Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
First Person is produced in cooperation with the Far East Broadcasting Company, who rejoice in the stories of changed lives through the power of Jesus Christ. Learn more at febc.org. But as I travel around the country and around the world, people whose lives have been changed, whose families then have been changed, whose communities then have been changed because of what God did through His Word inside of a jail, it's amazing.
Our first person guest now is John Evans, who went from being a volunteer in a jail ministry to becoming president of Good News Global, a ministry spanning 25 countries, including America, and daily touching the lives of 300,000 inmates with the gospel. We'll begin the conversation with John in just a moment.
Thanks for joining us for this edition of First Person. I'm Wayne Shepherd. And each week we meet someone who, having given their life in service to God and His kingdom, is making a difference in this world. All of our radio interviews are available as a podcast as well, and you can subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any number of other podcast services. Just search for First Person with Wayne Shepherd. You can also listen at FirstPersonInterview.com.
Let's meet John Evans, president of Good News Global. With millions of men and women in jails and prisons, it's a mission field unto itself. What began in Washington, D.C. as Good News Jail and Prison Ministry is now known as Good News Global. And I asked John to tell more about how it got started.
1961, businessman from the Boston, Massachusetts area, has a real desire to share the gospel with his colleagues. He has a construction business, an insurance business, married, three kids, but he doesn't have the words to share. He's never had any form of biblical training. So he sells his businesses and moves to Washington, D.C. to attend Washington Bible College. And
And upon his arrival, he gets a ticket for not getting his county sticker. So he goes into the justice of the peace to pay his fine. And as he would put it, he says, I'd never led a Bible study. I'd never held an office in church, but I met the jailer and had the gall to ask him, does anybody ever come in and minister to the inmates? And the guy said, no. He said, well, could I come in? And that's how the ministry began.
So Bill Simmer was his name, began to recruit fellow classmates to just go into the jails around the Washington, D.C. area and do what nobody else was doing. Because in jails at the time, it was like Mayberry and Andy Griffith. They had three and four cells. So there really wasn't a whole... There weren't any programs for jails because it was just a pass-through. You get arrested, you go to jail for...
overnight or a couple of days, you go to trial, they send you to a prison. And so jail ministry was virtually unheard of. But Bill began to go and then the role of jails in the United States particularly began to grow.
So our first jail is Fairfax County, Virginia had four cells at the time. Today they house over a thousand. Within a couple of years, good news began to place chaplains inside of jails. And that's where we have ministered primarily in the United States for the last 60 years. Yeah. And it's significantly larger than just one chaplain at this point. Tell me the scope of what good news is now. Correct. Well, today we have about 75 chaplains in the U S that are scattered across, uh,
22 states, so we serve about 100 counties in the U.S. And then about 25 years ago, we began to receive inquiries from workers overseas involved in prison ministry. Can you come help us? And so today, we now have ministry in 25 countries scattered across the globe where we've come alongside those who have an interest in
bringing the gospel to inmates, equipping, training, leading, guiding, directing, strategizing with them. So altogether, we have close to 300 chaplains and staff here and around the globe. And you're ministering to thousands who are incarcerated. Correct. Our daily access, the number of people who are behind bars in the facilities where we have a presence is over 350,000 people. Wow.
So there's 11 million people incarcerated globally. We have access on a daily basis to about 350,000 of those. Well, let's back up. I want to hear how you personally got involved in this. You started as a volunteer, I understand?
I did. 23 years ago, I walked into a jail. I actually was invited by a friend of mine who was leading a Bible study. And my wife and I were living probably less than a half mile from one of the county jail facilities in Arundel County, Maryland. A friend of mine was leading a Bible study. He said, hey, you ought to come with me. So I went with him. And I'd never been to jail. Didn't know anybody ever been to jail.
And I was scared to death. I mean, literally, the fourth week, I went by myself because my friend couldn't go. And I walked behind the bars and the things clanged behind you and I start walking down a hallway and an inmate's coming my way. He's got a broom in his hand and the thought went through my mind, I'm going to die right here. Because I'd seen it on TV. But that's all I knew about jail or prison was what I'd seen on television. And began to just...
lead a Bible study and found the men to be, first of all, a lot like you and me. They might've grown up in a different neighborhood, but they're just regular people. And so my perception began to change. And then just to see how their mind was operating for some of them, going to jail is just the thing that happens to you.
