Prison ministry wants to show Angola to the world
"WE WANT TO OPEN THE EYES of corporate America and [people] all over this world because they need to see that there are many godly men and women inside prison," said evangelist Mike Barber, with his television crew on hand, to a capacity crowd of prisoners in the Main Prison Chapel in early October.
The ministry’s first program behind the walls took place in 1996, and today Mike Barber Ministries (MBM) has its own video production unit and satellite uplink capability. Barber, a former professional football player, has a weekly television show on Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) and generally produces one show a month from a prison location.
Mike Barber is no newcomer to Angola.
In the past he has brought several prominent individuals to share their faith with the inmate population through professional demonstrations and testimonies. Among them have been professional rodeo cowboys Jackie Stevens, Steve Ross and Tim Stewart, who have displayed their skills at calf roping, bronc busting and bull riding. Football coaches Bum Phillips, Brandon Barber, Lance Delay, Jelani Lewis, Paul Mann and Chris Van Hoy have helped develop football clinics instructing more than 200 prisoner athletes from teams across Angola.
Earlier this year, MBM teamed up with TBN to tape a TV Prison Chapel.
He was joined by evangelist and author Kenneth Copeland,special in the Main Larry Huch, pastor of New Beginnings Church in Dallas, movie star/rapper Tiny Lister and Vince Russo, a former World Wrestling Federation executive, to share the message of Jesus Christ with the inmate population.
This time Barber had a different style of service in mind. "I thought we would have a kind of preach-off," he said. Opening the floor to a few of the Angola pastors, Jesse Head, Ron Hicks, Gary Norris, Jimmy Robinson, Sidney Deloch and Eugene Tanniehill each prepared themselves to preach a message to be shown to the world.
"Now this is a ministry that the people we preach to cannot support us financially," said Barber. "So for years I have prayed for God to send me that right messenger that has an anointing on him to help share the needs of this ministry. My commitment is to prison ministry and I refuse to go church-to-church knowing the real reason I am going is to get an offering. That’s not trusting God and I am gonna stay where God has called me, and that is prison ministry."
In early September, Jon Wilson walked into Barber’s life and is now the new executive director of MBM. Wilson, formerly the top administrator for Benny Hinn Ministries said, "I’m here to stay. I love Pastor Benny but I felt the Lord calling me to something else. I’ve known Mike Barber for a long time and I knew what he did, but I didn’t. So I spent a month with him, and just being a part of what he does made me feel so strong in what he was doing that I joined his team. My job is to grow the Mike Barber Ministry. I have the experience and I have the know-how, and we want this thing big enough to where we are gonna have to meet in the arena."
This was admittedly Wilson’s first prison ministry experience, and he did not know what to expect behind the fences.
"You hear of Angola, formerly known as the bloodiest prison in America, and you have these preconceived thoughts of what you are gonna experience," he said. "However, I must say I’m blown away. I’ve been in just about every church in America. I’ve set up all of Hinn’s major crusades around the world, been in just about every country and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached by their best. Nevertheless, I have never heard any better preaching in my life than what I heard tonight."
Obviously impressed, Wilson was eager to get the message out. "We want to show the world what we see because the will never understand. They don’t see the men of God up there preaching. They don’t see the men rejoicing, and their defense, ‘I didn’t know’ well, I didn’t know until I came here," he said. "So what we’ve gotta do is show them and the only way that you can do that is to be able to buy television time to show America what they can do to support a ministry like this, to help the people in here. A picture is worth a thousand words. I would like to show this every day to America."
Before the service, MBM volunteers made their way around Angola visiting selected cellblocks and listening to the inmates one-on-one.
"The testimonies that I have heard over the past few days," Wilson said after returning from the lockdown areas, "I felt so small and so petty with the problems I have. It brought me to a reality and it really encouraged me to reach out a little farther and deeper inside myself. It also challenged me to give a little more and be more thankful in my life for what God has blessed me with."In order for ministry to grow, Barber said, "you gotta have God-anointed people to catch the vision of this purpose, and this purpose is to go even unto the least of them. There have been many great ministries that have offered this man a six-figure income to come work for them, and I looked [Wilson] in the eye and said, I can’t give you a dollar but I can give you integrity. I can give you character. I can give you a man that is true to his calling and together we can work and create the finances.
Before the service ended, Brandon Barber told the congregation about his new ministry, FAZE 2, an offshoot of MBM geared toward reaching the youth in hard core inner-city neighborhoods. The focus will be on prisons, schools and churches.
Mike Barber closed the service thanking all who participated and attended. He also promised to return soon. "We are honored to be a part of what God is doing here at Angola. Angola is very special to my heart. I love this place and want to be here as much as I can because I believe in every one of you. The best is yet to come."
