocal testimony in the jail was reverberating loudly,” Allen says.

“Today, there is a murderer, a drug dealer, a rapist, and three other prisoners serving jail sentences for their crimes whose names are now written in the Lamb’s Book of Life because Pastor Tomal spent weeks alongside them.”

Pastor Tomal listened intently to his fellow inmates as they shared their life stories. Then, “they heard his story as a former Muslim who placed his faith in Christ, who now wants to share the hope of the Gospel with other people,” Allen says.

“They listened to God’s Word – not because Tomal had his own Bible within their prison –but because he was sharing Scripture passages that he had memorized.”

Pastor Tomal reunited with his family.
(Photo, caption courtesy of FMI)

Praise God for opening a third ministry site for Pastor Tomal in the local prison! Most importantly, keep praying for Pastor Tomal.

“Intercede for Tomal’s re-acclimation to home life; he’s been changed because of what he’s gone through,” Allen requests.

“Pray for the resumption of his regular church ministry and his ability to still disciple those six men who have come from Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist backgrounds and are serving out their prison sentences.”

Learn why FMI supports local church planters like Pastor Tomal.

Header image depicts a Bangladeshi jail. (Photo courtesy of FMI)

Not all prison mail is able to be processed digitally, including the Bible study booklets from Crossroads Prison Ministries.

(Image courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Normally, Christian mentors with Crossroads correspond with prisoners through mailed Bible study booklets along with a note of encouragement. But the new digital mail scanning process in some prisons won’t allow their booklets to get through.

John Byrne, Curriculum Development Director with Crossroads, says, “We have about 50 facilities that have not let our lessons come in because we send in the lesson booklet. It’s just unauthorized because the mail system cannot handle it.

“In some instances, it will prevent our students from being able to continue participating in Crossroads. That’s an issue. Obviously, we’re going to have to get ahead of that curve and figure out new ways to be able to send lessons in.”

The problem extends beyond Bible study booklets too. It has unintended but severe consequences.

“There are some concerns about wellness and mental health,” Byrne says. “[With] letters from families that are handwritten, you can’t overestimate the importance of holding a letter from one of your loved ones in your hand.

“If I’m in prison, and my four-year-old daughter in preschool made me a birthday card, colored ‘Happy birthday, Daddy,’ [and] sends that into the jail or the prison, now that kind of mail will no longer be allowed to come in.”

(Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Byrne says, “Also, what they do is they typically will digitize pictures. So if a family has a family gathering [and] they want to send in a family picture to their loved one in jail or prison, it gets scanned. Typically, the quality of those photos, once they get scanned, is really poor. In fact, a lot of men and women say they can’t even really make out who is in the photo because of the process.”

One of the bigger reasons why prisons are moving towards a digitized mail system is to prevent illegal drugs from getting into the facilities.

However, Byrne says contraband getting into prisons isn’t necessarily a supply problem, but rather a demand problem. And taking away access to physical mail won’t stop that.

“The Marshall Project did a study with the Texas Tribune in Texas. They found that even during COVID when visiting was restricted and they were scanning mail or they were sending out mail to be digitized, there was not a reduction in the amount of drugs coming into the prison.

“What they determined is that the majority of contraband that comes into the prison comes from staff. The correctional officers union, one of the unions in Texas, said that the reason is low pay for staff. There’s a lot of incentive to smuggle things in prison… Even by digitizing the mail, it’s not really going to solve the problem.”

If you want to help in some way, Byrne suggests contacting your local state and county legislators and voicing concerns about digitized mail in the prisons.

(Photo courtesy of Crossroads Prison Ministries)

Also, Byrne asks, “Pray for us. We’ve seen this as an attack from the enemy as well… Right now with COVID, in most states, volunteers have not been able to come into the prisons for well over a year, almost two years in some states. So there’s limited access to religious studies and religious materials without chapel services and volunteers coming in for Bible studies.”

Finally, pray for the men and women behind bars who currently cannot access Crossroads Bible studies.

“The men and women inside that are believers, they’re the ones doing the evangelism. They’re the ones that are providing the witness. They’re the ones that are praying for the needs of the men and women they live with,” Byrne says. “It’s really important to pray for the men and women in prison, especially the believers and the ministry that they’re doing day-to-day.”

To learn more about becoming a Crossroads mentor, click here!

Header photo courtesy of Liam Truong via Unsplash.

It arose from a common challenge in prison outreach.

“The idea started with a chaplain that’s a friend of mine. His name is Harry, and Harry works with individuals coming out of jail and prison. They would contact him and he would spend hours chasing down housing, food, bus passes, you name it,” Set Free’s Ministry Advancement Director Pete Noor explains.

“Harry became a little bit frustrated because there was no concise listing of pertinent resources that could help him. So, he decided to start this ‘hub.’”

By partnering with Harry and a volunteer named Anna, Set Free began its own “resource hub” specific to freedom ministry.

“There are all kinds of resources out there, but we wanted to have one on our website targeted towards issues [the] individuals we minister to are struggling with: addiction recovery, grief support, faith communities; we have family support, health care, living needs, and mentoring,” Noor says.

“It’s been fun working on this together to [discover] resources that people here in West Michigan [can use], and we’ve referred people from other states, too.”

Need some help problem-solving? Check out Set Free’s resource hub here!

“It’s been a great thing so far, and we’re adding to it all the time,” Noor says.

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Glenn Carstens-Peters/Unsplash.

“We didn’t shrink back, and we didn’t stop. We just kept moving forward, knowing that God can keep us healthy,” Vander Mey says.

“We took precautions; everyone was masked up and stuff like that, but it’s proven to be quite effective.”

In a South Asian country, “There’s been an amazing outpouring in the last year. Many people made decisions for Christ and [were] baptized,” Vander Mey says.

Recent prison graduation ceremony
(Photo courtesy of Set Free Ministries)

Believers continued their Gospel work throughout 2020 and the start of this year. Authorities did not stop Set Free and its partners. “They still let us have access to the hospitals, prisons, and to the drug addiction center,” Vander Mey says.

“At one of our events, 165 people [graduated] from a Bible study in prison.”

Ask the Lord to guide new believers as they carry their faith home. “Those men and women who leave prison are living testimonies. They go back to their families, and their communities [and] people are expecting the old person,” Vander Mey says.

“But what they see is something completely and radically different because they’ve been discipled. They have new hearts; they have a new love for God.”

Header image is a representative stock photo courtesy of Pixabay.