Father went to jail, mother went to jail, brother went to jail. So where I come from, we graduate from high school, we go to college. Where they come from, you just go to jail. So that was an interesting dynamic in that, I'll say, within that culture. But then I also began to realize that many of them just thought that I was lucky and they weren't lucky.
I go home at night, they didn't get to go home. And that's just the way the cards are dealt in life. And so again, that's another peculiar perspective that I saw. But I also began to see what the gospel was doing in hearts and lives as men in particular were desperate for a solution, for a different path, a different way to live. And when the gospel began to resonate with them,
I saw eyes open and hearts begin to be transformed. So it was a really powerful experience in the first couple of years that I got involved. Sounds like it. Do you have any stories from those early days of your own involvement as a volunteer, of stories of people who did respond when they heard the gospel message? So I have a friend who's serving life now, and I met him at our county jail. His name is Ernie, and Ernie and I continue to correspond.
He was stuck, I'll say stuck in a pretrial unit for 18 months because of the nature of the charges, the trial and the proceedings drug out for a long period of time. So I saw him, you know, for more than a year coming to our studies and he's written to me and he's written notes to my children to encourage them. But he said this, he said there was one week after,
that he was the only guy that came to the class. I personally don't remember this thing. He said, but in that one week, he says, I got answers to questions that I'd had. He said, if there'd been a whole bunch of guys there, I would have never,
receive those answers and you were there and helped share the gospel so now he's he's serving life behind bars probably will never be out but uh is rejoicing and how the lord gives him hope and gives him joy and allows him to be light in a very dark place so ernie's one of my best friends
Well, I assume you feel called of God to do what you're doing now. And I guess the lesson is watch out volunteers. You may head up the global organization at some point in your life. Well, I actually say that when I speak at banquets and fundraisers for our chaplains. I say, just so you know, one of you is probably going to be replacing me because I used to sit in your seat. It's always fun to hear how God calls people into ministry, and yours is no exception, John. Yeah.
No doubt, we'll talk more about Good News Global, which, by the way, is formerly known as Good News Jail and Prison Ministry, but now known as Good News Global. And we'll put information at firstpersoninterview.com. But no doubt there's someone listening, perhaps, who's volunteering themselves right now in their local jail, in their local prison, perhaps. What would you say to encourage them in the work that they're doing, whether they're connected with good news or not? 1 Corinthians 15, 58.
Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord. The dramatic success stories of people who hear the gospel behind bars, there are many, many, many, many of them. At the same time, there's a frustration in the correction system of recidivism. People who come into jail, they get released, and then they end up back behind bars again. And so...
continue to be faithful because you don't know the seeds that you're planting, how God's going to use them. You may never actually experience the fruit or see the fruit of your labor in a particular heart or a particular life. But as I travel around the country and around the world, people whose lives have been changed, whose families then have been changed, whose communities then have been changed because of what God did,
through his word inside of a jail and
It's amazing. So keep after it. You may not get to experience all the joys and thrills of seeing the transformed life, but know that God's at work because it's his word that makes all the difference. I'm sure that's encouraging to someone who's listening. The producer of this program, listeners hear me talk about Joe Carlson. Joe himself is a chaplain at Cook County Jail in Chicago. And I know he's feeling very encouraged right now as he listens and
produces this interview for us for radio. So thank you, Joe. And thank you, John, for what you and all those volunteers are doing. How many chaplains, again, connecting with good news? So we have about 300 chaplains of staff here and around the globe.
We are the largest provider, independent provider of chaplains to jails and prisons in the world. I don't say that to toot our own horn because there's hundreds of thousands of facilities and we only have 300. So it just speaks to really the global need, the global opportunity that there is to touch men and women and children behind bars. We'll learn more about Good News Global with John Evans coming up in just a moment as you stay with us now here on First Person.
Here's Ed Cannon on the Vision for FEBC's weekly podcast. The primary purpose of Until All Have Heard, of course, is to share the experience that FEBC has because we have staff on the ground in so many oppressive places. But in addition to that, we're trying to speak to you in a way that only the kind of testimonies you'll hear from around the globe can do. Discover how the gospel is making a difference around the world.
Search for Until All Have Heard on your favorite podcast platform or hear it online at febc.org.
