Truth Frees Us Prison Ministry
Billy Graham goes to Prison
Billy Graham deployed 30 volunteers to California State Prison— Lancaster , Saturday, August 21st, to present the Gospel in a marathon of nine services on five different yards, in conjunction with the Greater Los Angeles Area Crusade.
According to the prison's chaplain, Stephen John, 1,080 men attended services in English and Spanish, 57 making first-time decisions to follow Jesus.
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association staff member, Terry Hoff, who headed operations at LAC, said that "300 volunteers will reach out to 54 correctional facilities as part of this weekend's crusade." His face brightens when he reports an astonishing 3,500 prisoners have attended services thus far, 1,000 accepting Christ.
One reason behind such startling numbers: the city of angels is no stranger to BGEA. Graham got his start here in 1949 when he preached for eight weeks under a canvas tent. Since then he's returned eight times, more than any other city in the world.
Hundreds of men signed up for English services on LAC's "B" yard, but only 120 were allowed to attend due to security concerns.
Jesus was in the chow hall. A cavernous room that seats 200 around scores of cold, stainless steel, four-top tables. The air smelt of wet concrete. Dirty white walls stretched 20' to the ceiling. And a gunner's catwalk reminds you that this is prison.
What could these volunteers bring to such an un-church environment?
"Hope," says Hoff, 33, "is the one thing I want these men to leave with." And he means it. Working exhausting hours on little pay, his true reward is in seeing lives transformed.
Jeannie Dexter of Lamb Song Ministries, San Diego , led worship. An elderly lady with a youthful voice, she rocked the house with Contemporary Christian hits and powerful riffs from her synthesizer.
Jeannie's first song, "Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord," caused a sea of men clad in two-tone blue to sway, their hands rocketing towards heaven, reaching somewhere beyond the bright red words painted on the wall: WARNING, NO WARNING SHOTS FIRED.
Lamb Song's other half, Jack Dexter, spoke a few words, as did Tom Smith, an ex-con crowned with gray, now making a positive contribution to society. Both men left ample time for Garcia, the morning's key speaker.
Conrade D. Garcia, AKA "Big D", 63, boasts a body of someone half his age. Adorned with a clean-shaven head and casual attire, he was the hippest grandpa in the room. But Garcia's clean appearance conceals a dirty past.
An ex-gang member who lives in San Fernando , Garcia took the men through an abridgment of his life. Seeds of anger and resentment were planted at age two when his father was murdered.
"At 15 I was already doing time," explains Garcia, his words thick with toughness. He would continue to do time for 31 years, two murder convictions under his belt.
"The saying in my barrio was 'blood in, blood out,'" declared Garcia, "and they're right—by the blood of Jesus you can get out of sin and crime!"
"You can change!" implored Garcia, who has been clean for 17 years. "I thought I'd never be nothin'. Now I'm preaching for Billy Graham!"
Throughout the service waves of celebration poured onto the exercise yard, audible some 300' away. Though impossible to escape such energy, not all were impressed.
I asked one officer, who must remain anonymous, if he thought BGEA's presence would have any long-term effect on this yard?
"Shoot," he commented, "those guys will be fighting before they get back to their cell."
Inmate Zaragoza , a towering man who has been in the system for 21 years, comments, "My political view is that if they weren't serving Him [God] on the streets, they shouldn't serve Him now just cuz' they're scared."
Prison is a place where negativity reigns. But the buzz that afternoon was "hope".
Mendoza , 51, has been doing time since '79. I interrupted him that afternoon to get his impression of the services. "After seeing," he told me, still winded from his workout, "what God did for Big 'D', I now have hope."
It looks like Hoff got his wish, and despite the officer's prediction I haven't heard of one incident since BGEA left. Behind their pessimism, prison staff has hope, too — hope that it will last.