Behind Prison Walls

Like Ben and Jonathan, who don’t know what happens to the news after it’s delivered, so we don’t know how lives are affected by the Catch every day, or how the Catch gets passed around, but some stories do come back, and this is one of them.

For 34 years, Ron has lived behind prison walls.

He is 73 now. His health isn’t what it used to be. His family has long since severed ties, and the ordinary freedoms most of us barely notice are simply not part of his world.

He doesn’t get to decide where to live, what to eat, when to leave, or which doctor to see.

And he cannot undo the terrible act that brought him there.

More than three decades ago, Ron took another person’s life. That truth is part of his story, and it cannot be erased. Neither can the life that was lost. But it isn’t the end of Ron’s story.

Some years ago, a man who had known Ron before prison wrote him letters. Eventually, the man’s wife took over the correspondence. When her health began to fail, she asked Marti to continue writing. And that is how Ron acquired a pen pal who, as anyone familiar with Marti knows, has never been particularly short on words.

At first, she wrote about the family. Funny stories. Everyday adventures. The sort of things we don’t think twice about sharing over dinner.

But something began to happen. Ron wrote back.

And as trust grew, their letters became less about entertaining one another and more about sharing life as it really is. The joys, the disappointments, the struggles, the questions.

The relationship became real.

Then Marti began enclosing copies of the Daily Catch. Not just one at a time, but ten days in a batch. When John wrote a series, she sent the whole thing. Ron began reading them. And then he did something unexpected. He shared them.

Ron had two friends at the prison. They called themselves the Three Amigos. They spent time together in the common area, talking about life, passing the hours, and doing whatever friends do when their entire world is surrounded by walls.

Now they had something else to talk about. The Catch.

John’s articles weren’t abstract religious exercises. They deal with real life: grace, forgiveness, relationships, disappointment, hope, and what it means to follow Jesus when life doesn’t turn out the way you planned.

These men knew something about that last subject.

Before long, the Three Amigos began writing Marti, too. They shared their stories, their struggles, and news about the wives who were waiting and hoping for their return.

What began as one woman writing to one lonely man had become a little community of four.

And then something even more remarkable happened. The men began studying the Catch together. Not because anyone organized a prison ministry. Not because we launched a program, appointed a committee, or developed a strategic plan. Ron simply took the articles Marti mailed him and invited his friends to read them. And Ron became their leader.

Think about that for a moment.

A man who cannot walk out the front gate had found a way to carry the Gospel to other people. He couldn’t go to church. So, in a very real sense, church came to him.

And then church began happening around him.

Eventually, prison life did what prison life does. One of the three was transferred to another facility, and one was released.

The Three Amigos were scattered.

For Ron, who had already lost so many relationships, saying goodbye was painful.

We don’t know what became of those men spiritually. We don’t know whether they continued reading Scripture, found other Christian materials, or began sharing what they had learned with someone else. We would love to know. But we don’t. And perhaps that’s part of the lesson.

We don’t always get to see what happens to the seeds we plant.

Today, Ron still receives his monthly package of Catches. And guess what? He’s done it again.

He’s gathered another group of men in his current facility, and they’re reading and studying together.

Apparently, nobody told Ron that his ministry was supposed to end when the other Three Amigos left. Or that he wasn’t qualified to lead a Bible study. Or that he needed a building, a budget, a title, or permission from the Catch Ministry to become one of its disciples carrying the Good News. He simply had something worth sharing. And he shared it.

There’s a reason Jesus told His followers to go into all the world and make disciples. He didn’t say we had to be free to travel. He didn’t say we needed impressive credentials. And He certainly didn’t say we had to have our lives perfectly together before we could share His grace.

Ron cannot leave the prison. But the Gospel he carries can travel from one life to another.

That’s what we mean when we talk about the Catch Ministry being a church without walls.

The Daily Catch is what most people see. It’s the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface are relationships, conversations, prayer, counseling, discipleship, and people like Ron, who take what they’ve received and turn it outward toward someone else.

We may never know where the other Three Amigos carried the Good News. But we know where Ron is carrying it.

Right where he is.

And if a 73-year-old man who has spent 34 years behind bars can find someone to share the Gospel with, perhaps the rest of us ought to take another look at the people God has placed within our reach. Because you don’t have to go somewhere else to fulfill the Great Commission. Sometimes you simply have to look around.

Like Ron did.

And somewhere behind prison walls, another little church without walls is taking shape.