My guest is John Evans. John is president of Good News Global, a jail and prison ministry. And I realize that Christmas was long ago now, Christmas 2023, John, but you had an incredible outreach at Christmastime that I want you to talk about. This is very unique. Our program is called Hope Packs, and it began in partnership with Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Willow Creek, for the last decade or so, has grown to provide education
a gift and the gospel in the form of a hope pack to every inmate in the Illinois Department of Corrections. One of our chaplains, once upon a time,
was an inmate in Illinois and he received a HOPE PAC. So fast forward to about seven years after that, he's now serving as a chaplain in Virginia with us. His first year as a chaplain at Christmas, ask his fellow chaplain, what do we do for the inmates at Christmas? He said, what do you mean? He says, well, when I was in the Illinois Department of Corrections, I received a HOPE PAC.
Could we distribute them here? They checked with the sheriff. Sheriff said, sure. Reached out to Willow. Willow sent 500 packs. That was two years ago. So last year, 2022, we said, well, what would it look like
If we distributed hope packs here and around mobile, we'd never done it. We had no idea how to do it. We had no idea the volume in, in our first year, we distributed 50,000 hope packs this year, 2023, we distributed 65,000 hope packs, a gift and the gospel. The gift varies by country. Um,
But usually includes food items or hygiene items that would be valuable to every inmate in a number of the facilities where we serve. And so the impact in the first year and now in this, our second year, has just been off the charts. The doors that it's opened to facilities we never had access to, the encouragement that
To officers in some places, we distribute to them the encouragement to inmates receiving, in some cases, this is the only gift they're going to receive at Christmas. And knowing that somebody cares, a card that says that there's people on the outside praying for you, just an incredible opportunity to just distribute the gospel and to place it in the hands of people desperate for a savior. Hmm.
It's a wonderful program, and our listeners can learn more about it for the upcoming year as you prepare for Christmas 2024 at our website, firstpersoninterview.com, where we'll place the link to that. Look for Hope Packs from Good News Global. I've had a couple of occasions to be in a maximum security prison, and just as you described as that first-time volunteer stepping into a jail cell,
It's intimidating, isn't it? It's a little frightening for volunteers to begin with, but you train volunteers and chaplains, correct? We do. We do. It is, but partly because of the perception. But then when you walk into a place where everything is guarded and everything is monitored and your movements are restricted and the people that are there, some have done some pretty horrific things.
And that's true. And there are those that are there that might be continued to be intent on inflicting harm. It is a challenging situation. Our hearts particularly go out to corrections officers in the U S we have over 500,000 corrections officers who literally put their life on the line on a daily basis. And there's a, a great impact on,
of the trauma and the stress that they endure upon them physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally. And so we always seek to honor corrections officers because when we think of first responders in your neighborhood, we think of the police officers and we think of the fire department and they are wonderful. And the corrections officers sometimes get left off the list. And so we hold them in high regard because for us and for volunteers, without them, there would be no ministry.
They maintain the safety and security that allows us the privilege of coming in and joining with them in bringing hope and life to those who are behind bars. So we praise the Lord for the officers. You have volunteers and you have chaplains, right? A volunteer doesn't necessarily become a chaplain, correct? No, but most of our chaplains were volunteers once upon a time. Okay, that's my question. Is there a path where people have started as a volunteer and have moved into a chaplain's role?
Almost every one of our chaplains began as a volunteer. Part of that is because our founder said years ago, he says, no one ever goes to school to become a jail chaplain. Jail chaplaincy is not on the radar.
Not a lot of people want to be prison chaplains either. And so we find that the vast majority of our chaplains were volunteers once upon a time. And as they went behind bars, they got hooked. You know, they just found the fruitfulness of ministry. One of our chaplains described jails and prisons as spiritual greenhouses where people
The word just takes root and it can grow and it can grow rapidly and it can grow in incredible ways. Why? Well, partly because there's a lot of time. But also when you're desperate and you're in need, you're just soaking in everything that you can take. And so the word of God really has a powerful impact upon those who are incarcerated. Yeah.
Who qualifies as a volunteer, John? Volunteering in a jail is not a come once every blue moon, come when you feel like it. One of the things that the population has experienced in their life is a lack of consistency, a lack of relationship, a lack of people who cared and truly cared.
