Unsung Heroes Outside the Church Walls
In a day when heroes are hard to find, the Church of God has more than 26 full-time Correctional Chaplains and some 51 part-time Community Service Correctional Chaplains, who volunteer their time to serve the men and women behind the bars in our Penal systems. All of our chaplains, these ministers of the Gospel, give so much for so little in return; except the awesomeness of seeing thousands of incarcerated men and women find Christ and the hope of a new life in Him. Correctional, prison and jail ministry is probably the most rewarding ministry to which a person can dedicate their life to caring for those that are in such desperate need. One of those individuals is Chaplain Eugene Wigelsworth, Director of Religious Programs/MDOC, for the state of Mississippi. He supervises more than 49 chaplains at approximately 40 Prisons with over 23,000 offenders. In the midst of diminishing budgets and manpower, Chaplain Wigelsworth has such a overwhelming concern for his chaplains and a burning passion for the lost “behind bars” that he works 6 days a week, 24 hours a day to “care and share.” Below is a typical day that he, like those Prison chaplains he supervises, experience on a regular basis. Chaplain Wigelsworth states:
Chaplain Wigelsworth outside the fences of a prison
“It was last Tuesday afternoon, I received notice of a fatal auto accident involving three of our Mississippi Department Of Corrections (MDOC) offenders. The call came from a Community Work Center to a state institution in which I now have only one staff chaplain responsible for 3200 offenders. The chaplain responded very well, giving notice to three offender families: one offender died instantly, two were hospitalized. MDOC Administration wanted immediate chaplaincy presence, but I had no staff chaplains available. I called a regional prison chaplain, Chaplain Eric Richard, certified with Chaplain’s Commission and Pastor of the Petal Church of God. He was on his way to the State Prayer Conference at that time but turned around at once and drove south to the unit at his own expense, where he responded to the offenders; offering prayer for the inmates and families involved. On Thursday evening, I was able to visit and “walk the yard”; actually the housing unit. Using the deceased offender’s bed rack as a focal point I began talking (listening) to the guy living below him, the guy sleeping on the rack next to him, the guy next to him and so on till I had visited with all fifty men in the housing area. Everybody wants to leave prison, but not that way. I encounter many men searching their hearts with questions of eternity. Some made life-changing decisions that night with tears and hope. The deceased offender was 24 years of age, his work supervisor who was driving was 75 years of age, and the young man driving the other vehicle which was out of control and going an excessive speed was 29 years of age. All were killed instantly without warning. Perhaps we cannot prevent such tragedy, but we can help others to make sense out of a senseless circumstance. I thank God for my chaplains who responded so professionally with ministry as servants of the Living God! On Friday, one of the offenders was released from the hospital and returned to the institution. The superintendent approved me to put him on the phone with his mother for the first time since the accident. They could only weep and say “thank you, Jesus”…He is 23 and will recover, probably with nightmares of what happened that day. He was given a second chance. As I reflected on my call that day, it reminded me that Prison ministry is about helping men and women to take advantage of those “second chances. May God give us a harvest of ministers who will take up the mantle of chaplaincy and live and preach “second changes” to a lost and dying world.”
To learn more about the Church of God Chaplains Commission chaplaincy programs, visit the Chaplains Commission website at: www.cogchaplains.com.
(CAPTION: Chaplain Wigelsworth outside the fences of a prison.)
