ANGOLA HILTON: Ministry Report

As I lay on my metal bunk in my 6 X 9 prison cell, the three-inch mattress provided little comfort.

I couldn’t help but wonder how many men had occupied this same cell in the past and how many were sent to the execution chamber. It was humbling and a bit un-nerving, but one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

I was part of a group of 83 Malachi Dad’s volunteers from different parts of the US and Canada who were spending two nights sleeping in prison cells in the old death row cell block at Louisiana State Prison, better known as Angola. We were there to seek God’s face and listen to two days of preaching and teaching by “lifers” who were graduates of the Angola prison seminary and leaders in the Malachi Dads program at Angola. Before I tell you about Malachi Dads, let me give you a brief history of Angola prison.

Angola began in the 1830’s as four slave plantations notorious for brutality and the degradation of human life. It was named after the African country that provided the most profitable slaves. The four plantations were joined together to form the 18,000-acre site in 1880 that not only bought and sold slaves but also leased state convicts to build river levees. Angola is bordered on three sides by the Mississippi river, hence the name of “Alcatraz of the South”. Before the site became an official state prison in 1901, it already had a long and evil reputation for producing incredible human suffering.

Over Angola’s course of history it earned the reputation as the “bloodiest prison in the south”. In the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s it was common for at least twelve inmates a year to die from stabbings by other inmates. Sexual slavery and brutality were commonplace. Violence and bloodshed was the prevailing culture.

Burl Cain became the warden in 1995 and things began to change.  Because Pell grants were no longer available to the inmates for education purposes, Warden Cain brought in the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to provide education opportunities to the inmates. This seminary began to graduate inmates with ministry degrees equivalent to free-world degrees. The inmate graduates were allowed to start churches inside the prison dormitories and cellblocks. The culture began to change from blood and violence to peace and brotherly love. Warden Cain’s belief in ‘moral rehabilitation” was coming to fruition. God has taken control of Angola prison in a remarkable testimony to the life-changing power of God. People were coming from all over the world to witness this miraculous change.

The inmate seminary graduates at Angola had requested help to connect their hearts back to their children and help to be life long fathers, even though they were in prison.  It is a published fact that 50-70 % of the children of inmates will follow in their father’s footsteps and also become incarcerated.

Thus in 2005 a ministry called Malachi Dads was born out of the hearts of men transformed by God’s grace. Awana children’s ministry, under the direction of Awana Lifeline, came into Angola and provided the format and the help the inmates were requesting. Because God placed the desire in the hearts of these inmates to reconcile with their children, Malachi Dads has spread out from Angola to many state prisons in the US and in the prisons of many countries around the world.

Let me tell you about one such seminary graduate who was one of the original founders of Malachi Dads. Ron Olivier was a young New Orleans gang member. He grew up in a very violent neighborhood where most of his friends died before the age of 18. In 1993 he participated in a gang murder and was convicted of 2^nd degree murder and given a life sentence. Ron was placed in Angola prison for the rest of his life, sentenced to die there.  In the 22 years he spent at Angola, God radically transformed his life. He graduated from the seminary and worked as a teacher/evangelist in Angola. I was privileged to listen to Ron preach a message on prayer while I was at Angola and I heard a message from a powerful man of God. I kept asking myself, “Why is this man still in prison?”

Ron’s partial testimony courtesy of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir:

With your help, His Missions International Prison Ministry, in partnership with Awana Lifeline (Now Lifeline Global), started the first Malachi Dads ministry in the largest maximum-security prison in Texas. From there the God initiated program of Malachi Dads has spread to over 20 states in the USA.

We are witnessing first hand the scripture in Malachi 4:6:
“He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Malachi Dads Pledge that the inmates recite every session:

As a Malachi Dad, I solemnly pledge to glorify God and build His kingdom by prioritizing the raising of godly children, first in my family, then in the influencing of other men to do the same in theirs.

I firmly believe that my transformed life in Christ – my life of integrity, pursuit of this vision and the pursuit of godly character – will allow me to impact my children, family and others toward this end. I will practice a life of daily discipline and dependence on God through prayer and the study of God’s Word for the wisdom in how to nurture my children in the admonition of the Lord.

I will pursue this endeavor for a lifetime whether my children are in my home or not. Finally, I believe that my end goal is not only for my children to walk in the Lord but that this God-given vision would impact multiple generations to come. So help me God.

Heb 13:3

Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. NASU

Thank you so much for your help. Without you it would be impossible to do what we do. Help us to remember the prisoners and to reach the “least of these” in prisons in the USA and in some of the worst  prisons around the world.

Prison Ministry