There's a consistency of ministry that's necessary to be effective behind bars. So there's a commitment level, but they also have people of character, spiritual character. There's a level of maturity that's necessary. This is a vulnerable population. You have to be very careful how you interact with them. You have to be very careful how you relate to them.
And so it's real important that there's a level of spiritual maturity, but also just a life perspective that allows you to recognize the person and not necessarily the offense. You have to be able to look beyond that.
And someone who just loves the Lord, right? You really have to have a devotion to the Lord because it is a hard set of circumstances. And there's got to be typically a compelling reason why you want to get involved. There's no glamour in it. There's no glory in it. People who really have to feel the Lord leading them.
exploring and interacting with this type of a population. Are there opportunities for women volunteers in women's prisons? Absolutely. The female population in county jails in the U.S. varies from about 12% to about 17%. So if your average jail in the U.S. would be between 300 and 400, then
then if you do the math, somewhere between 50 to 100 females will be there. So there's a great opportunity. Within our chaplain corps in the US, of our 75 chaplains, 13 of them are female.
So there's always opportunity. Some facilities segregate the populations differently. There may be some counties where actually women are maintained in a separate facility, but there's always a great opportunity and a greater need because the female population carries a different load of cares in terms of children and the family and the dynamics are different.
Even more challenging for the female population. Generally, you find that jails and prisons are cooperative when you look to help out in their facility? The ones where we've been for a long time, and in some facilities we've been the chaplains of record for more than 50 years, we have a great relationship with them.
I think the key in their cooperation, number one, is we have to honor their priorities. The facility is most important about safety and security, protecting the population and protecting the public. And so they have that as their mandate. So we honor that and we stand with them on that. Our opportunity to come and minister is predicated on our ability to follow the policies, procedures of the facility. But we find that many in corrections are believers, right?
In Christ and Christ followers, but even those that are not hold religious programming and spiritual development in high regard. I really have among those that we have interact with. I've interacted with personally in, you know, 100 facilities over the 10 years I've been on staff.
I haven't found an atheist in corrections yet, probably because, you know, anything that works, therefore. Yeah, sure. And the chaplains, first of all, the volunteers who many become chaplains, are they from all walks of life, all colors, et cetera? They are. Among our chaplain corps in the U.S., probably 65 to 70 percent of them.
have some type of pastoral ministry or formal ministry employment experience. But then that leaves a whole host that some are business folks, some are second career. We have some that were former military. So all walks of life, but all whom God in some way moved in them, challenged them about ministering to the incarcerated. We have some who joined Good News because they had a child
who was incarcerated and they saw the impact of a chaplain in their own child's life and said, you know, I want to be that salt and light to someone else's child. Mm-hmm.
And I'm sure you have found in these cells that there are men and women who are believers who find themselves there for whatever reason. And you can equip them, can't you, to minister in their own environment? Absolutely. I'll tell you what, during COVID, a lot of our work was restricted all around the globe. Many cases, chaplains and volunteers were locked out for long periods of time, even
Even now today in the U.S., because of staffing issues, a lot of volunteers are not able to come in as they once were.
because the facilities just can't accommodate all the programs. What does that mean? Well, it's those who are on the inside that have to take up the cause and take up the mantle themselves. And so we've found inmates leading Bible studies among their peers. We have found, particularly overseas, places where the chaplains were locked out, but the ministry continued to grow because disciple-making was ongoing. Disciples making disciples and disciples
leaders emerging from among the population, you know, encouraging their fellow inmates and growing in their faith. But when the word of God is there and the spirit of God is at work, amazing things happen. So it's exciting to see men and women take up the mantle themselves and become leaders.
That's John Evans, president of Good News Global, a jail and prison ministry which is actively involved in proclaiming the gospel and providing resources and counseling to hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people around the globe. To follow up and learn more about this important outreach, please visit FirstPersonInterview.com where we'll provide a link to their website. That's FirstPersonInterview.com.
And let me take a moment to thank the Far East Broadcasting Company for making this first-person interview possible. FEBC has many testimonies from different countries of those who are in prison being able to tune into FEBC and hear the gospel and study God's Word. It's just part of the story of how God is using radio and social media to spiritually impact the world. Learn more at febc.org. Now, with thanks to my friend and producer, Joe Carlson, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Join us next time for First Person.